Last Updated on 2 years by meredith.wang
LED flex linear lighting is getting more and more popular due to high efficiency and freedom in lighting design. These are reliable, visually appealing, easy-to-install lighting solutions can be found anywhere indoor or outdoor. Failures, however, can occur with these linear flex lights. Most of time, these flex lights fail to work because of broken PCBs inside the light body. In this blog, we’ll take you through some of the main reasons why PCB breaks happen.
Flexible PCBs enable LED linear flex lights to be bent at a certainly direction, but it doesn’t guarantee freedom from breaking up in particular when these flex linear lights are not handled properly. If a LED flex linear light is bent in the wrong direction too many times or for too long, the FPCBs might break and thus fail to work. The following are the common wrong operations of the lights:
- Twist
- Overbending
When install the light into the profile, please make sure that the bending angle is less than 15 degrees.
- Excessive Light Length
When the light is longer than what the project requires on site, some project managers won’t cut the redundant length and just leave it there. The following images come from real-life projects and show the overbending through keeping the redundant length.
- Slot Misalignment
Before installation, make sure the slot is carved as the size as that of the light in order for the slot to hold the light in place. If the slot is too big, use a profile to fix the light to avoid twists. If the surface is not flat, it will cause the profile to misalign.
How to Avoid These Mistakes in Installation
Before you get started, there are a few tips we’d like you to remember regarding light bending. Bending can make-or-break the lifespan of led linear flex lights as improper bending orientation, twisting or pulling may damage the PCB board and fail the product.
- Inspection After Unpacking
Firstly, check the bending mark on the outer housing of the product as it shows the correct bending direction to follow.
Secondly, pay attention to the minimum bending diameter which you can find in the user manual. Make sure the bending is within the allowed range and any overbending will damage the internal PCB board..
- Unpacking Tips
Gently pull the product through the packing opening according to the correct bending correction of the light. For reel package, just pull the light up gently while moving the spool. Avoid applying force or wrong bending to the light.
- Two Person Installing
When the light is more than 2m, make sure another person is available to carry the light while one person places the light into the channel or separates the light from the channel, in this way, the rest of light will not fall down and generate overbending or twisting.
- Bending Angle Degree
When pressing the light into the channel or take it out from the channel, do not bend the fixture at an angle greater than 15 degrees.
- Slotting
When slotting, make sure the slotting surface is flat without bulging, misaligning or deforming, otherwise the light may suffer from improper bending. Moreover, ensure the slot size aligns with the light, so it can hold the light in place. If you are dealing with too big a slot, please use our profiles to fix the light in case it twists.
- Corner Installing
When the lights run along an angled corner, use two pieces of lights to meet at the corner. Do not use just one light like below because chances are that the light will be overbent and damaged.
That’s all the important tips illustrated for light bending, make sure to read our operation instruction before handling the neon flex.
