Silicone rubber keypads are also known as elastomeric keypads. They are most probably used by the telephone or small manufacturing company, which consumers later use for turning on various household electrical appliances. The polymer used to make siloxanes was invented by an English chemist in 1972, Fredric Stanley Kippling; later, he accidentally named the product silicone. The first silicone products manufacturing company was established in 1943 in Michigan, United States of America. That used the modern polymerization method used to manufacture silicone at present was invented by Eugene George Rochow, in 1940, in the United States of America. In this article, you will learn how custom silicon rubber keypads are made.

What Do You Understand By Silicone?

Silicone, the scientifically named polysiloxane. This compound is resistant to very high and shallow temperatures, flexible, resistant to water, oxidation process, etc., which has made the product highly recommended in bakery mold manufacturing companies and keypads for mobile, remote, and laptop keyboard manufacturing companies.

How Are Custom Silicone Keypads Made?

•Making of the Tool or The Mold- to make custom silicone rubber keypads,you need to prepare the molds based on the designs you want from CNC milling machines or EDM machines. These molds include a silicone compression molding tool and a molded keypad.

•Choosing The Best Quality Silicone Rubber for the Keypad- the two silicones commonly and excessively used to create silicone rubber keypads are- platinum-cured silicone rubber comes in a liquid state, this product is very resistant to high temperatures and low temperatures, this product is quite similar to petroleum jelly consistency. On the other hand is gum stock silicone rubber, which is thick and has a dough-like texture. To use this product,a peroxide catalyst is added and mixed.

•Poring The Silicone Performs Into The Mold- the liquid is put inside the compression molding where the liquid pours into the gaps of the mold, another mold compress from the top creating a 3D effect excess liquid is squeezed out from the sides of the mold. The keypads are formed after applying pressure, heat, and time for the silicone to hold its shape. If you want, add the synthetic color of your choice for the keypads.

•Removing The Keypad - the whole metallic mold is heated for five minutes at 180℃  the silicon inside. After hardening is removed by applying air pressure and wearing heat-protective gloves as the mold is still very hot.

•Screen Printing- here comes the final process for the silicone keypads where you can select the font style of the screen printing done on the keypads to determine the number, alphabets, power buttons, manual buttons, settings button, etc.

Author Bio:

The author of this article is a content writer for a manufacturing electronic components Company. He has shared her views on Custom Silicone Rubber Keypads and Silicone Rubber Keypads.