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’m going to disassemble the J&S LIGHTING ‘Vision Pro’ series I bought recently and look at the interior doors.
Discuss what type of switches and sockets you should buy.
Just like falling in love, whether it looks pleasing to the eye is the most important factor in choosing a switch and socket. &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 has a unique, asymmetrical design for the upper and lower border;
The curvature is beautiful, in line with the rigorous and refined German design;
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. As you can see from the picture below, in dark light, the fluorescent strips are quite obvious. of.
It is not only stylish, but also practical, as you won’t be fumbling around in the dark.
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
It is obvious that the quality of the tablet has a direct impact on the user’s experience and the lifespan.
The spring piece is a very important part of a good socket. 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.
Commonly used materials for current-carrying parts include brass, red copper, tin-phosphorus bronze, and copper plating. Currently, the better ones are tin-phosphorus bronze.
Although there may be better materials available, I’m only talking about those that are commonly found on the market.
Below is an animation showing the disassembly of a “Vision Pro” 5-hole socket.
The current carrying part is the rose-gold-colored metal sheet shown below. The entire metal sheet is not carrie-d in separate parts.
In addition, the weight of the copper parts also reflects the conscience of the product from the side. Good sockets are more willing to pile up materials.
Knowledge point: Which material is best for shrapnel?
Conclusion: Tin-phosphorus alloy > Copper-zinc alloy (brass) > Copper-containing alloy
Before the advent of composite materials, pure copper was indeed the best conductive material, and the performance of copper materials also varied. It depends on the purity of the copper. The purer the copper, the better the conductivity. Brass is better, and red copper is better than brass. However, copper has its inherent flaws. First, it is softer. Second, its toughness is low. Its resilience is not particularly 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. .
When purchasing, you should pay attention to the details. Most of the tin phosphorus alloys are promoted as selling points.
If household appliances are plugg-ed into unsafe switch socket, it will affect the life of the appliances at best, or cause fires at worst. This hidden danger requires everyone’s attention.
Material, fixed frame
The most common materials used for switch and sockets are ABS for standard seats, nylon 66 for the poorer ones and PC for frames, buttons, and fixing frames. The distinction is also very simple. Just look at the color of the back seat intuitively. The white one is usually PC. Black or white, it depends on the situation. It looks very smooth. PC may smell odorless. Surface looks rough, or made. It’s ABS if it’s matte. If it smells a bit like plastic, it’s 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.
Many manufacturers will say that my switch is from Germany’s Bayer, but there are not many PC materials that actually have import certificates.
Except for Germany’s Bayer, PC is the best. , followed by PCs produced in Taiwan, and more domestic PCs.
They are already conscious products, and even more so, if they use only pure PCs. Is this possible? There are very few manufacturers.
Both steel and plastic fixtures have advantages and disadvantages.
1Steel
Steel brackets are strong and durable, but they have high wall requirements. 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. Good PC is more expensive and has better electrical performance than steel.
The fixing frame and the “Vision Pro” panels are made from German Bayer Polycarbonate.
It can be said that a lot of money has been spen-t, and the touch and performance are excellent.
04.Pressing method
The screws are larger for crimping the wires. The advantage is that thicker wires can be connect-ed without thread picking.
Many strands can be connect-ed at one time, which is suitable for work equipment. It is easy for wires to be damaged by the screw tips, and the wires can slip easily and not be tightened. Affects secondary wiring.
Many manufacturers today have developed improved screws. They use flat-head or round-head screws and a pressure plate to press the wire. Two strands are connected at the same. Pressure plate is used to top-off the wire. This increases the stress area, and it is difficult to damage the cable. The wire diameter is a disadvantage. The wire cannot be too thick or it will not fit. This type of wire is fine for home decor, but is much more difficult to use for industrial equipment that often has multiple thick wires.
Quick wiring is fast. Just listen to the name and you will know that it is fast. The wires will automatically get stuck when insert-ed without twisting the screws. 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 terminal used by “Vision Pro” is more scientific, combining the advantages of screw crimping and pressure plate crimping.
05.protective door
The socket with a protective door has a “unilateral self-locking” function. As long as the same force is not use-d to insert two or three holes of the socket at the same time, accidental electric shock will not occur. This type of protective door is effective in protecting children. This component is now found in all sockets. We can use an iron piece when choosing to check if the socket has a baffle and if the two holes need to be inserted together. If they are both the same, the socket will have a protective cover. .-
06.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. If the contacts are not safe enough, arcing may easily occur, causing the switch to short-circuit and cause danger. Silver-cadmium contacts are used in high-quality switches. They can suppress arcs and function as instantaneous overloads. Inferior switches use copper sheets or silver-plated iron contacts, which cut corners and pose high safety risks.
For “Vision Pro”, the switch design has the following highlights.
01.V-shaped groove patented structure
The V-shaped groove patent structure suppresses arcs, eliminates excess carbon deposits, and reduces product carbon deposits. The product life can reach more than 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.
Ball-to-ball upper- and lower-silver contact mechanism
The silver alloy contact layer is thicker in the middle and gets thinner at the edges. The ball-to-ball contact ensures that the current impact is always in the thickest part of the center, effectively reducing the impact of manufacturing errors and pivot wear.
04.The electric bridge and the pivot shaft are made of red copper, and the surface of the electric bridge is plated with silver.
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.
This is another very important indicator. If the distance is too close, it is easy for the plugs to “fight”, thus affecting the usage rate of the socket. The “Vision Pro”, five-hole socket, adopts a design with a large space.
Two plugs can be connected simultaneously because the distance is a little larger than in other sockets.
You should pay attention when purchasing a switch to whether it is single control or 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. Switch on the light through switch 1, when you enter the bedroom. Turn off the light through switch 2, when you go to sleep, to avoid having to get down to the floor. 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.
From the appearance, there is no difference on the front, mainly on the back; each button of the single control switch can be connected to two wires, while each button of the double control switch can be connected to three wires.
A point that is often forgotten is the thickness. This is especially true if the box at the bottom has multiple wires. Installation problems can occur if the back seat thickness is too high. The base of the Vision Pro is slimmer on the right, as you can see in the image below. This allows for more installation options.
Shopping tips
Certification to 01.3C is essential
The key points for purchasing sockets have been mentioned in the previous part. 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?
My previous disassembly was only an analysis of materials and structural design. Professional equipment is needed to test for electrical safety and durability. 3C is a basic guarantee.
02.Buy products from big 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 produce personalized products faster according to market demand, such as the picture below. Almost all major manufacturers will not do this.
The introduction of this kind ofswitch socket is usually about how beautiful it is, but the performance of the product is simply mentioned or not mentioned at all. 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.
The quality of mass-produced switches and sockets is high, because if a defective switch socket is used, it can cause malfunctions or even threaten property and personal safety. Apart from anything else, I don’t believe that small workshops will purchase equipment to conduct socket durability tests and salt spray tests.
Which brands can you trust? This is not a complete list.
Watch out for fakes
Profiteers are attracted to profiteers wherever there are people. Switch and sockets are no exception. The switch and socket market is not an exception. Take J&S LIGHTING, which is very popular in the market, as an example.
There are also a large number of high imitation goods, no matter from packaging to serial number, as non-practitioners, we cannot identify them at all. 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). Do not be greedy and risk big losses.
9.Summarize
As electrical components, you must not be careless when purchasing switches and sockets. After all, safety comes first.
It is important to consider both the appearance and performance of the product. As ordinary consumers, after all, we don’t have that much professional equipment to test one by one, so purchasing products from big brands through formal channels is the most worry-free option.
In this article, we will use the &S Lighting “Vision Pro” Series. It is reliable in terms of appearance, brand and performance.
Rich model types and colors are eye-catching.