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Metal contact switch
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===Contact material=== Gold is frequently chosen as the contact material. One would assume that this is to prevent switch failure through oxidisation, as it would only take a tiny amount of oxidisation to disrupt the low current that passes through switches. Typically, the gold is applied as a plating, as noted in the specifications for [[GRI KBM]], [[MEI T-5 series]] and [[Datanetics DC-50 series]] switches. [[Hi-Tek Dovetail Series]] switches use contacts inlaid with gold alloy, while [[Datanetics DC-60 series]] switch contacts are inlaid with gold (which in reality is likely to also be gold alloy). Switch contacts can also be solid gold alloy. Cherry noted in 1979 that [[Cherry gold crosspoint]] switches used a solid prism of 69% gold, 25% silver and 6% platinum for the contacts. [[Cherry M8]] offered a choice of contact materials from AuAg26Ni3 (gold, silver and nickel), AgPd30 (silver and palladium, without gold) and AuAg10 (gold and silver). It has been noted that the use of gold for contacts reduces bounce. [[MEI Sabrecoil]] used silver contacts instead of gold, and this was noted as increasing the maximum bounce time. 'More expensive keyboards often use gold contacts to reduce bounce. Sabrecoil uses a specially coated silver plate contact that is "almost as good as gold" but allows a reduction in cost.'
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