deskthority

Does the term "barrel plate" cover both the steel plate in the Model F that held the barrels, as well as the single plastic moulding in the Model M?

What is the equivalent part called in the Fujitsu Peerless — it's the same as what's in the Model M: curved plastic plate for the sliders.

Good question. Seems reasonable that it does. But the truth requires one of the real IBM mavens to chime in.

It looks like these IBM mavens might have all retired :)

Anyone?

I think that the word "barrel plate" is perfectly all right to use. Also for rubber dome keyboards.
Until we find a better word, if there is any.

Rubber dome keyboards don't have barrels, nor does the model M really (it does have cylindrical shafts, but they're not detachable). You know that webwit will crucify me if I persist mistaken terminology, despite how many people are using it ;-) At the very least, I'd like a consensus that shows that everyone agrees on the terminology.

Hmm… a shaft plate. Shaft is always a good word! But they're still barrels even if they're all one and the same plastic.

I tend to call the model F plate the "front plate", which in this case has holes in it, whereas the other one is called the back plate.

It's mostly the model M which complicates things because the barels are moulded into that part.

In that video of the keyboard factory in Greenock, the Model F front plate is indeed referred to as a "front plate". In the days gone by, I used to call it an "upper assembly" which was just confusing in hindsight.

In the absence of anything better to call it, I'd probably call the Model M's one a front plate too. Unless of course I dig out that paper which describes the construction of the Model M from the recesses of my hard drive, in which case we may get a clarification...

I've decided to keep out of this one :) I was hoping to get a widespread discussion/consensus, and without that, I don't feel that I'm in a position to define terminology for a product I don't understand. The only term I see mentioned is "barrel plate", which is not defined on the wiki — I figured I could add it, but IBM is most definitely not my area at all.

Metal curved baseplate from cickykeyboard!
http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cf ... /id/573994

That's a different part. Pressure membrane keyboards need to be kept perfectly flat and taut, so you always have a flat (but possibly curved and flat, if that makes sense) plate underneath the membrane layers. It may be metal or plastic.