The Relationship Between Plastic Nameplates and Membrane Switches

Before the 1970s, most nameplates were made of metal materials. Today, plastic nameplates have been widely used in household appliances, instruments, meters, office equipment and other fields, and have become an indispensable part of electromechanical products. It not only plays the role of trademark identification, specification model, function indication, etc., but also becomes an element that reflects the appearance of the product.

 

With the continuous use of new materials and new processes, the surface of plastic nameplates is constantly improving, and it has become the crystallization of three major technologies: comprehensive surface treatment, processing and molding, and screen printing.

 

Plastic nameplates can be divided into 2 types according to their material processing methods and objects of use:

 

1. The injection-type plastic nameplate is made of ABS, PC and other engineering injection molding, and then undergoes secondary surface decoration processing such as spraying, plastic electroplating or hot stamping to become a dazzling metallic decorative piece. This type of nameplate is usually used for home appliance panel trademark identification;

 

2. Another type of plastic nameplate is formed by a series of mechanical processing and screen printing processes using engineering plastic sheets of different colors and textures.

 

Then what is the relationship between Plastic Nameplates and Membrane Switches?

 

Membrane touch switch is a new type of electronic control system developed on the basis of plastic nameplate processing technology. It is a plastic nameplate with electronic switch function. It is also called panel switch because it is used in the panel of the whole machine. Membrane switches are widely used because of their beautiful appearance, small size, light weight, long life, and easy installation, which can meet the requirements of digital, intelligent, and self-service electronic products.

 

Most of the membrane switches have followed the processing method of plastic nameplates. However, since the membrane switch is functional printed, there are more stringent process regulations and requirements in terms of conductive silver paste printing, air ventilation nameplate and processing of the isolation layer.

 

After understanding the relationship between membrane switches and plastic nameplates, let us learn the production process of plastic nameplates.

 

1. Material Selection

 

Plastic nameplates generally use engineering plastic sheets such as PVC, PC, PET, PMMA, with a thickness of 0.1 to 2.0 mm, and mainly have two textures of high gloss and matte. The colors are black, white, and transparent.

 

2. Process Flow

(1) Film design and production

Now we all adopt computer-aided nameplate of film, and the processing speed and the quality of the film are no longer what it used to be. It should be noted that: the graphic structure size and characters of the film must be consistent with the CAD nameplate of the complete machine structure, and must comply with the screen printing process.

 

(2) Screen printing

Nameplates should be printed in color order before batch printing, and check whether their lines, patterns, characters, size, and colors are consistent with the customer's requirements or samples. Batch printing can only be done after the customer confirms that it is correct. Inks for color printing generally cannot be directly used for printing, but to be adjusted according to the color plate or PANTONE color card to ensure the printability of the ink.

 

(3) Blank cutting

The size of the blank should meet the standard to save the cost of raw materials. The more nameplates printed on a single blank, the higher the material utilization and work efficiency, but the overprinting error will increase accordingly. So we have to make adjustments according to the actual requirements of the nameplate. The cutting should ensure the same shape and size. After the blank is cut, the side to be printed should be facing up and stacked neatly.

 

(4) Mold design and manufacturing

In order to prevent the nameplate size of the composite mold from making mistakes, it is advisable to use a shallow cutting machine tool to cut the template according to the preset size of the mold before manufacturing. If there is a size error, we can correct it until it is confirmed to be correct before starting the mold manufacturing to ensure the first-time success rate of the mold.

 

(5) Laminating

In order to prevent the product from being scratched before use, it is generally necessary to cover it with a low-viscosity protective film. Whether double-sided lamination or single-sided lamination should be determined according to the actual situation. The film can be laminated and divided on the stone surface by manual method. Nowadays, automatic laminating machines are generally used for single-sided or double-sided laminating.

 

The production of plastic nameplates is similar to that of membrane switches. In fact, the production of membrane switches also involves button embossing and components assembly, which is more complicated than the production of plastic nameplates.