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Rinyre
102
Aug 19, 2017
Pretty, but I'm worried about the longevity of the printing. Any idea about how many keypresses the printing will hold up to, roughly?
KM1337
1881
Aug 19, 2017
Rinyrehttps://www.massdrop.com/buy/nebula-abs-water-transfer-keycap-set/talk/1783572 - might help answer your question. I agree about the longevity being a concern...
P1MPBOT5000
244
Aug 21, 2017
RinyreIt's dye sublimation so until you run the key past polish. Unless you are a programmer or author or compulsive gamer that chats more than he plays it is doubtful you will run the dye sublimated material from the key. I would guess 5 or 6 years of daily intense usage. They will get grimey far sooner than losing their print.
KM1337
1881
Aug 21, 2017
P1MPBOT5000Actually it's water transfer, not dye-sub, which if that where the case, I would agree that it would last fine. Unfortunately it's more of a glorified temporary tattoo to my understanding, unless I am mistaken.
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P1MPBOT5000
244
Aug 22, 2017
KM1337Ahh yes good catch I did not see that and assumed it was dye sub like most other prints.
Hydrographics are not bonded to the physical key but a set of layers on the key and then covered with a film generally that has an activator that bonds to the keys and then a coating is applied to the final layer so you end up with 3 layers of material, bond, print, coat. In this case the key does not physically have the print like dye sublimation which means the clear coating quality and the chemical used to bond are what control quality.
You are probably also thinking of hydro dipping in regards to quality which is a similar process that is far less professional (think paint and water with dipping/pulling). This is more professional and creates high quality results. Used on helmets, auto parts, and anything 'decorative'.
Hydrographic printing is not necessarily less quality than dye sub - only when the materials used in the process are of low quality. Both produce a result that will last depending on your usage and quality of the materials. Difficult thing is that as a consumer you will have no insight until you receive the final product.
KM1337
1881
Aug 22, 2017
P1MPBOT5000Very informative! Thank you, I had not really noticed that there was a difference between hydro dipping and hydro printing. I am very interested in Hydro dipping for things like keyboard cases and what not, but on keycaps, I thought that would be a far less reliable medium. I will have to look into this Hydro Printing some more and I will remain hopeful then, that this process will be more resilient than I had given it credit for.
nickkitman
0
Sep 15, 2018
RinyreIf you need it last for many years, maybe you need choose dye-subbed pbt keycaps. but they are much more expensive.:(
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