Rubber keypads

Rubber keypads, thanks to their properties, offer many possibilities for designing electronic devices. So in order to make the right choice with your keypad, it is worth to know the properties and consult the different solutions with technical support before making the order.

How silicone keypads are made?

The rubber keypad is manufactured in the process of high-temperature vulcanization of silicone.

Types of rubber keypads construction

In the construction of silicone keypads we can make a division (get the contact) due to the conductive element.

We distinguish three types of construction:

A printed conductive paste containing contact areas on the conductive circuit. It is possible to make any shape of the plane that contains the contact.

A vulcanized conductive element containing contact areas on the conducting circumference. Only standard shapes available.

A metal plate or switch mounted on a conductive circuit, where the rubber keypad is

a pusher.

Thanks to its properties and processing capabilities, silicone is an excellent material for general use applications.

Furthermore a wide range of silicone and print colors, according to the RAL palette, gives us great opportunities to create a perfectly personalized product.

Additional protection
In the rubber keypad, by surface spraying with PU varnish, an increase in abrasion resistance is obtained. In addition, you can increase the visual qualities of the keypad by pouring epoxy resin drops on the surface.

Backlighting of rubber keypads
It is possible to use a silicone with the properties of transmitting light with a light source placed on the conductive circuit, then we obtain the effect of the entire surface of the silicone lighting. The effect that pictograms only shine we can obtain by surface sputtering of the keypad surface with covering paints and then laser engraving of pictograms.

Advantages of the rubber keypads:
comfort of use
greater possibility of differentiation of pressure force and keys travel in comparison with membrane keypads
easy to keep clean
resistance to mechanical damage
durability
backlighting
larger packing of keys on the surface compared to a membrane keypad
relatively low production costs.