With its long lifespan and extraordinary feel, mechanical keyboards have “regained” the status that was once replaced by membrane keyboards, and have become the favorite of geeks and pc gaming enthusiasts. In addition to the feel and lifespan, the attractive part of mechanical keyboards is that the keycaps can be freely replaced anytime. Putting on a set of new keycaps that you like gives you a feel of using a new keyboard. Anyone can change the keycaps according to their own preferences or needs, to make their keyboards have a unique look and feel.
If the shaft determines the basic feel of the mechanical keyboard, then the keycap is the icing on the cake for the user’s feel. Keycaps of different colors, different crafts, and different materials will not only affect the appearance of the keyboard, but also affect the feel of the keyboard, thus affecting the keyboard experience.
Although the keycaps of mechanical keyboards can be freely replaced, the price of some limited-edition keycaps can even be compared with high-end keyboards. The material of mechanical keyboard keycaps is usually plastic, but different materials have different characteristics. There are many other special material keycaps, which are favored by enthusiasts, and the price of just one keycap can reach hundreds of dollars.
The keycaps of common mechanical keyboards can be divided into three materials: ABS, PBT, and POM.
ABS Keycaps
Among them, ABS has the highest usage rate in mechanical keyboards. Whether it is a popular product with a few hundred dollars, or a flagship keyboard over thousand, you can see the ABS keycaps been put on. ABS plastic is a copolymer of acrylonitrile (A)-butadiene (B)-styrene (S), which combines the properties of three components, and has the characteristics of high strength, good toughness, and easy processing. Besides, the MSRP of it would not be high. It is precisely because of these characteristics that ABS has been widely used. Due to the relatively mature production process, the ABS keycaps have the characteristics of regular process, exquisite details, and uniform texture. ABS Keycaps are not only excellent in workmanship, but also make gamers feel smoothy while tying and playing games.
Although it has a good performance in terms of craftsmanship and feel, the keycap made of ABS has an obvious disadvantage. Because the hardness of its own material is not enough, the surface will become shiny with oil from limbs after long-term use. The keycaps after being used for a long time not only feel greasy to the touch, but also look unclean, especially for gamers with sweaty hands. To solve this problem, keycaps made of PBT and POM materials came to the stage.
PBT Keycaps
PBT refers to a type of plastic mainly composed of polybutylene terephthalate, and has the reputation of “white rock”. Compared with ABS material, the processing technology is more difficult and the cost is higher. The strength of the material is excellent, with the characteristics of wear resistance and high temperature resistance, and the shrinkage rate is small during injection molding. The processing technology is relatively mature, and it can be processed by processes such as secondary injection molding to achieve the purpose of never fading. The keycaps made of PBT are dry and tough to the touch, and the surface of the keycaps has a layer of fine frosted feeling.
Compared with ABS keycaps, the biggest advantage of PBT keycaps is that the wear resistance is significantly higher. The time limit of keycaps made of PBT material is obviously longer than that of ABS in the case of oil from limbs. Due to the complex process and high cost, keycaps made of this material are usually used in mid-to-high-end keyboard products.
Due to the large molecular gap and high temperature resistance of PBT material, the keycaps made of this material also have a feature that industrial dyes can be used for dip dyeing operations. After purchasing white PBT keycaps, geeks can dye the keycaps with industrial dyes to make their own unique colored keycaps. However, this kind of operation is more complicated, so it is recommended that if you want to dye the keycaps, you can first buy a small batch of keycaps and come back to practice, and then you can dye the whole set of keycaps after you are familiar with the whole process.
Although the wear resistance of PBT keycaps is higher than that of ABS materials, it is not the hardest among common mechanical keyboard materials. There is also a material that performs better than PBT in hardness – POM.
POM Keycaps
The scientific name of POM is polyoxymethylene, which is a kind of synthetic resin, which is a polymer of the harmful gas formaldehyde in home decoration materials. POM material has high hardness, is very wear-resistant, and has the characteristics of self-smoothing, so it is often used in the production of lightweight parts. Due to its own material characteristics, the keycaps made of POM are cold to the touch and have a smooth surface, which is even smoother than the oiled ABS keycaps, but it is completely different from the sticky feeling of ABS keycaps after oiling.
However, due to its large shrinkage rate, the POM material is more difficult in injection molding. During the production process, if there is improper control, it is easy to cause the problem that the assembly gap of the keycap is too small. The problem that the shaft core may be pulled out. Even if the problem that the bottom cross socket is too tight can be solved well, due to the large shrinkage rate of the material, a certain shrinkage texture will be formed on the surface of the keycap.
