OREANDA-NEWS. Alps Electric has developed the "SKTH Series" TACT Switch(tm), ideal for automotive electronics such as keyless entry systems and car audio systems. Mass production is already underway.

Automobiles today are equipped with a wide range of functions contributing to vehicle comfort and safety, such as remote door opening and closing, and music playback. To ensure the reliability of these functions, the automotive systems enabling them need to be both dust-resistant and robust.

Reliability is an especially important market requirement. Countermeasures to dust, in particular, not only improve reliability during use, but also help to prevent failure caused early on due to particles infiltrating products during system assembly. This makes it essential that components themselves are dust resistant.

In response to these market needs, Alps Electric has developed and commenced mass production of the SKTH Series TACT Switch(tm). The SKTH Series employs metal contacts whose shape and material were optimized using mechanical design and material technology built up by Alps Electric over many years. These metal contacts, combined with an original sealed contact structure, realize both an excellent operating feel and an IP6x dust resistance rating.

Furthermore, optimizing part materials and the internal structure has ensured high strength. High durability, even when pushed sideways, was realized along with a long operating life of 200,000 cycles, twice as long as the life of earlier models.

Available with an operating force of 1.4N or 3N, and a stem length of 1.8mm or 2.5mm, the SKTH Series joins models like the SKRP and SKSG Series in Alps Electric's TACT Switch(tm) lineup for the automotive market. By expanding the product variety, Alps Electric meets size, dust resistance and other diverse requirements of the market.