Conformity testing is an essential step for all products before they are mass produced and marketed. There are many conformity tests for LED luminaires. Well not to exaggerate, there may be hundreds of them. And test standards of different lighting categories in each country and region may be different. It is difficult to systematically summarise all the qualification tests for LED luminaires, but we can look at the following tests to see if the LED luminaires you purchase are qualified.

Structure test

1. Appearance

The inspection of the appearance of the luminaires, mainly focuses on size, process and touch. The physical size of the luminaire should be in accordance with the drawings, and the material thickness should be in accordance with the requirements. The surface of the parts should be clean, flat and free from obvious scratches, cracks and deformations. The coating of the painted parts must be tightly adhered to the material business, with an even colour and no air holes. The parts should be tightly fixed, no loose, and the edge touch without burrs and sharp edges.

2. Water resistance

Some luminaires used in bathrooms, kitchens or outdoors are clearly marked with an IP index on the body or packaging, which classifies the luminaire according to its dustproof, protection against foreign objects, waterproof and moisture-proof characteristics. IP protection level is composed of two numbers, the first number represents the lamp dustproof, prevent foreign objects invasion level; The second number expresses the airtight degree that luminaires prevent moisture, waterproof to invade. The higher the number, the higher the level of protection.

Luminous test

1. Luminous flux

The amount of light emitted per unit of time is call LED the luminous flux of the LED light source, expressed in units of lm. It is a description of the total amount of light emitted by the light source of the size, and light power equivalent. The greater the luminous flux of a light source, the more light it emits. When describing the luminous flux of a luminaire we also talk about a luminous efficiency, because the actual luminous flux emitted after the finished luminaire is supposed to be lower than the luminous flux of the light source. So, if a lamp has six 1W power light source composition, a single light source luminous flux of 80lm, the whole lamp according to the theory should be 80lm * 6pcs = 480lm. But after assembling the lamp the actual lamp luminous flux is only 400lm, then we say its luminous efficiency is 400lm / 480lm = 83.3%.

2. Colour rendering index

Refers to the object with the light source lighting and with the standard light source (generally sunlight as a standard light source) when lighting, its colour in line with the degree of measurement, that is, the light on the object reduction characteristics, generally expressed in Ra. 0 to 100, the greater the value of Ra, the higher the colour rendering index, indicating that the better the colour rendering of the light source, the stronger the ability to restore the colour of the object. A good colour rendering means that the colour of an object in this light is closer to the colour of the sky at noon.

Parameters such as luminous flux, colour rendering index and power factor can all be tested using an integrating sphere. An integrating sphere is a cavernous sphere with an inner wall coated with a white diffuse reflective material. Its function is simply to provide an environment in which light forms a uniform diffuse reflection within the sphere.

The sphere has one or several window holes in the wall for the light inlet and the receiving hole for the photoelectric sensor. The inner wall of the integrating sphere should be a good spherical surface, usually requiring a deviation of no more than 0.2% of the inner diameter with respect to the ideal sphere. The most commonly used material is magnesium oxide or barium sulphate, which is mixed with a gel binder and sprayed onto the inner wall. In this way, the light entering the integrating sphere is reflected several times by the inner wall coating and travels on the inner wall with uniform illumination. The computer system analyses and then displays the corresponding light source photochromic electrical test report.

In order to obtain a high degree of measurement accuracy, the opening ratio of the integrating sphere should be as small as possible. The aperture ratio is defined as the ratio of the area of the ball at the aperture of the integrating sphere to the area of the entire inner wall of the sphere.

Electrical tests

1. Surge test

The surge (shock) immunity test simulates the impact of natural lightning strikes (indirect lightning) and voltage changes on power supply lines and communication lines caused by large switching in power supply lines. The test is carried out by applying pulses to the luminaire based on the corresponding AC voltage waveform; five positive polarity pulses at a 90° phase angle and five negative polarity pulses at a 270° phase angle.

During and after the luminaire surge test, any variation in light intensity is allowed. The lamp can also be switched off and all functions should be restored to normal within 30 minutes after the end of the test (if necessary, the mains power supply can be temporarily interrupted or regulation operations can be carried out, etc.). In addition, for lighting equipment with start-up devices, it requires the power to be switched off after the test and switched on again after half an hour. The equipment under test should be able to start and work normally.

2. Aging test

After the luminaire has been produced and assemble LED into a finished product, it is in principle necessary to do an ageing test, the main purpose of which is to see if the luminaire has been damaged during the assembly process, as well as to check again whether the power supply is stable under high temperature conditions.

The luminaire needs to be placed on the ageing rack and connected to the corresponding power supply holder according to the input voltage of the product. Turn on the switch of the ageing test frame and check whether each luminaire is already lit to ensure that the luminaire works at full power during the ageing process. During the ageing time, the luminaires cannot present bad phenomena such as dead light, dark light, flashing, switching power supply noise, etc.

The testing of luminaires varies from project to test standard, plus there are different requirements for different luminaires, so it is difficult for importers to do a complete series of tests on a random luminaire. But for the verification process, some important parameters must still be checked clearly. If you want to know more about your luminaire products, you can contact us. www.hbsocket.com