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Carrier Strip Packaging

Many of our products are packaged in a protective carrier strip. Some items are sensitive to static electricity and the carrier is a black plastic material designed to help protect against static discharge. The sketch below is an example of a typical carrier strip..

The actual parts are housed in small 'pockets' in the strip and are held in place by a thin clear plastic film strip which covers the pockets.

To remove the parts from the protective carrier, simply slide a sharp tweezers under the clear film at one end and peel it back as shown below.

We recommend only exposing as many pockets as are needed for the parts currently to be worked with. Simply tip the carrier and the part(s) will fall out.

Some parts are extremely small and can be easily misplaced. For example, our Nano LED can easily hide under the end of your fingernail! Be sure to use good lighting and a clear working area when opening the protective carriers.

VERY IMPORTANT: Our Micro LEDs are available in different colors. These different colors are produced electronically, not by the color of the epoxy capsule on the part and each color has a different device voltage. Once these parts and carriers are removed from their labeled bag, it is impossible to tell one color from another. Applying the wrong (excessive) device voltage to an LED will weaken, if not destroy it. Our Nano LEDs, although physically smaller than the Micros, are also available in several colors (and device voltages). The same precaution applies.

It is strongly recommended to work with one color LED at a time and always return the unused portion to their labeled bag or an appropriately marked container. Nothing can spoil a project like unnecessarily zapping a few LEDs.

Our surface-mount resistors are housed in a similar carrier strip. We carry two sizes (1/8-watt and 1/4-watt), and many different resistance values of each physical size. Unlike our LEDS, each resistor is stamped with a number on its surface that corresponds to the resistance value (and our part number) so mix-up won't be a potential problem.

Last modified: October 04, 2006