Terminology Center

AC

AC refers to alternating current, whose direction changes periodically with time, and the average current in one cycle is zero. Alternating current can effectively transmit power and is typically applied to residential and commercial areas. It’s considered as line voltage. The line voltage in America is 90-220V while it’s different in other countries.

DC

DC stands for direct current. Low-voltage DC, generally 12V or 24V, is used by the majority of LED light strips on the market. Usually you need a transformer to smoothly reduce AC voltage to DC voltage when working with low-voltage LED strips.

LED

Light-emitting diode, referred to as LED for short, is a commonly-used light-emitting device that adopts solid semiconductor chips as light-emitting materials and emit energy through the recombination of electrons and holes to create light. Compared with traditional lighting fixtures, LED ones are more energy-saving and environmentally friendly. They have good color rendering and response speed.

LED Density

LED density defines the LED quantities per meter or foot on a light strip. The most common LED densities are 30/60/120 LEDs per meter. Light strips with more than 120LEDs per meter are considered as high-density strips. LED density directly affects the brightness and power consumption.

SMD

SMD is short for surface mounted diode, which is more advanced than the first generation Dual In-Line Package LEDs. The heart of the LED is a semiconductor chip encapsulated by epoxy resin. One end is the negative pole, and the other end is connected to the positive pole of the power supply. SMD is classified according to the size of the package. 3528, 2835, 5050 and 3014 modules are the most popular SMD LEDs.

PCB

PCB is the abbreviation of printed circuit board. It is a support for electronic components, in which there is a metal conductor as a circuit for connecting. It uses the method of printing etching resist to make circuit line and drawing.

Lumen (LM)

Lumen is a unit to measure the visible light energy from a light source. Since the human eye has different sensitivity to electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths, we can not directly measure the light energy by the radiant power or radiant flux of the light source. Instead, we measure it by the unit ‘lumen’ based on the human eye’s perception of light. Lumen is an important factor to consider when you select the most suitable LED strip light.

CRI

The color rendering index refers to the ability of a light source to restore the visual perception of an object under the sun. The closer the color rendering index value is to 100, the stronger the ability is to restore the color of the object. CRI is a universally recognized metric and is currently the only way to evaluate and report the color rendering of a light source. High color rendering luminous body emits soft and comfortable light like the morning sun, reducing visual fatigue and making the field of vision clearer, and the image more three-dimensional. The color rendering index of most led strips on the market is above 80.

Color Temperature 

Color temperature expresses the color components contained in light. The unit of measurement is “K” (Kelvin). Generally speaking, color temperature is not used as an indicator for evaluating LED light strips, but customers will make a special requirement due to different applications. When the color temperature is below 3300K (commonly known as warm color temperature), the light color is reddish to give a soft feeling. When the color temperature is within 3000-6000K (called “neutral” color temperature), people have no particularly obvious visual psychological effects and there is a refreshing feeling. When the color temperature exceeds 6000K (known as cool color temperature), the light color is bluish to create a cool feeling.

Am

Ampere is the basic unit for expressing current in the International System of Units.

Watt

Watt is the unit of power in the International System of Units. Watt is defined as 1 joule per second (1J/s), which means the amount of energy (measured in joules) that is converted, used, or dissipated per second.

Static Electricity

Static electricity is formed by the redistribution of electric charges caused by friction, and there is also the redistribution of electric charges caused by mutual attraction of electric charges. Under normal circumstances, the positive charge of the nucleus is equal to the negative charge of the electron, and the positive and negative are balanced, so there is no charge. However, if electrons depart from the orbit by external forces, an unbalanced electron distribution is created. For example, frictional electrification is essentially a process that causes an imbalance of positive and negative charges. When two different objects are in contact with each other and rub against each other, the electrons of one object are transferred to another object, and it is positively charged because of the lack of electrons, while the other object gets some remaining electrons and becomes negatively charged, and the object is charged.

ESD

Electrostatic Discharge refers to the transfer of charges caused by objects with different electrostatic potentials close to each other or in direct contact. It is a key and important indicator that causes serious damage or malfunction of electronic equipment, or is transferred to chip and system design.

Light Efficiency

The ratio of the luminous flux emitted by the light source to the power consumption is called light efficiency, and the unit is lumens/watt. Different light sources emit the same luminous flux, and the less power they consume, the higher the luminous efficiency. The higher the luminous efficiency value, the stronger the ability of the lighting equipment to convert electrical energy into light energy.

Beam Angle

The beam angle refers to the angle between the two directions where the light intensity is equal to 50% of the maximum light intensity on any plane perpendicular to the center line of the beam. Generally, the beam angle of SMD is 120 degrees.

Bend Radius

Bending radius, measured to the inside curvature, is the minimum radius at which one can bend LED light strips without damaging the materials and affecting their service life. The smaller the bend radius, the better the bending performance.

IP

IP (INGRESS PROTECTION) protection grade system is drafted by IEC (INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION), which classifies electrical appliances according to their dust and moisture resistance characteristics. The IP protection level is composed of two numbers. The first number represents the level of protection against dust and foreign objects (the foreign objects referred to here include tools, human fingers, etc, to avoid electric shock). The second number indicates the degree of airtightness of the electrical appliance against moisture and water immersion. The larger the number, the higher the degree of protection.

IP20

Dustproof Grade: Prevent the intrusion of solid objects larger than 12mm, prevent human fingers from touching the parts inside the lamp, and prevent the intrusion of medium-sized foreign objects.

Waterproof Rating: No special protection against water or moisture.

IP65

Dustproof Grade: Completely prevent the intrusion of foreign objects, and can completely prevent the intrusion of dust.

Waterproof Rating: Prevent the intrusion of sprayed water.

IP67

Dustproof  Grade: Completely prevent the intrusion of foreign objects, and can completely prevent the intrusion of dust.

Waterproof Rating: Protection against short immersion