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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. Other carrier strips can be clear plastic or a pressed paper strip. The sketch below is an example of a typical anti-static 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.

We have found it best to tip the opened carrier strip over a small receptacle to catch the parts, rather than placing them directly on the workbench surface.  An ideal receptacle is a white plastic pill bottle cover turned upside down. It is soft plastic so it cannot damage parts, it has a raised edge or lip to retain parts, and it is bright white so parts are very easy to see. Also, they're readily available... and cheap!

 VERY IMPORTANT: Our Micro, Nano and Subminiature 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.

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 three sizes (1/8-watt, 1/4-watt & 1/2-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.

 

© 2008 Ngineering