Why led strips always have MOQ and hard to produce in small batches?

     To know the answer of this question you need to know about SMT first.

     SMT is the abbreviation of surface mounted technology, which is the most popular technology and process in the electronic assembly industry. It is a kind of circuit assembly technology that SMC / SMD without pin or short lead is installed on the surface of printed circuit board (PCB) or the surface of other substrates, and is welded and assembled by reflow soldering or immersion soldering.

     In general, the led light strips we use are designed by PCB plus various capacitors, resistors and other electronic components according to the designed circuit diagram, different kinds of light strips will need different SMT chip processing technology to process.

     The basic elements of SMT include: silk printing (or dispensing), mounting (curing), reflow welding, cleaning, testing, repair.

1. Screen printing: it is used to seal solder paste or adhesive to PCB pad, and prepare for welding of components. The equipment used is screen printing machine (screen printing machine), which is located in the front of SMT production line.

2. Dispensing: it drops glue onto the fixed position of PCB board, and its main function is to fix components to PCB board. The equipment used is a dispensing machine, located at the front end of SMT production line or behind the detection equipment.

3. Mounting: its function is to accurately install the surface assembly components to the fixed position of PCB. The equipment used is SMT machine, which is located behind the screen printing machine in SMT production line.

4. Curing: the function is to melt the adhesive, so that the surface assembly components and PCB board are firmly bonded together. The equipment used is curing furnace, which is located behind the placement machine in SMT production line.

5. Reflow welding: the function is to melt the solder paste, so that the surface assembly components and PCB board are firmly bonded together. The equipment used is reflow welding furnace, which is located behind the SMT production line.

6. Cleaning: the function is to remove the harmful welding residues such as flux on the assembled PCB board. The equipment used is a cleaning machine, and its position can be unfixed.

7. Inspection: its function is to inspect the welding quality and assembly quality of the assembled PCB. The equipment used includes magnifying glass, microscope, on-line tester (ICT), flying needle tester, automatic optical detection (AOI), X-ray detection system, function tester, etc. The location can be arranged in the right place of the production line according to the needs of the detection.

8. Repair: its function is to rework PCB board which detects fault. The tools used are soldering iron, repair workstation, etc. Configuration is at any position in the production line.

     So for the above processes, a set of SMT equipment will take a lot of time to adjust and produce, and also need very skilled workers to operate. And normally the output of each machine is at least about 200 meters one time, if only make a few meters of light strips, it will be very time-consuming and not cost-effective. Therefore, most of the LED light strips will have MOQ requirements when they are not in stock or need to be customized. It is more economical for both producers and buyers to purchase more than MOQ.