Multi-color Rubber Keypad

Multi-color Rubber Keypad

Multi-color silicone rubber keypads commonly contain more than two colors to distinguish the distinct functions of the buttons in the keypad. The most common being the power button which is often represented in red. For example, in remote controller rubber keyboard and machine control buttons, red may mean “delete” and green may mean “save”. Sometimes, different colors are also designed for aesthetic purposes. Bright colors are more likely to be remembered by users and help to enhance brand impression.

What Is Over Molding Rubber Keypad?

The engineer injects the substrate with a harder overmolded material. The substrate is then placed into the overmolding cavity. The molten overmolding material is then injected onto, over, or around the substrate. After the molten material cools, the substrate and second overmold material are chemically or mechanically bonded together.

Using this multi-color rubber keyboard as an example, the red, yellow and green colored keys are produced first. Then the translucent white key portion is produced by compression molding, followed by using over molding to unite the colored keys on top of the translucent white keypads. It is an ideal option for engineers and clients who would like to build a functional, solid, and aesthetic keypad. Complete these production steps and you'll have a prototype keyboard.

For a finished keyboard, there are still steps to be taken. The characters and numbers on the surface of the keyboard need to be silk-screened or laser-engraved, and then sprayed with a protective coating to prevent the symbols from wearing out and becoming illegible over time. For conductivity, this keypad choose the method of conductive ink printing.

Different ways to make multi-color rubber keypad

In addition to using the over molding process to create silicone keyboards in different colors, we have another method: key setting. We directly blend the silicone raw materials of the desired color and put them into the corresponding positions in the chamber of mold at the same time. After high temperature molding, we get the keyboard with different colors. 

This is often used in the production of multi-colored keyboards for remote controls. Because the keyboard is mounted inside the plastic shell of the remote control basically can not see the different colors of the edge of the silicone keys, so this method is very suitable. It is both aesthetic and functionality

The different aspects between overmolding and key setting multi-color keypad

They are both effective ways to make multi-color rubber keyboards, but what are the difference? We can mainly talk about both cost and appearance. The cost of key setting is lower than over molding’s. On the one hand, key setting process need only one mold to make multi-color silicone buttons, over molding process need two or more molds. On the other hand, production steps of key setting is fewer than the steps over molding. Therefore, key setting has a less mold fee and labour cost. As for the appearance, multi-color keyboards made by the over molding process have more distinct boundaries between the different colors, while multi-color keyboards made by the key setting have the edges of the different colors mixed.

If you are hesitated and can not decide which option is more suitable to your product, please contact us. Our professional engineers team would be glad to offer some suggestions!