Replacing a set of personalized keycaps for the beloved mechanical keyboard is something many players will do. Do you know the advantages and disadvantages of common materials for custom keycaps? Today, let’s talk about the processing technology of key and cap characters to see how they are different. At present, laser engraving technology is the most widely used in machinery. When manufacturing the key cap, the manufacturer shall add some special foaming agent into the key cap. Then the laser is used to ablate the surface of the key cap, and the ablated part will present the opposite color of the key cap itself. If you need custom CNC machining keyboard case service, feel free to contact us.

Laser engraving technology is the most common technology on non-backlit mechanical keyboard

Laser engraving technology is the most widely used key cap character making technology in the field of mechanical keyboard at present. Basically, common non-backlight keyboard key caps are made using this technology. The carved characters can penetrate 0.2 mm below the surface of the key cap, which has the advantages of low cost, convenient processing, durable wear, and long-time use. However, its disadvantage is that the characters processed by laser engraving technology will be slightly higher than the surface of the key cap, and the surface wear will show a gray color. In addition, its internal microporous structure is easy to accumulate dust, making the worn character surface appear to have a “dirty” feeling.

Due to the use of transparent key caps, the keyboard characters of Benji Skykey can only be made by screen printing process

Screen printing technology is widely used in low-end film keyboards, and rarely used in mechanical keyboards. However, limited by the material of key caps, some keyboards are still used, such as Benji Sky Mirror. The principle of screen printing is to cover the special screen on the key cap, in which the character part is hollow, and then use ink to scrape it on the screen, so that the words can be printed on the key cap. Although the cost of screen printing is also very low, compared with the laser etching process, the life of the key cap is much shorter, which is mostly seen on the film with lower cost. Screen printing+UV film covering is also a very common key cap process of the film. It is to cover a layer of UV film on the basis of screen printing, which can extend the service life to a certain extent compared with simple screen printing.

Black Widow Spider’s ultimate mechanical keyboard uses hollow keycaps, which is also the most common keycap technology on backlit mechanical keyboard

Keycaps made by laser engraving or screen printing process cannot be transparent. The most common use of backlit keyboards is hollow keycaps. The key cap itself is made of semi-transparent material. After the injection molding, the surface is sprayed with light-shielded material, and then the character position is hollowed out to expose the original semi-transparent material for light transmission.

The hollow key cap has excellent appearance and touch, but its disadvantages are the same as ABS material and easy to oil

The hollow transparent key cap is easy to make, with diversified surface characters and comfortable touch. It is very good both in appearance and in actual use. However, its disadvantages are the same as the ABS key cap, which has the disadvantages of low surface wear resistance and easy oiling. Nevertheless, based on the appearance and use feeling, the hollowed-out transparent key cap is still the standard choice for a high-end backlit mechanical keyboard.

Laser engraving, screen printing, hollow-out, and other processes are common mechanical key cap processes. In recent years, with the rise of low-cost mechanical keyboards, two-color injection molding key caps have also begun to become popular. The two-color injection molding key cap is made of two different color plastic materials. The character part of the key cap is made first, and then the complete key cap shape is marked on the outside.

The low-end two-color injection molding key cap cannot achieve character closure (note the opening below the ALT key “A”)

Because the character part of the two-color injection molding keycap is directly injected with plastic, there is absolutely no problem with missing words. Because of this feature, the light-transparent keycap made by the two-color injection molding process is widely used on the low-end and mid-end backlit mechanical keyboard. However, as the ABS material is still used, the phenomenon of oiling still exists.

High-end two-color injection molding key cap does not have this problem

However, this does not mean that the key caps made by the two-color injection molding process are all cheap products. In fact, the key caps made by the two-color injection molding process can definitely be called the nobles in the key caps. For example, the price of GMK and SP keycaps, which are popular with players, usually ranges from hundreds to thousands of yuan. The biggest difference between the cheap two-color key cap and the high-end two-color key cap is mainly reflected in the manufacturing process. The most obvious feature is that due to technical reasons, the cheap two-color key cap cannot be completely closed in the positions with closed field characters such as “O”, “B” and “R”, while the high-end key cap does not have this problem.

The thermal sublimation key cap used by Realforce electrostatic capacitance keyboard has an extremely unique texture

The most rare key cap manufacturing process is the thermal sublimation (hot immersion) technology. Since only a few high-end products are used, ordinary users can rarely see them. The most representative product is the key cap used by Realforce electrostatic capacitance keyboard. Thermal sublimation uses solid resin ink, which will sublimate under high temperature and then penetrate into the key cap to sublimate. The key cap made by this process can penetrate into the surface of the key cap and form a whole with the key cap itself, so it is more excellent in gloss and firmness.