According to the statistics of RAPEX, the reported cases of China-made LED string light reached up to 43 in 2012. From January to August this year, it has been reported for 39 times, involving as much as 12 EU countries. America and Canada and other countries released reports of our countries’ products in on account of unsafety caused by the string light.
The main reasons caused the unsafety of string light are as follows.
1. The low industry admittance led to increasing quality risks. Europe and the United States and other western developed countries have a great demand for festival string light and it’s very easy for the customer to touch during proper use. So it will bring great harm if there is an accident. However, the weak technical force and lack of complete quality control system of some manufacturers and their limited coping capacity for various standards abroad may cause the deviation between products design requirement and the actual application condition. There will be a big hidden danger of the quality if no necessary tests before exporting.
2.Design flaw is the main reason of the frequent string light problem. From the analysis of reported cases, the quality issues include risks of electric shock, fire, burn and structural defect and so on. Safe distance and poor insulation performance are the major quality problem which will easily cause electric shock accident. It also indicates that the internal structure of such product exists severe flaw and has already set hidden danger during design process.
3. Sanitation and environmental projects become new risks points. Since the implement of RoHS in 2005, restricted substance has been growing and the scope of review material has been expanded. All kinds of harsh conditions have been written into the new instructions. Meanwhile, EU stipulated its member countries to add RoHS 2.0 to local law before January 2, 2013. In the 34th RAPEX report this year, a LED string light exported to Germany was refused to entry at port because the lead content in welding flux is too high.