1.Appearance
As highly frequently used items in the home, switches and sockets, on the one hand, affect the taste (appearance) of the decoration, and on the other hand, determine
In terms of user experience (performance), more importantly, it is related to the safety of family members. 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.
Talk about what kind of switches and sockets are worth buying.
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.
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. The 4 custom colors look really nice.
02.carrier fluid
The shrapnel is the area where the plug contacts the cable every time the device is plugged in and unplugged. Elastic is the main structure of the conductor internal part.
The quality of the tablet directly affects the user experience and lifespan, and its importance is self-evident.
The spring piece is a very important part of a good socket. In addition to excellent conductivity, it also has extremely high requirements for the elasticity of the spring piece. inferior
After using a high-quality socket for a period of time, you will find that it becomes looser and looser. This means that the shrapnel has lost its toughness, and a good socket will become looser and looser.
It will probably still be too tight even after a few years.
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.
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 rose gold-colored metal sheet in the picture below is the current-carrying part. The metal sheet as a whole is not carried in parts.
The weight of the copper components also shows the quality of the product. The materials are more likely to be piled up in good sockets.
Knowledge point: What is the best material for shrapnel?
Conclusion: Tin-phosphorus alloy > Copper-zinc alloy (brass) > Copper-containing alloy
Copper materials were not all created equal. 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. Copper has some inherent flaws. It is soft. Its toughness is also low. Its resistance isn’t very good. In addition, it is easy to oxidize and rust.
Tin-phosphorus bronze has better properties than pure copper. The most obvious ones are that the oxidation resistance is significantly improved, and the hardness and toughness are significantly improved. Generally, shrapnel made of tin-phosphorus bronze can easily reach more than 50,000 times of repeated insertion and removal. .
You need to pay attention to detailed parameters when purchasing. 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. White is the most common. The black one depends on the situation. It looks very smooth. If it smells odorless, it may be PC. Surface looks rough, or made. It’s ABS if it’s matte. If it smells like plastic, then it is probably nylon 66.
Conclusion: PC>ABS>Nylon 66
The PCs can also be divided into three, six, or nine levels. The imported PC material, also known as German Bayer, will be used in the high-end series.
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.
If they can all use pure PCs, they are already conscientious products and conscientious manufacturers, let alone imported PCs. Is this possible? There are almost no manufacturers.
Fixtures are generally divid-ed into steel and PC, both of which have their own 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.
Pressing Method
The screws are larger for crimping the wires. The advantage is that thicker wires can be connect-ed without thread picking.
The ability to connect multiple strands at once is ideal for equipment. It is easy for wires to be damaged by the screw tips, and the wires can slip easily and not be tightened. Affects the 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. It can’t be too thick, otherwise it won’t fit in. 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. You can tell that quick wiring is fast by its name. 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 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
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. .-
Switch contact
The contact is what matters most for a switch. 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. 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 silver-coated layer has a thickness of >0.35mm in the middle, which improves current carrying capacity and impact resistance.
Ball-to-ball upper- and lower-silver contact mechanism
The thickness of the silver contact alloy layer is thick in the center and thins sharply toward 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. It is not easy to have two different types of sockets or switches.
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 large spacing design.
The distance is slightly larger than other sockets, so two plugs can be connected at the same time.
You should pay attention when purchasing a switch to whether it is single control or dual control.
Single control switch: If you only need to use one switch to control a light in one place, then you can use a single control switch for this switch.
Double control switch: If you want to control the same light not only in this place, but also in another place, you need a double control switch socket.
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. Similarly, I also designed dual-control switches on the stairs on the first and second floors. 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
01.3C certification is a must
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.
A very important reminder is here! A 3C certification mark is required! ! ! Switches and sockets are electrical devices that involve 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. As for durability and electrical safety, professional equipment is still needed to test, and 3C is the most basic guarantee.
Buy products from large brands and factories
The technical threshold for switches and sockets is not high, and small workshops can also make them. Moreover, small factories have lower mold opening costs, more flexible production, and less supervision. They can produce personalized products faster according to market demand, such as the picture below. 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.
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. Small workshops are unlikely to purchase the equipment necessary to perform salt spray and socket durability tests.
So which brands are considered reliable brands? This is not a complete list.
Watch out for fakes
Wherever there are people, there will be a market, and where there is profit, profiteers will be attracted. Switch and sockets are no exception. It is one of the products most affected by counterfeit goods. J&S Lighting, a very popular product on the market, is a good example.
As non-practitioners we are unable to identify a lot of these high imitation products, from their packaging or serial numbers. Spending money is fine, but the most important thing is to be concerned about safety.
First, I suggest that you choose an authorized or official store and then check each anti-counterfeiting code. (Mixed sales are also possible 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. 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.
Take the &S LIGHTING “Vision Pro” series as an example in this article. It is reliable when it comes to appearance, brand and performance.
Rich model types and colors are eye-catching.
