What is the purpose of the Steel Plate?

[TotalChaos]

Does anyone know if my Rosewill RK-9000RE has its switches mounted to the steel plate?
And if so, what is the point of that?

Does it make the keyboard more able to survive a fall?   Or does the added weight make it less able to survive a fall? (because the outside plastic shell would be smashed to bits?)

This Rosewill is very heavy.

[keyboardlover]

Indeed they are mounted to a metal plate. Interesting enough, I found that my tenkeyless Filco is heavier than my Rosewill. Never figured out if that actually said anything about the build quality of either though, in comparison (like if one is definitely better than the other).

Basically, it makes the board more stable. More willing to survive a fall though? Who knows. Drop that and a Cherry G80 off your roof and then get back to us.

[daerid]

Yes. The RK9000RE is a plate-mounted keyboard manufactured by Costar (who also does Filco, Coolermaster, and a couple others).

The plate gives the board weight, stability, and makes the keys feel quite a bit more solid. I also stabilizes the keys and dampens the acoustics of the switch. This makes plate mounted boards a bit higher in pitch than their PCB mounted siblings.

[FoxWolf1]

Plate mounting makes the switches more stable and I think (not sure) makes the keyboard more durable, by absorbing energy so you don't crack the PCB the first time you drop something heavy on the keyboard. I'm not sure whether it helps or hurts when it comes to fall damage in particular, though.

[TotalChaos]

The keys do feel solid.

I always thought heavy electronics were just wasting natural resources and being silly.  But you guys are saying this heavy steel plate is actually a good thing and not just some sort of gimmick.  Cool.

[keyboardlover]

I mean whether it's a good thing is kind of up to you at the end of the day though...some people prefer PCB-mounted boards. Depends what you need to do with the keyboard and how you are going to use it and how you like typing on it.

That being said, I think it's safe to say the majority of GHers prefer plate-mounted.

[Binge]

Plates will stabilize the switch and remove strain from the PCB.  Aluminum plates would be my choice if a manufacturer started using that metal.  Anodize those puppies and reduce the weight and the chance of rust.

[TotalChaos]

Yeah I live in Houston with our terrible 80% to 100% humidity.  So I can see the rust becoming an issue.  But it will always be indoors from now on so maybe not.  Not sure what indoor humidity levels are.

Aluminum costs more than Steel.  But it is lighter so would be cheaper to ship.  I am pretty sure the cost of Aluminum far outweighs the increased shipping costs.

If they can't even figure how to make proper keycaps or a proper USB connector or even get the right legends on the keys then I think we can forget about ever getting an Aluminum plate.

The increased weight is not an issue for my immediate use in the coding room.  But in the movie room it would be better to have a nice light keyboard as it gets passed around a lot.  The movie room keyboard gets dropped once a year from a low height.

[fohat.digs]

The weight of steel helps with resonance.

You need a monstrous beast of a keyboard on your desktop, the more massive and stable it is, the better for your fingers.

For passing around while sitting in lounge chairs, you need a small lightweight board and FORGET those flimsy retarded mini-USB connectors.

[FoxWolf1]

Another thing to keep in mind is that if your plate is too thin/flexible, the repeated flexing from heavy typing can cause switches to tear free of the PCB, taking lengths of trace with them.

Had this happen to me with a Ducky once. Very not cool.