Key Mechanical history

The major change in design came when in 1961; IBM introduced the IBM Selectric typewriter.

In 1964, Bell Labs and M.I.T. created the MULTICS computer, a time-sharing, multi-user system with VDT, a video display terminal.

However, they started making keyboards in 1967, and are still doing so to this day, lending credence to their claim of being the oldest keyboard manufacturers still in business.

In 1975 Key Mechanical opened up shop just south of Seattle in Kent, Washington.

Buckling spring switches, colloquially known as BS switches, were invented by Richard Hunter Harris and were later patented by IBM in 1977.

The Selectric typewriters were in production till 1980 when the era of computers was on the rise.

In a 1981 Chicago Tribune piece, Walter Cherry noted that his company was supplying Ford and other companies with switches for air conditioners, power locks, and power windows.

The simplified Dvorak layout was slightly modified and adjusted over the years and finally solidified in 1982.

The keyboard was used on the first computer at UCLA. Made from Alps Electric, and first introduced in 1983.

Bob and Lee, looking to retire from the business, found a successor in Frank Leonard, who became President and CEO in 1990, while the Southern California divisions were passed on to different successors.

Walter Cherry, who had gained a reputation as a strong manager and a shrewd investor in the global market during the early days of the company, moved back into research and development in the years before his 1996 passing.

In 1998 Key Mechanical opened a new location in Portland, Oregon to meet the needs of this expanding market.

Throughout the 2000’s, there was a flurry of merger and acquisition activity in the refrigeration industry.

After expanding to Oregon, Key looked to California and in 2002 opened a new branch in Livermore, California.

In 2005, the company, which grew many international arms over the years, was producing 80 percent of the electrical switches in European automobiles.

While the firm was very much a family business at the time he died, with Cherry’s son Peter serving as chairman, it eventually morphed into its current keyboard-focused form thanks to a 2008 merger.

However, they reappeared in 2010 and have since been the go-to keyboard switches for gamers, professionals, and casual consumers.

While Alps are no longer producing keyboard switches, having stopped in 2012, they had been produced en masse for nearly twenty years.

And since Cherry’s patent expired in 2014, there has been a boom in mechanical switch brands in the past couple of years.

In 2015, the company’s computer input business, built around the Cherry MX, was responsible for more than €80 million ($94 million) in sales.

The old switch and sensor business, producing devices used in areas as diverse as automobiles, vending machines, and power tools, still lives on, with ZF Friedrichshafen keeping that business line but rechristening it under the ZF brand name in 2016.

In 2020 Key Mechanical returned to Southern California and opened a new branch in Chino, California.