When we talk to our customer about the possible integration of a Silicone rubber keypad into their electronic product we always focus a significant part of the conversation on the field environment the Rubber keypads will be used in.
We find that many customers focus their requirements on the number of operations they wish a keypad to be able to make and in many instances fail to consider factors such as temperature, humidity and the way a user will interact with the keypad.
All of these factors are important for us when proposing a final keypad design to a potential customer in order that we maximise the anticipated field life of the product.
Ideally we request that customer’s field trial production units however in many cases this is simply not possible due to development time scales being shortened for many projects.
In these instances we work closely with engineers to develop suitable in house life testing procedures or propose extended factory based testing to a custom set of conditions and operational parameters in order to match the customers expected worst case field conditions as closely as possible. This can be done at small additional cost and gives greater degree of certainty of keypad life where field testing is not an option.
For more information about factors that affect rubber keypad life and how our advanced testing can help ensure a successful keypad integration please talk to our Product management team on +44(0)1477 505206
