1.Appearance
Switches and sockets are highly used home items that affect both the appearance and taste of the decor.
In terms of user experience (performance), more importantly, it is related to the safety of family members. You must therefore be careful when selecting 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.
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 do not occupy the same side of the panel as the logo. It is the first layout I’ve seen. 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.
It offers 4 custom-made Morandi colours that can be used to match different 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. Elastic is the main structure of the conductor internal part.
It is obvious that the quality of the tablet has a direct impact on the user’s experience and the lifespan.
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. 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.
Brass, red copper and tin-phosphorus are commonly used for parts that carry current. 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.
The current carrying part is the rose-gold-colored metal sheet shown below. The metal sheet as a whole is not carried in parts.
The weight of the copper components also shows the quality of the product. Good sockets are more willing to pile up materials.
Knowledge point: What is the best material 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. 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. 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. .
When purchasing, you should pay attention to the details. 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. Attention is needed to this hidden danger.
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. Look at the backseat color intuitively. White is the most common. Black or white, it depends on the situation. It appears 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
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. 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. The production costs are also lower than those of 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 “Vision Pro” panel is ma-de of German Bayer polycarbonate + the fixing frame is made of German Bayer PC material.
It can be said that a lot of money has been spen-t, and the touch and performance are excellent.
04.Pressing method
There are more screws for crimping wires. It is possible to connect thicker wires without the need for 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 secondary wiring.
Nowadays, many manufacturers have improved screws. The wire is pressed by flat-head or rounded-head screws, and a pressure-plate. Two strands are connected at the same. The pressure plate is use-d to top the wire, which increases the stress area and is not easy to damage the wire. 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.
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. It is not possible to re-use the wires. They must be correctly plugged in the first time.
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 kind of protective door can effectively protect children. Basically, all good sockets now have this component. 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. The contacts produce a sound when we press the switch. This is caused by the two metal balls or pieces. If the contacts are not safe enough, arcing may easily occur, causing the switch to short-circuit and cause danger. High-quality switches generally use silver-cadmium contacts, which can function as instantaneous overcurrent and have a very strong ability to suppress arcs. Inferior switches use copper sheets or silver-plated iron contacts, which cut corners and pose high safety risks.
The switch design for “Vision Pro” has the following features.
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 can last up to 40,000 times.
Silver contacts can be enlarged and thickened
The silver-coated layer has a thickness of >0.35mm in the middle, which improves current carrying capacity and impact resistance.
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
It is important that a qualified product line of a brand has complete models. This will allow it to meet the needs of every family while ensuring uniformity in switches and sockets. 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. 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.
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 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 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. 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.
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. 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. You can compare the five-hole sockets of different options before deciding.
A very important reminder is here! A 3C certification mark is required! ! ! Electrical devices such as switches and sockets can be dangerous to your personal safety. How can I be sure that your goods are not made in a small shop if you do not have 3C certification? Who can guarantee safety when used?
The previous disassembly I did was just an analysis of the materials and structural design. As for durability and electrical safety, professional equipment is still needed to test, and 3C is the most 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 create personalized products more quickly, according to the market’s demand. Most major manufacturers won’t do it.
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. The reason why I recommend buying brand products from major manufacturers is because as mentioned above, as for durability and electrical safety, only regular major manufacturers will strictly enforce these and invest a lot of financial and material resources to purchase 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? The following is an incomplete list:
Watch out for fakes
Wherever there are people, there will be a market, and where there is profit, profiteers will be attracted. The switch and socket market is 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. 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
Switches and sockets are electrical components. You must be careful when buying them. 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.
Take the &S LIGHTING “Vision Pro” series as an example in this article. 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.