Cherry MX Factory Tour

[Nuum]

Hi,

this was posted on a German forum and I thought, you might find it interesting, too (don't worry, it's in english):

Greetings,
Nuum

[Julle]

They say in the video Cherry wouldn't let them see the MX production line because Cherry wanted to protect "all the improvements" they've made to the Cherry MX over the years.

Someone please tear apart a switch from 20 years ago and a switch of 2014. I want to see all the improvements they made.

[Halvar]

That's not how I understood it. Newer production lines would be for new products of ZF, not for old products like Cherry MX (or their keyboards, it seems).

Nice video, thanks! I wonder if the impression of the two reporters that everything looks so overengineered at Cherry is indeed right. I guess it would look the same at the site of other switch makers all over the world, with all the testing equipment and automated production.

[beltet]

I want that laser engraver!

[andrewjoy]

I would have loved to have seen the production line for the beamspring switch.

Also make ergo clears cherry !

[scottc]

Cherry's automation is controlled by a PC running Windows XP?

WTS: All of my Cherry boards...

[Muirium]

That's how the world works. 10 years ago, the obsolete system of choice they were likely running was OS/2.

Anything interesting? Seeing those hosts made me skip around after a few seconds, as something about that presentation style gives me attention deficit disorder. I exceeded my lifetime exposure level back in the 1990s… Could someone remake this as a Swedish avant garde arthouse film? Or maybe get Mike Judge on it.

[andrewjoy]

if you run a desktop os to run automation your are doing it wrong

[Muirium]

That means NT instead of Windows 98? Got it!

[Halvar]

The most interesting information was that both their switch and keyboard manufacturing tech seem to be from the 90s and haven't changed a lot since then. No wonder they can't satisfy the switch demand in any timely manner and their switch business will be eaten by the Chinese in short time now that they really got started.

[Julle]

I think sooner or later ZF will be pressured into investing more into the whole MX business. They'll have to realize that mech boards are not just a passing fad.

[Muirium]

That better be sooner. Because there's also a clock ticking on them giving up entirely.

[andrewjoy]

That would be a shame, we still have matias and unicomp.

[webwit]

Might not turn out bad if they give up. Because they will sell the assets, probably to some Asian outfit. It would at least kick some live into the product line.

[phetto]

Awesome!