Electrical – Types of push button mechanisms

buttonmechanical

I am having troubles with some push buttons, such that some of them work, some of them sometimes works, and some of them just do not work.

In an attempt to find the cause of the issue, I took one of the faulty buttons apart to see if anything had broken internally. I found nothing to be broken, but was surprised at the mechanism used to make the contact when pressed and it did not strike me as the best way to make to contact so wondered what other mechanisms were about. Alas, my searching on the interweb has not prevailed with an answer, probably because of my incorrect terminology.

The type I currently have, looks like this button and mechanism:

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So, as the button is depressed, it bends the 'dome' of metal to make contact between the two pins. So, to me, this doesn't seem the most reliable method, what are the other options for the internal mechanism of a push to make button?

Best Answer

That's probably the only mechanism you'll find in small pushbuttons like that.

However, the mechanism is really not relevant. You shouldn't be looking at that level of detail, especially since you apparently know little about pushbutton design tradeoffs. What you should be looking at are specs like on-resistance, bounce time, maximum lifetime activations, etc. How the manufacturer achieves those doesn't matter.

This type of switch mechanism has been used in many places quite successfully. If a reputable manufacturer guarantees 100k operations, then I'd take that at face value. You are starting with incorrect assumptions, then over-thinking this. Stick to your requirements and how those are met as described in the datasheet.