The lighting industry is continuously innovating to satisfy consumers’ demands, but Poor lighting manufacturing practices can result in fire hazards and harm to consumers, causing damage to an organization. Importers and retailers of lighting must implement a comprehensive quality control program to prevent quality and safety risks, and stay competitive. though the quality control poses significant challenges for importers and retailers
AQI offers lighting inspection services in China & Asia at every stage of the supply chain from compliance testing, Pre-production Inspection to container loading.
Our expertise extends to outdoor lights, indoor lights, ceiling lights, chandeliers, table lamps, floor lamps, desk lamps, lighting controls, as well as LED bulbs and conventional bulbs.
During the lighting inspection on-site at the factory, we verify the lighting’s quality, specifications, functions, and safety of your lighting products, as well as the compliance of your lighting products with relevant international standards.
Lighting Inspection in China & Asia
AQI’s quality experts understand the customer’s requirements, ensure that on-site inspections are properly performed on-site, and finalize clear reports to explain and explain all details.
Throughout the quality control process, we will verify the appearance quality, specifications, functions, reliability of your lighting products.
During the Pre-shipment inspection, the inspector should find various defects by inspecting the packaging, markings, labels, instruction manuals, accessories, barcodes, functions, and the appearance/appearance of the product. During the inspection of lightings, we found some common major and minor defects, including but not limited to Poor assembly, Loose earth connection, Rust mark, Scratches, dirt stain, sharp point, missing components, components damaged, light colour deviation, Oxidation, etc.
Why is it important to Arrange Lighting Inspection?
- Identify any issues in product size/specification to save cost and time
- Reduce defects/flaws in the product and maintain a good brand image of the product
- Save on possible rework and product recall costs
- Confirm that the products will not be damaged during packaging and loading
How to Inspect the Lighting Products?
Before conducting inspections, AQI technical engineers need to understand your product characteristics to determine key risks. By combining our Lighting Inspection Checklist with your unique product specifications and quality requirements, each inspection can be customized.
We will identify and classify defects based on your Acceptance Quality Limits (AQL), verify the quality of mass production, perform product function and reliability tests on-site, and assess your compliance with product specifications and sizes.
Assess the quality of your product materials and workmanship, using some quality control checks and tests, including:
| Barcode scanning test | Function check |
| Accessories check | Assembly check |
| Fatigue test | Rub/Tape check |
| Running test | Carton drop test |
| Hi-pot test | Power consumption |
| Lumens /Lumens efficiency test /Lighting source test | Power cord strain relief test |
| Colour temperature check | Flashing and microlight check check |
| Internal construction check (CDF check) | Burning Smell check when the appliance is OFF |
| Fitness check for lamp and lamp holder | Forque test for lamp holder |
Lighting Source test / Integrating Sphere test
LED lighting importers typically market lights as meeting certain brightness, colour or efficiency standards. But how can you confirm production units meet these standards?
An integrating sphere test can measure the lighting source using common metrics.
This test requires an integrating sphere system with a spectroradiometer for spectral mismatch corrections and computing software. Most lighting manufacturers should have both the equipment and related software available on-site already, as they’re essential for LED lighting manufacturing.
The inspector places the LED light inside the integrating sphere and then observes the results via the computer software. The recommended sample size for this test is at least three units.
The inspector then records these metrics on the report compared to your spec:
- Colour rendering index (CRI): A quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colours of various objects faithfully in comparison with a natural light source, rated from 0 to 100. A higher CRI indicates a more accurate colour rendering.
- Colour temperature: Measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. A “warm” colour temperature is typically 3,000K or less, while a “cool” colour temperature is 4,000K or more.
- Lumens (lighting output): A measure of the total amount of visible light emitted from a light source. The higher the lumen rating the brighter the lamp appears to the human eye.
- Power consumption: The rate at which energy is generated or consumed, measured in Watts. LED bulbs typically range from 4 to 18 Watts—up to 90 per cent lower than incandescent bulbs.
- Power factor: The ratio of real power (Watts) used by the load compared to apparent power (Voltage x Current drawn) into the circuit: Power factor = Watts / (Volts x Amps). Energy Star requires LED lamps of 5 Watts or greater to have a minimum power factor of 0.7.
More about How to Perform LED light Product Inspection and Quality Control in China
Lighting tests in a laboratory
| EN60598 Luminaires International standard | IEC 62471 Specific radiant UV |
| EN 60357, 60064, 60969, Light bulb Lifetime | EN 50285 Luminous Efficacy |
| IEC 62471 Photobiological safety of light bulbs | IEC 61000-3-2 Power Factor |
