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PCD Maltron Ltd. has been using
Cherry key switch modules for over twenty five years.
In this time they have
proven to be 100% reliable and we have had zero failures. Legends may wear off
the key-tops but the MX key switches just keep on performing.
Okay, so we have used
lots of these and think they are great. But that's just our opinion. What are
the hard facts?
Long life: 50 million operations.
That's it! Long life.
Really long life. Several orders of magnitude better than membrane type
keyboards.
There are other
advantages of course like low and consistent tactile pressure required to operate
the switch which is important to many of our users. But in the end it is the
reliability which is the key.
50 million operations
sounds a lot, but if you are typing text day in, day out, year after year the
numbers mount up rapidly. Remember that the space key is used about 17.5% and
the letter E is about 9.8% of all prose keyboarding (see the "Frequency
of Use Analysis
Modern Prose" page for the full story).
Cheep $5 Qwerty
keyboards are two a penny, but they don't help you with RSI or WRULDS problems -
in fact they cause them.
Maltron keyboards are
expensive by comparison and for many people represent a considerable investment.
They are hand made from sheet materials which are formed and punched to make the
shell or body of the keyboard. Individual Cherry MX key switch are individually
fitted by hand. The switch contacts are wired up into a scanning XY matrix by
hand. In fact everything is done on an individual basis by hand.
See this page for how an Executive
keyboard is made.
This does not result in
a $5 product. But is does result in a product that is reliable not just to start
with, but in ten or more years time.
So that why we use
Cherry MX Key Switches "with a heart of gold" in all our products. $5 keyboards
are throwaway items, a Maltron keyboard is for life.
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