LED Screens with Nichia LEDs… or Not?

Some “manufacturers” promise you they are using 100% Nichia LEDs... but be careful because some of them could not be totally honest with you.

Nichia is one of the leading companies in the LED industry and surely the most awarded... that's why some suppliers try to take advantage of this brand. Here’s the whole story:

The main reason why you should be suspicious is because on the LED screens, there are 3 colors – Red, Green and Blue, the primary colors.

So the first question you should ask the potential supplier is: are ALL the 3 colors provided by Nichia, or only one of them?

Indeed, when they tell you they use Nichia LEDs, usually what they actually mean is that they use Nichia for the Green, Cree for the Red and Opto Tech for the Blue.

In order to protect yourself from this fraud I suggest you to take the following steps:

• The first thing to do is to ask the supplier to provide you a proof of purchase of the LEDs from the LED manufacturer. Such document should include the number of order, date of issue and quantity.
  
  In case the potential supplier find any excuse not to provide you with this document, please start to evaluate the situation very carefully.
• The second thing to do is to have Nichia’s experts to perform a test to prove whether you received what you paid for or not. The test has an indicative costs of a few hundreds Euros and you can expect results within a couple of weeks.
  
  You can reach Nichia Corporation’s laboratories at the following contacts:
  
  Nichia Chemical Pte Ltd
  78 Shenton Way, #05-04,
  Singapore 079120
  Tel : +65-63248218
  Fax : +65-63245756

This is the first article of the series titled "LED Screens: Top 10 Tips for First Time Buyers". So if you are considering the purchase of a LED screen for advertising, sport or events, stay tuned.

The next article is about the "Dedicated Proprietary Control System": it actually sounds very professional, but this fancy denomination hides some serious drawbacks that nobody ever tells you, until it's too late...