Silicone keypads
A keypad is what people touch every time they use your product. The feel of every key, the legibility of every legend and the seal around…
Open this variantOEM route · tactile input components
Keypad and button manufacture.
Silicone keypad mats and moulded buttons with a defined tactile feel, integrated conductive contacts, and graphics either printed on top or moulded into the surface. The full assembly, out of one tool, into your device.
What a keypad has to feel like
The feel is designed. It isn't lucky.
A silicone keypad works because of three geometric features: the dome (which gives the click), the actuator (which travels down to touch the switch), and the web (which holds the buttons in the mat). Get those three right and the keypad feels considered. Get any of them wrong and it feels cheap.
The dome geometry drives the actuation force and the click sensation. Steep-walled domes give a sharp click at higher force; shallow domes give a softer, longer-travel feel. We'll press samples in a few dome variants and let your product manager choose by feel, not by force spec.
Conductive pill contacts — small carbon or gold-plated pucks moulded into the underside of the button — close a circuit on your PCB when the button is pressed. They can be moulded into the silicone in one shot or added as an insert in a second operation.
Graphics on the button top can be printed after moulding (silicone-compatible pad-print inks) or moulded in through a laser-etched cavity that leaves raised or recessed text. Which route depends on how permanent the graphic needs to be.
Drill down
3 ways we run keypads and buttons.
Each variant has its own page with the specifics: where it fits, how we run it and what to send us.
Backlit keypads
A backlit key needs light to pass through the legend and nowhere else. That takes translucent silicone, opaque coatings and careful control…
Open this variantTactile domes and buttons
Some products have one button. It might be the only part of the product people deliberately touch. It has to feel exactly right.
Open this variantHow the keypad comes together
Three build routes for keypads.
Moulded mat with printed graphics
The silicone mat is moulded, then graphics are pad-printed on the button tops. Standard route for most consumer keypads.
Moulded mat with laser-etched graphics
The tool cavity has the graphic laser-etched into it, so the graphic is part of the moulded silicone. Permanent and can't wear off, but changes to the graphic mean a new tool feature.
Assembled with conductive pills
Conductive contacts are moulded in during the run — carbon pucks or gold-plated pills placed by robot before the tool closes.
How a keypad run works
From feel to finished mat.
The dome and the actuator get set in the tool. Everything else is a decision about what happens on top of the base moulding.
Feel prototype in three grades
We press sample mats in three durometers with the proposed dome geometry. You wear-test them; we adjust the design based on what actually feels right, not on the spec sheet.
Tool cut with graphics if moulded
The tool is cut. If graphics are moulded rather than printed, the graphic cavity is laser-etched before final polish.
First run with conductive contacts
Contacts placed by hand or by robot depending on volume. First-off mats are electrically tested to confirm the contacts close the circuit at the specified force.
Print or coat if needed
Graphics pad-printed with silicone-compatible ink; UV coated for wear resistance if the device is going to see heavy use.
Pack for your assembly line
Mats packed in trays, oriented for your pick-and-place. Batch record travels with the shipment.
To quote it
What we need on keypad enquiries.
A layout drawing
Button positions, sizes, and any keep-out zones. If you have a target actuation force in mind, tell us — we'll aim for it in dome design.
Graphics and permanence
Printed, moulded, or coated. Whether you need graphics to survive an alcohol wipe test, or just look right in a domestic setting.
Contact requirements
Do you need conductive pills, or is your device using a separate switch layer? That changes tool cost and cycle time significantly.
Volume and mix
Keypad tools are usually multi-cavity; if you have several button variants, we can run them off shared tool bases with variable inserts.
Related routes
Where this connects.
Compression moulding
Solid silicone or rubber pre-formed, loaded into a heated steel tool, and pressed under cure. Sensible tooling cost, thousands of parts per tool, and…
Read moreInsert moulding
A pre-made insert — a threaded stud, a metal contact, a printed circuit, a stiffening plate — placed into the tool cavity, then silicone or rubber…
Read moreElectronics-grade manufacturing
Silicone moulding for electronics OEMs — insulating gaskets, sealing membranes, keypad mats, connector boots, enclosure seals. Electronics-grade…
Read moreDesigned and developed in the UK. UK moulding capability, with some higher-volume production placed with trusted partners where that's the right commercial answer.
Get in touch
Tell us the part, the volume, and the timeline.
Rough annual volume, target unit price, and any deadlines. That's enough to work out whether compression, LSR injection or something else is the right tool.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Products, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- Part of TCI GroupFive specialist brands, one engineering team. Visit TCI Group.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare