When playing a mechanical keyboard, the most important component that cannot be missed, the soul of a mechanical keyboard is none other than the Switch. A good switch will bring a good typing experience to the user, on the contrary, a bad switch will negatively affect the typing experience, so many people can spend up to millions of dong to own the best switch for their mechanical keyboard. So what is the internal structure of a mechanical keyboard switch that makes it so important?
1/ Slide – slider : made of plastic, precise CAD molding technique, with characteristic colors of each type of switch for easy distinction. One end is made of pins to attach to other parts of the switch, one end is cross-shaped, used to attach to the keycap. Thus, the main function of the slide is to connect the keycap and the switch together. This part also contributes to creating the feeling when typing.
2/ Top housing – upper body : is a component molded from plastic using CAD techniques with extremely small differences, inside there are grooves to accurately orient the slide cover when the key is pressed down.
3/ Spring – spring : is a spring manufactured from precision engineering with advanced modular technology that creates specific force impedances to create unique characteristics for each type of switch. This is also a component manufactured with extremely high durability requirements because it represents the life of the switch.
4/ Gold crossing point contact – gold-plated cross-shaped contact : this is the core of each switch. Made of metal like a double-edged clamp. In idle mode, these two metal sheets will be fixed at a very narrow distance apart. The two components have pins connecting to the circuit board below. And the inside of each metal sheet has two prismatic, pentagonal contact parts, intersecting in a cross shape (crossing point). When we press the key, these two pentagonal parts contact each other at the top. This contact area is the smallest possible, plus the gold-plated material should bounce back quickly after impact. Helps the key press have the response we often see.
5/ Bottom housing – bottom body : the remaining shell of the switch is made of plastic and plays the role of connecting the switch to the circuit board below.
These switches are classified by color, specifically the color of the Switching slide mentioned above. Specifically divided into two main groups: Tacticle (Blue, Brown) and Linear (Red, Black). In which, the Blue switch is also called clicky switch because it has a very characteristic loud sound when typing.
Tacticle (Blue, Brown): means that when pressing the Switching slide key, there will be a notch at the actuation point. Thanks to this notch, the user can easily feel whether they have pressed the key or not.
Linear (Red, Black): means that when you press the Switching slide key, it will move linearly from top to bottom and will not have or will not go through any notches in between. It feels light, smooth, quiet and has no notches.
