1. Laser etching
The so-called laser etching is the use of laser engraving technology to burn black grooves on the keycaps. Because the traces carved by it are linear, the arrows on the common laser etched keyboards are all hollow.
But laser etching also has several fatal flaws, which also determines that it cannot be used in the production of high-end keyboards. First of all, because laser etching belongs to etching, and no ink is used, only a single black font can be printed, so the multi-color overprint design often found on high-end keyboards cannot be achieved; secondly, high-end keyboards are out of design and For durability, non-standard structure products such as ergonomics are difficult to print on ordinary laser etching machines. Because of this, laser etching is only used in the production lines of large factories to take advantage of its fast production speed and low cost. On the production lines of high-end products, because of the higher printing quality Therefore, we can only continue to use the traditional high-cost ink printing method.
2. Pad printing method
Pad printing is a very old method of printing keycaps. Because of its impracticality and low efficiency, it is no longer used. The pad printing method is to use a group of letter type as the original typeface. After the ink is painted on it by an automatic machine, a group of soft rubber blocks are pressed on it, so that when the rubber block is lifted, the ink will be transferred to the handwriting. On the rubber block, and then move the rubber block to the blank keyboard, press the rubber block, the ink is printed on the keyboard.
3. Screen printing (a common method in ink printing)
The principle is to cover a blank keyboard with a special silk screen, where the handwriting is hollowed out, and then the ink is scraped from above, so that the handwriting will be printed on the hollowed-out part. The feature of screen printing is that you can use a special silk screen to brush a layer of plastic after printing the handwriting. After it dries, a plastic protective film covering the printed handwriting will be formed, which can prevent the handwriting from being used for a long time. Wear and tear, which is commonly referred to as keyboard overlay technology. The English technical term for this plastic is: Coating Compared with laser etching, screen printing can freely print a variety of colors through repeated overprinting of multiple screens, and there is no requirement for keyboard material. However, due to the limitation of its printing method, it is still impossible to print a keyboard with an overly complex shape.
4. Immersion printing (also called sublimation method)
Immersion printing is a printing method that is completely different from ordinary ink printing. It uses solid resin inks instead of common liquid pigment inks. This kind of ink will sublime into a gaseous state at high temperature, penetrate into the permeable printed matter surface in the form of gaseous molecules, and then sublime, thus becoming a whole with the printing surface on the physical level, rather than just being “sticky” like ordinary pigment inks. On the printing surface, so its printing firmness is extremely high. Moreover, resin inks are inherently superior in gloss and shape.
5. Laser filler method
The principle of laser filling method is a bit similar to “tattoo”. A tattoo is to use a needle to make fine lines on the skin, and then fill it with pigments, so that the color will penetrate into the skin lines and will not be washed off or worn out later. Drop. The same is true for laser filler technology. First, use laser etching technology to print the text (but lighter than usual laser etching to ensure a smooth surface), and then use ink printing for secondary printing, so that the cured ink will be Infiltrate the nicks left by the laser and stay in it, thereafter it will not be easily rubbed off. The keyboard printed with laser filler technology, because of the secondary printing of ink, compensates for the defects of poor laser-etched fonts and inability to print colors, and because of the laser marking as the basis, its firmness is much higher. For pure ink printing. I personally think that this keycap processing method is a combination of laser etching and ink printing.
6. Hollow printing method
First, let me explain that this method is almost all printed in this way on the keyboard of the mobile phone. And only some laptop keyboards of APPLE have used this printing method. This printing method is very simple to say, in fact, the main purpose of Apple computers using this printing method is not for firm handwriting, but for aesthetics. Because this hollowed-out font is “engraved”, it is clearer and brighter than ink-printed, and like a mobile phone keyboard, a backlight circuit can be installed under the hollowed-out text keys, making the notebook keyboard as unique as a mobile phone keyboard. Good backlight effect.
7. Two-color forming
Two-color molding is the use of molds to combine two different colors of plastic, and use the difference of the two plastic colors to display fonts. The advantage of two-color molding is that the font color is bright, the durability is high, and the word is not easy to be dropped. If the manufacturing technology is good, the tactile performance of the keycap will be very good. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to express finer text, the color type is monotonous, the stroke complexity is low, and the fixed cost of its manufacture is expensive.
8. Laser carving
The laser carving process has the characteristics of never fading and clear lines.
