Timeline for Costs of Conductive Silicone/Rubber Keypad vs. Mechanical Switches?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 4, 2018 at 1:57 | comment | added | Leroy105 | Cool. I appreciate the call out on some specifics. Very cool idea | |
| Feb 1, 2018 at 14:53 | comment | added | D Duck | I've had success in 3d printing a rubber button sheet (4 buttons) with inset legend in ASY Digi ABS / Agilus Black. I used the design guide for silicon rubber buttons from abatek.com/designguide. My buttons press a tactile switch on a pcb - these switches are cheap, and are available in a series of forces - so you can make several pcbs to demo the switch feel. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 20:27 | vote | accept | Leroy105 | ||
| Jan 29, 2018 at 20:27 | |||||
| Jan 29, 2018 at 18:23 | comment | added | Leroy105 | @SomeHardwareGuy -- interesting. I guess we'd just ask the factory if/when the times comes and see what the cut-off is. I'm always surprised how manual they keep things in China. Though, labor costs are going up a lot so they are moving a bit towards more automation. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 18:21 | comment | added | Some Hardware Guy | Guess it depends on your volume, but I would agree low to moderate volume would be a guy putting the puck in and cutting them out. High volume is a different game. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 18:21 | comment | added | Leroy105 | @Jon -- that makes sense. We injection mold plastics with metal inserts, and for how fancy you think things are, it's literally a dude putting in metal pieces in a giant mold and pulling a handle to shoot the plastic around the inserted metal pieces. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 18:20 | comment | added | Jon | Have just got one made, tooling cost $600. @Leroy105 - a worker does indeed manually put the carbon pucks into one side of the tool before molding. When molded, the pucks are bonded to the silicone. Breakout and flash removal are all manual as well. Hence why they are all made in countries with cheap labour. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 17:35 | comment | added | Leroy105 | Yes, I agree we have made these silicone mold for other parts for very cheap (compared to say an actual mold for hard plastics!). I wonder though if there is some poor guy glui'ing "pucks" to the silicone molded piece, that seems like the biggest cost driver. This is really helpful to know that the "feel" is a big driver. Personally I loathe mechanical stuff! ;) We'd call up some up Asian silicone fabrication guys we work with, this is quite helpful. | |
| Jan 29, 2018 at 17:32 | history | answered | Some Hardware Guy | CC BY-SA 3.0 |