No one is required for installation: ABS or PBT? There are some questions about the material of key cap

2021-10-05 05:31:00 [Original by Zhongguancun Online] Author: Miaomiao Kid

At present, more and more brands have produced machinery with DIY elements keyboard Products. Nouns of various key caps and shaft bodies emerge one after another, making it difficult for friends who just touch the keyboard to understand. As far as the key cap is concerned, its shape and height are various, and it has a lot of knowledge.

The shape design of key caps is different, but the main difference lies in the material. The main key caps in the mechanical keyboard are ABS plastic, POM plastic and PBT materials, in addition to nylon, silicone, etc. Friends who often use keyboards have probably encountered this problem: the surface of keyboards that have been used for a long time is mostly covered with grease, and they are very smooth to use. The phenomenon of polishing the surface of the key cap caused by long-term and frequent use is called "oiling". The reason is the long-term high-frequency use or the material of the key cap.

The most common key cap material of ABS, its chemical name is acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, and its English name is Acrolonitrile Butadiene Styrene plastic, which is one of the five major synthetic resins. Its impact resistance, heat resistance, low temperature resistance, chemical resistance and electrical performance are excellent. It also has the characteristics of easy processing, product size stability, good surface gloss, easy painting and coloring, and can also carry out secondary processing such as surface spraying metal, electroplating, welding, hot pressing and bonding.

Most keyboard keycaps on the market are made of ABS engineering plastics. The hardness of this material is slightly low, so its wear resistance is poor. Some high-end brands use other materials to avoid oiling as much as possible. Compared with other materials, the overall cost of ABS engineering plastics is low. The extremely strong plasticity reduces the processing difficulty, and the soft texture can provide good finger touch, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, poor wear resistance. Therefore, after a long time and high frequency of use, the phenomenon of oiling often appears.

Although ABS keycaps are easy to grease, there are still high-end keyboards made of ABS. Spraying a layer of wear-resistant material on the ABS key cap can greatly reduce the chance of oiling. Of course, this layer of material itself is also expensive. At present, Filco is better at this aspect. In addition, some brands also use the piano baking process, such as the keycap of the RAZER Black Widow Ultimate keyboard, but the reflective and wear-resistant properties of this surface are average.

PBT is a kind of keyboard material with higher cost. Its chemical name is polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). It has high heat resistance, toughness, fatigue resistance, self lubrication and low friction. Resistant to hot water, alkali, acid and oil, PBT is one of the most tenacious engineering thermoplastic materials. It is a semi crystalline material with excellent chemical stability, mechanical strength, electrical insulation characteristics and thermal stability. These materials have good stability in a wide range of environmental conditions.

The wear-resistance of PBT material keycap is quite good, and its high wear-resistance even reflects the feature of no oiling for a long time on the keyboard, which is also loved by many experienced players. With such a strong hardness, it will be slightly harder in the hand feel, but when infecting the pattern, the color will be highly restored and not easy to fade. Its innate light color is more suitable for white keyboard processing, and friends who like light color mechanical keyboard can pay more attention.

POM is a kind of keyboard material with extremely high wear resistance. Its chemical name is polyoxymethylene, and its English name is Polyoxymethylene. It has good physical, mechanical and chemical properties, especially excellent friction resistance, commonly known as Saigang or Dougang. It is the third largest general-purpose plastic.

POM material is the most expensive of the three materials, and is suitable for making key caps. The hard material can keep the original surface from being scratched and polished for a long time. However, the relatively single color limits the selection range, and POM is difficult to achieve the color requirements of white and light colors. Therefore, most of the POM materials on mechanical keyboards are black. Of course, the higher costs also point to high-end products with higher prices.

At present, POM keycaps are increasingly rare, and PBT keycaps are almost used in commercial keyboards except for ABS keycaps. In this regard, the author gives the suggestion that PBT keycaps should be selected as far as possible when the price difference is not too large.

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Compared with ABS, PBT keycap has strong playability. PBT material can keep the shape of the device object unchanged in 100 ° high temperature boiling water. Its material determines that it reduces the difficulty in playing personalized games. The color of the keycap can remain unchanged for a long time after infection. If you put the ABS key cap into 100 ° boiling water, deformation will occur. You can carefully compare the two kinds of key caps. PBT key caps will have a grainy feel and high hardness, and the touch will not be very smooth; The ABS key cap will change the nature of the surface in a very short time, become very smooth and sticky, and the feel will be greatly reduced. PBT is far superior to ABS key cap in terms of material, anti oiling property and DIY angle, so PBT key cap is more recommended.