Of Rubber Keypads and Panel Overlay Labels

Rubber keypads are taking over in typically all enterprises, industrial, commercial, medical, and even in the military. All these industries have their rubber aka silicone/elastomer keypads customized to suit the different appliances and equipment they have. The keypads are also assembled to create rubber switches. These rubber input devices also meet the keypad design requirements of key travel, actuation force, contact force and return force, which are the typical tactile responses sought in keypads and switches. Alongside these factors, silicone keypads provide an excellent feel and have a long useful life.

Elastomer keypads are the perfect substitute for metal keypads which are susceptible to oxidation and corrosion. Further, metal keypads react with many compounds and this leads to the compromise of the metal parts in the switches. Many of the equipment in the aforementioned industries are always exposed to moisture and liquid spills.

Liquids filtrating into the internal parts will immediately or with time cause problems. Rubber keypads on the other hand are waterproof and ensure the internal parts are sealed away from moisture. Metal keypads have hard surfaces which are not friendly to the fingers and further, more force to depress the keys is required not mentioning the somewhat annoying clicking sound.

Though a rubber keypad can come in a range of shapes, colors and designs, it can always be made better with a panel overlay. Through such panels a custom appearance can be generated and be used to display corporate logos or other fancy graphics. These graphics overlays are printed via silk screen printing or even much better via digital overlay printers which bring out livelier graphics. Having your vending machine or other equipment adorned with beautiful overlays guarantees more sales as great looking products sell better. Other than rubber keypads, overlays are also integrated with front panels such as membrane switches and touch screens.

Typically, a Panel Overlay features cutouts and texts which designate where a switch or connector is located on the front panel. Through embossing an overlay you can use the embossed part as a keypad to activate the switches below on the front panel.

Overlays may also feature transparent, translucent and color transparent panes which are used as antiglare protection for LCDs, LED signal lights, and alpha numeric displays respectively. A panel overlay can be manufactured from different materials but the most preferred are polyester and polycarbonate which are resistant to most environments. Such overlays may also come with adhesive backers which are used to laminate graphics on the front panels.

One can always find a panel overlay company that also manufactures rubber keypads and hence have the production done from one location - a feature most people and companies prefer as it saves time and money and there is better work follow up.

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