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1.Appearance
Switches and sockets are highly used home items that affect both the appearance and taste of the decor.
It is more important to consider the safety of your family than just user experience. Therefore, you must not be careless when choosing switches and sockets. Today, I will dismantle the new J&S LIGHTING “Vision Pro” series that I just bought and take a look at the internal doors.
Discuss what type of switches and sockets you should buy.
The most important thing to consider when choosing a switch or socket is whether it looks good. &S LIGHTING’s “Vision Pro” series is different from traditional panels with wide borders in the past, and is also different from the popular frameless panels. It adopts a unique asymmetric design of upper and lower borders;
The curves are beautiful and in keeping with the German design, which is rigorous and refined.
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The fluorescent strips are not on the same panel as the logo. This is the first time I have seen this layout. This is a little design innovation and the panel integrity has improved. The fluorescent strips can be seen in the image below. of.
While ensuring good looks, it also takes into account practicality, so you don’t have to fumble around in the dark night.
In terms of color, in addition to the common standard colors such as black, white, gray and gold, it also provides 4 customized Morandi colors, which can match various decoration styles. I have to say that the 4 customized colors are really good-looking.
02.carrier fluid
That is, the place where the plug comes into contact every time it is plugged and unplugg-ed, also call-ed the shrapnel. As the most important structure of the internal conductor part, elastic
The quality of the tablet directly affects the user experience and lifespan, and its importance is self-evident.
A good socket has very high requirements for the spring piece. It has high demands on the spring piece, including excellent conductivity. inferior
After using a high-quality socket for a period of time, you will find that it becomes looser and looser. The shrapnel will lose its strength and the socket will loosen.
I’m afraid it will still be tight after several years of use.
Brass, red copper and tin-phosphorus are commonly used for parts that carry current. Currently, the better ones are tin-phosphorus bronze.
There may be better materials, I am just talking about the common ones on the market.
The picture below is a disassembly animation of the “Vision Pro” five-hole socket
The current carrying part is the rose-gold-colored metal sheet shown below. The metal sheet as a whole is not carried in parts. It is a whole piece, which is the “rivet-free one-piece manufacturing process” marked by the manufacturer, and has better toughness and strength
In addition, the weight of the copper parts also reflects the conscience of the product from the side. The materials are more likely to be piled up in good sockets.
Knowledge point: What is the best material for shrapnel?
Alloys containing copper: Copper-zinc (brass), Tin-phosphorus alloy
Copper materials were not all created equal. It depends on the purity of the copper. The more pure the copper the better its conductivity. Red copper is superior to brass. However, copper has its inherent flaws. It is soft. Its toughness is also low. Its resistance isn’t very good. It is also easy to oxidize or rust.
These properties of tin-phosphorus bronze are better than those of pure copper. Most obvious are the improvements in oxidation resistance, hardness and toughness. Shrapnel made from tin-phosphorus can be inserted and removed more than 50,000 time. .
You need to pay attention to detailed parameters when purchasing. Generally, most of the tin-phosphorus alloys will be promot-ed as selling points.
The life expectancy of household appliances can be affected by plugging them into an unsafe switch socket. In the worst case, they may cause fires. This hidden danger requires everyone’s attention.
Material, fixed frame
Regarding switch and socket materials, currently the most common ones are PC materials for frames, buttons and fixing frames, PC materials for high-end rear seats, ABS materials for ordinary ones, and nylon 66 for poor ones. It is very easy to distinguish. Just look at the color of the back seat intuitively. The white one is usually PC. The black one depends on the situation. It looks very smooth. PC may smell odorless. The surface looks rough or simply made. If it’s matte, it’s probably ABS. If it smells like plastic, then it is probably nylon 66.
Conclusion: PC>ABS>Nylon 66
But PCs are also divid-ed into three, six or nine levels. The high-end series will use imported PC, which is the so-called German Bayer material.
There are few PC materials with import certificates.
Except for Germany’s Bayer, PC is the best. Taiwanese PCs and domestic PCs are the next best.
They are already conscious products, and even more so, if they use only pure PCs. Can this really be achiev-ed? There are very few manufacturers.
Fixtures are generally divid-ed into steel and PC, both of which have their own advantages and disadvantages.
1Steel
Steel bracket products have good installation strength, but have high requirements for the wall. And the wiring requirements are very high, and the phenomenon of loose pressure line cannot occur. And the production cost is also lower than PC.
2PC
PC lining board has good toughness, low installation requirements on the wall, and is not prone to off-line conductive phenomena. The electrical performance and price of good PC are higher than steel.
The fixing frame and the “Vision Pro” panels are made from German Bayer Polycarbonate.
The touch and performance of this product are outstanding.
04.Pressing method
There are more screws for crimping wires. It is possible to connect thicker wires without the need for thread-picking.
Many strands can be connect-ed at one time, which is suitable for work equipment. The disadvantage is that the screw tips are easy to damage the wires, and it is also easy for the wires to slip and not tighten the wires. Affects secondary wiring.
Nowadays, many manufacturers have improved screws. The wire is pressed by flat-head or rounded-head screws, and a pressure-plate. The advantage is that two strands of wire are connect-ed at the same time. Pressure plate is used to top-off the wire. This increases the stress area, and it is difficult to damage the cable. The disadvantage is the wire diameter. The wire cannot be too thick or it will not fit. However, it is not stressful to use this kind for home decoration, but it is more troublesome to use this kind for industrial equipment, which often connects multiple thick wires.
Needless to say, quick wiring is fast. Just listen to the name and you will know that it is fast. When the wires are inserted without turning the screws, they will get stuck. The disadvantage is that the wires cannot be reuse-d. You must plug them in correctly the first time, otherwise they cannot be tak-en off and re-plugged.
The saddle-type of terminal that “Vision Pro” uses is more scientific and combines the benefits of both screw crimping as well as pressure plate crimping.
05.protective door
A socket with a protective cover has “unilateral locking” functionality. Accidental electric shocks will not happen as long as you do not insert the same force into two or three holes at the same time. This type of protective door is effective in protecting children. This component is now found in all sockets. When we are choosing, we can also find an iron piece to try to see if there is a baffle in the socket, and whether the two holes must be insert-ed together to insert it. If they are both the same, the socket will have a protective cover. .-
Switch contact
For a switch, the most important thing is the contact. When we press the switch, we can hear a sound, which is produced by the contacts and is produced by two metal pieces or metal balls. Contacts that are too unsafe can cause arcing, which could lead to a switch short-circuiting and causing danger. Silver-cadmium contacts are used in high-quality switches. They can suppress arcs and function as instantaneous overloads. Poor quality switches are made with copper sheets or contacts that have been silver-plated. These inferior switches cut corners and present a high level of safety risk.
For “Vision Pro”, the switch design has the following highlights.
01.V-shaped groove patented structure
Through the V-shaped groove patented structure, arcs are suppressed, excess carbon deposits are eliminated, and product carbon deposits are effectively reduced. The product can last up to 40,000 times.
02.Enlarge and thicken silver contacts
The diameter is 3.4mm, and the center thickness of the silver-coated alloy layer is >0.35mm, which greatly improves the current carrying and current impact resistance capabilities.
03.Ball-to-ball upper and lower silver contact contact mechanism
The silver alloy contact layer is thicker in the middle and gets thinner at the edges. Ball-to-ball contacts ensure that the current impact always occurs in the thickest portion of the center. This reduces the impact of manufacturing mistakes and pivot wear.
The electric bridge surface is silver-plated.
7.others
A qualified product series of a brand needs to have complete product models, so that it can meet the different needs of each family and ensure the uniformity of switches and sockets in the home. After all, it is quite awkward to use two kinds of switches/sockets.
The hole spacing of the socket is also a very important indicator. The distance between the plugs can be too close and cause them to “fight”, lowering the socket’s usage rate. The “Vision Pro” five-hole socket adopts a large spacing design.
Two plugs can be connected simultaneously because the distance is a little larger than in other sockets.
When purchasing a switch, you should also pay attention to the choice of single control/dual control.
Single control switch. If you need only one switch to control the light at one location, you can use this switch.
Double control switch socket: You need this if you want to be able to control the light in both places.
Taking my home as an example, a dual-control switch is installed at the door of the master bedroom and at the head of the bed to jointly control the opening and closing of the bedroom lights. Turn on the lights through switch 1 when entering the bedroom, and turn off the lights through switch 2 when sleeping, so you don’t have to go to the ground. I designed dual-control switches for the stairs of the first and second floor. This function can be achieved by using smart sockets for home decor if it was not taken into consideration during the installation.
A point that is often forgotten is the thickness. This is especially true if the box at the bottom has multiple wires. If the back seat is too thick, installation problems may occur. As you can see from the comparison in the picture below, the base of the Vision Pro on the right is much slimmer, providing more installation possibilities.
8.Shopping tips
Certification to 01.3C is essential
has already mentioned the key points for buying sockets. Before deciding to buy, you can buy a five-hole socket of each alternative and take it apart to compare.
Here’s a very important reminder! A 3C certification mark is required! ! ! Electrical devices such as switches and sockets can be dangerous to your personal safety. If you don’t even have 3C certification, how can I believe that you are not selling goods from a small workshop? Who can guarantee the safety during use?
The previous disassembly I did was just an analysis of the materials and structural design. Professional equipment is needed to test for electrical safety and durability. 3C is a basic guarantee.
Buy products from large brands and factories
Small workshops are able to produce switches and sockets because the technical barrier is low. Small factories also have lower costs for opening molds, more flexibility in production and less supervision. They can create personalized products more quickly, according to the market’s demand. Most major manufacturers won’t do it.
In the introduction to this type of switch socket, the focus is on how beautiful the product is. The performance is either not mentioned or is only mentioned briefly. It is for this reason that I always recommend purchasing brand name products from major manufacturers. As mentioned above, major manufacturers are the only ones who will enforce durability and electrical safety and spend a great deal of money and resources on related equipment.
For mass-produced products such as switches and sockets, the quality is high because once defective switch socket are used, short circuits may cause malfunctions, or they may threaten personal safety and property losses. Small workshops are unlikely to purchase the equipment necessary to perform salt spray and socket durability tests.
Which brands can you trust? This is not a complete list.
03.Watch out for fakes
Profiteers are attracted to profiteers wherever there are people. Switch and sockets are no exception. It is one of the products most affected by counterfeit goods. Take J&S LIGHTING, which is very popular in the market, as an example.
As non-practitioners we are unable to identify a lot of these high imitation products, from their packaging or serial numbers. It’s okay to spend money in vain, the key is to worry about affecting safety!
The first suggestion I give here is: choose the official flagship store or authorized store to purchase, and check the anti-counterfeiting codes one by one (mixed sales of originals and imitations also happen from time to time). Don’t be greedy for small gains and suffer big losses.
9.Summarize
As electrical components, you must not be careless when purchasing switches and sockets. After all, safety comes first.
You must pay attention to appearance while also taking into account performance. We are not professionals and we do not have the equipment to test each product one-by-one. So, buying products from major brands via formal channels is a safer option.
In this article, we will use the &S Lighting “Vision Pro” Series. It is reliable in terms of appearance, brand and performance.
The rich model types, especially the various customized colors, are really eye-catching and are a good choice.