Material

Our stainless steel tactile domes are made from type 304 Stainless Steel. We selected this material because of its low carbon content (0.08%) which offers the best oxidation resistance. Material Thickness is .00315″, .00395″ and .00470″. Material is Vickers Hardness Hv-380 to Hv-420. We purchase our stainless steel from the United States and Japan.

Tooling

We have four (4) different tools for each dome size. We offer a wide range of actuation force (tactile pressure) for our domes. With four different tools we can compensate for the material thickness and hardness variations and better meet your actuation force requirements. Our standard range of actuation force is from 8 +/- 2.0 oz average (220 grams) to 20 +/- 2.0 oz average (570 grams). Tactile pressure variations within a given lot of domes will be an average of 1.5 oz from nominal. Upon request we can supply domes with actuation forces outside of our standard range, and custom dome designs are also available. We maintain our own in-house tool and die shop.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy of our Metal Domes (domes only, using an ASTM approved rubber tip) exceeds 1,000,000 actuations. You may get different results in your life testing depending on:

  1. The type and condition of the surface to which the dome is mounted.
  2. The design of the tip that contacts the dome.
  3. The amount of force and overtravel you apply to the dome.

Dome Specification

Contact ConfigurationSPST, Normally Open
Contact Bounce (on)<0.3 ms
Contact Bounce (off)<0.6 ms
Operating Temperature-55 C to 125 C 
Storage Temperature-55 C to 125 C 
Humidity0 – 97% (no condensation)
Contact Resistance<100 ohms
 – with Nickel Plating<1 ohm
Voltage/Current Maximums100 ma @ 24 volts DC, RL
Breakdown VoltageOver 200 volts
Contact LifeExceeds 1 million cycles (in most trip forces)

Activation Force Conversion

 

OuncesGramsNewtons
8.00227.002.22
10.00284.002.78
12.00340.003.33
14.00397.003.89
16.00454.004.44
18.00510.004.99
20.00567.005.54

Size Conversion

MillimetersInches
4.10.016
5.00.20
5.60.22
6.00.24
6.90.27
8.00.31
8.80.35
9.00.36
10.00.39
11.00.43
12.00.47
12.70.50
16.00.63
19.00.75
20.00.79
38.101.5
50.802.00