sylvia : Hello everyone, My name is Sylvia. I'm a manufacturing engineer at Fictiv. Prior to Fictiv I worked as a product design engineer and dabbed in industrial design. Here to take your product design, manfuacturing, and DFM questions.
Lutetium : welcome @sylvia!
Shulie Tornel : PSA: *If chat is lagging, pls refresh!*
anays : Yay
Maksim Surguy : Hello @sylvia
Lutetium : We typically fire questions but use the sheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PA_oiwXWhUOlCm1dZIhK6nVjsuoL1e09FHLdHXpSJoc/edit#gid=0 as a conversation starter
sylvia : I can start off with @altometer's question about button sourcing. Button feel is a combination of the underlying switch, optional springback device, and button top.
Scott : I'm here from the reminder email as well.
sylvia : The common switches are pushbutton vs metal dome. These give you "clicky" button feel.
sylvia : if you don't like the clickiness you can use a conductive pill to short across contacts. See Fictiv's Nintendo and Xbox controller teardown articles to get a sense of what that looks like.
https://www.fictiv.com/blog/posts/nintendo-controller-teardown-part-1
https://www.fictiv.com/blog/posts/xbox-controller-teardown
Lutetium : @altometer are you thinking about making custom buttons?
altometer : Yeah. I like the tactile feel of a click, but the sound drives everyone around me mad. I need something like a surface-mount Brown switch that's about 5mm in diameter.
sylvia : button tops have a small impact on overall button feel, in most cases the switch makes the most difference.
sylvia : You can also look into microswitches, it's the switch used under most mice's L and R buttons.
altometer : @Lutetium Think like the Super Nintendo buttons. I can't find caps for a reasonable price that don't look like cheapo skittles.
Erin RobotGrrl : how do you get 2-stage buttons?
Erin RobotGrrl : (like on a camera button?)
davedarko : there are click buttons with different activation force btw
sylvia : @Erin RobotGrrl that's a specialized switch, not a button top thing
Erin RobotGrrl : is there a name for that switch?
sylvia : @altometer i agree off-the-shelf button tops are pretty industrial looking. they are mostly for panel mounting. If you are doing at least ~1000 pieces you can get a custom button top injection molded for a reasonable cost.
sylvia : alternatively, use SLS Nylon to print the button tops, tumble polish to get a smooth matte texture. Great 3D printing process for production.
Lutetium : want to move on from buttons?
davedarko : @Erin RobotGrrl you could stack a low force button on a high force button
Lutetium : next up question from @Maksim Surguy: What are different ways to make a plastic box that is affordable in mass manufacturing?
sylvia : @Maksim Surguy what kind of plastic box are you looking for? food-safe? for electronics? injection molding comes top of mind as a process
altometer : Thanks @sylvia
Maksim Surguy : @sylvia electronics, for a clock, but bigger (50cm x 10cm x 2.5cm )
sylvia : @anziclone you can try solvent welding
Erin RobotGrrl : @davedarko Oh! and have a plunger on the button top that stikes both button components? maybe there's a teardown of a camera somewhere that shows this!
Maksim Surguy : @sylvia I need really nice finish on the front panel, glossy
sylvia : @Maksim Surguy injection molding in ABS
anays : Thank you @.Sys
sylvia : gloss is achieved by polishing the mold, so every molded piece is glossy without secondary operations
anays : Thank You @sylvia
Maksim Surguy : Great! Thank you!
Lutetium : Next Q is from @anziclone What is the best way to seal acrylic cut objects? Also, if we need to join acrylic pieces at an angle where teeth are not possible, what method do we use to join the two surfaces?
sylvia : solvent welding https://www.amazon.com/Weld-Acrylic-Adhesive-Applicator-Bottle/dp/B0096TWKCW
Lutetium : @Erin RobotGrrl...
Read more »
