SILICONE RUBBER KEYPADS

Silicone Rubber Keypads are manufactured from elastic, silicone rubber and are processed with compression or injection molding. The results are an economical and reliable keypad.

Cubbison can integrate your silicone rubber keypad with a graphic overlay, printed circuit board (PCB), membrane ½ switch or copper flex to allow you additional flexibility in your design.

SILICONE RUBBER MATERIAL

The natural color of raw silicone rubber material is translucent white, silicone rubber can be blended with color pigments to obtain the color required. Durometer is one of several ways to indicate the hardness of a material. Suggested hardness for silicone rubber keypads is 40 to 60 shore A. A higher durometer silicone rubber keypad offers higher actuation force, snap ratio but shorter life. A Lower durometer silicone rubber keypad has lower actuation force, snap ratio but longer life. Silicone rubber is available in UL flame classifications of UL94HB and UL94V0.

Dual durometer solutions are also available. In this construction, the harder durometer rubber is used for the key top and the softer durometer rubber is used for the base.

PRINTING AND HARDCOATING

SCREEN PRINTING / PAD PRINTING

Graphics can be applied directly to the keytops of the rubber keypad by screen printing. The optimum keytop for printing is flat keytop. However, some curved keytops can also be pad printed.

SPRAY PAINT AND LASER ETCH

After the part is molded, the entire top surface of the keypad is spray-painted with one or more colors. A laser is used to etch graphics on the keytops exposing either the under layer of paint or the raw rubber.

PU COATING

Silicone rubber keypads can also be spray-coated with PU resin to provide lifetime abrasion resistance and oil resistance.

HARD COATING

A screen printed or spray-painting process is used to apply an additional protective clear silicone ink on the keytops. The process enhances the abrasion resistance of the printed graphics.

EPOXY COATING

Silicone rubber keypads can be coated with a layer of epoxy resin to form a hard top and feel like plastic. The epoxy coating also provides enhanced abrasion resistance for the printedgraphics.

MOLDING

Two-shot molding

Similar to Dual Durometer, a keypad can be produced using one color of rubber for the key top and a separate color for the base.

Flow molding

This process allows specific areas of a keypad to be molded with different colored rubber.
This provides different base colors without requiring complicated spray-paint techniques. Silk screening is typically done on top of these base colors to provide additional graphics.

KEY CAPS

Pre-molded hard plastic keytops can be applied to the molded rubber key pad. This provides a hard key feel with the economies and efficiencies of a rubber keypad.

CONDUCTIVE CONTACTS

Silicone rubber keypads can be molded with carbon pills, or screen printed conductive ink according to the application requirements. Due to the low cost of production and acceptable
resistance, most conductive rubber keypads are molded with carbon pills.