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iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard
Designed for industrial and rugged environments, the iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard offers a compact 17-key design with robust waterproof sealing and industrial-grade silicone rubber construction. Its Force Sensing Resistor pointing device and multi-level red backlighting support accurate and efficient input in low-light and electrically noisy settings. Compliant with NEMA 4X for dust and water ingress and MIL-STD-461E for electromagnetic interference resistance, it maintains reliable performance under vibration and shock.
The keyboard operates within a temperature range of -20 C to +55 C, suitable for continuous-duty deployment. Its tactile feedback and mechanical snap keys ensure precision and minimise input errors in challenging conditions, while compatibility with Windows and Macintosh systems via USB simplifies integration. At 64.77mm by 69.85mm and weighing only 0.034kg, it fits wearable or portable applications requiring sealed, field-ready input devices.
KYB-170-OEM Features
- Integrated LED Backlighting
- Integrated Fsr Pointing Device
- Slim, Compact Design
- USBconfigurations Available
- Various Keyboard and Language Layout Options
- Customisation Available On Request
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Product Type
Manufacturer
Certifications & Standards
CE, FCC, IP66, MIL-STD-461G, NEMA 4X
Ruggedness
IP Rating
Mounting Format
Country Of Manufacture
United States
Backlight
Red
Case Material
No Case
Custom Options Products
Keyboard Layout,Keyboard Language,Cable Type,Cable Length,Interface
Dimensions
2.55" x 2.75" x 0.22" (w-h-d) 64.77mm x 69.85mm x 5.59mm
Housing Colour
Black
Humidity
100% Humidity Resistant (when properly installed)
Cable
DESIGN: Single Cable USB
Compatibility
USB: All Windows and Macintosh OS
Flammability
PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD: 94 VO SILICONE OVERLAY: 94HB INTERFACE CABLE: 94 VO
Function Keys
24 Keys
Key Feedback
Tactile with Mechanical Snap
Key Material
Industrial Silicone Rubber
Key Switch
MATERIAL: Industrial Silicone Rubber LIFE: Greater than 10 Million Cycles TRAVEL: 0.055 in. ACTUATION FORCE: 230 g (+/-30 g) FEEDBACK: Tactile with Mechanical Snap
Lifespan
>10 Million Actuations
No. Of Keys
17
Pointing Device
Force Sensing Resistor
Power
USB: 170mA@5V (from CPU port)
Product Weight
0.10 lbs (0.034 kg)
Shock
3 x 11 ms Pulses of 50g on each of 3 Axes
Switch Force
230 g (+/-30 g)
Switch / Key Travel
0.055 in (1.4mm)
Vibration
POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY: 0.04g/Hz FREQUENCY RANGE: 20Hz - 2 kHz DURATION OF TEST PER AXIS: 3 hours
Shock
3 x 11 ms Pulses of 50g on each of 3 Axes
Temperature Rating
STORAGE: -35C to +85C OPERATING: -20C to +55C
The iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard is designed and engineered for use in demanding environments where reliability, durability are essential. The KYB-170-OEM supports a wide range of industries and operational applications.
Common deployment industries include: Defence And Military, Emergency Services, Energy and Utilities, Industrial Manufacturing, Marine And Offshore, Oil and Gas, Rail And Transport, Security And Surveillance.
Across these sectors, the KYB-170-OEM is typically used in applications such as Industrial HMI And Machine Interfacing, Mobile Workforce Operations, Secure Communications And Command-And-Control, Wearable And Body-Mounted Computing.
These examples demonstrate the versatility of the KYB-170-OEM across both industry sectors and real-world operational use cases. Its suitability extends well beyond the scenarios listed above, making it a flexible solution for a broad range of requirements.
For further information, or to assess whether the KYB-170-OEM is appropriate for your specific application, please contact us.
The iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard comes with a 90 Day Limited Warranty against defects in workmanship and materials, effective from the date of shipment (unless otherwise agreed in writing).
To receive service under this warranty, the eligible product, iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard, must be presented to RUGGED in the United Kingdom.
For more information about the iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard or to arrange repairs and services not covered by the warranty, please visit the warranty section on our website.
Do you need further details about the iKey KYB-170-OEM Rugged Keyboard, or would you like to discuss a customised solution or demonstration?
At RUGGED, we recognise that every project has its own unique demands. If you have any questions about the iKey KYB-170-OEM or need a custom Rugged Keyboard solution designed specifically for you, our team of technical experts are ready to assist you.
Alternative Products
Explore alternative products offering comparable features, performance, and build quality to the model you are currently viewing.
Our related solutions provide variations in configuration, functionality, and form factor to suit different application requirements. Each option has been selected to meet the same high standards of reliability and performance.
Browse the related products below to identify the most suitable fit for your deployment.
DU-5K-OEM
- NEMA 4X dust and water protection
- Tactile mechanical snap keys rated for 10 million actuations
- MIL-STD-810G shock and vibration compliance
- Integrated HulaPoint II pointing device

SL-86-911-OEM-FSR
- Sealed housing rated NEMA 4X for liquid and dust resistance
- Force sensing resistor pointing device reduces footprint
- Tactile mechanical snap keys with 10 million cycles lifespan
- Shock and vibration tested to MIL-STD-810G standards

SLP-88-461
- Sealed silicone rubber overlay
- MIL-STD-461 EMI compliance
- NEMA 4X waterproof and dustproof
- Backlit keys for low-light use

SLK-77-M
- Sealed NEMA 4X construction
- Red LED backlit keys
- Vibration and shock resistant
- Over 10 million key actuations

Having trouble finding what you're looking for?
Selecting the correct solution for your specific application and operating environment requires careful consideration.
At Rugged, our engineering and product specialists can advise on specifications, environmental suitability, mounting requirements, connectivity, and lifecycle planning to ensure the right fit for your deployment.
With extensive industry experience and a focus on reliability and performance, we help you select a solution aligned with your operational requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
RUGGED offers free technical support for the lifetime of products you purchase. This includes help with setup, troubleshooting, and integration. Support is available online or directly from the technical team
Rugged Limited provides a range of rugged keyboards designed to withstand challenging industrial environments, including those found on forklifts and heavy machinery. These keyboards are built to be extremely durable, offering resistance to liquids, dust, and extreme temperatures, which are common conditions in such operational settings.
The design of many rugged keyboard models includes features that facilitate easy integration into various industrial setups. This often involves robust casings and adaptable mounting solutions, ensuring a secure and stable fit even with vibrations or impacts inherent to machinery operation. Their resilience makes them a reliable interface for data entry and control in demanding applications. Rugged Limited’s extensive experience ensures these keyboards meet the rigorous demands of industrial use.
Rugged Limited specialises in providing industrial-grade input solutions, including rugged keyboards, designed to operate reliably in challenging conditions. These keyboards are built to withstand elements such as extreme temperatures, dust, dirt, liquids, and heavy usage, which are common causes of failure for standard peripherals.
By preventing premature failure and reducing the need for frequent replacements or repairs, a rugged keyboard inherently contributes to less operational downtime. Their robust construction ensures consistent performance, enabling uninterrupted work in industries where reliability is paramount. Rugged Limited’s keyboards are engineered for longevity and resilience, giving businesses peace of mind and supporting continuous operations.
Explore Rugged Limited’s range of rugged keyboards to find a solution that meets your specific industrial needs and helps minimise downtime.
Rugged keyboards are an excellent choice for control rooms, where reliability and durability are paramount. These environments often require equipment that can endure continuous use and potential exposure to dust or spills without compromising performance.
Specifically designed with robust materials, a rugged keyboard offers superior protection compared to standard keyboards. This resilience ensures that critical operations in control rooms can proceed uninterrupted, even in challenging conditions. Rugged Limited provides a range of these specialized input devices, built to meet the rigorous demands of such settings, ensuring long-lasting functionality and consistent performance.
Absolutely, rugged keyboards are engineered to be highly compatible and functional with kiosks and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). These environments often require input devices that can withstand continuous use, potential spills, dust, and even vandalism. Rugged Limited provides a range of rugged keyboard solutions that are purpose-built to meet these stringent demands.
Our rugged keyboards feature durable construction, often including stainless steel or silicone, and are designed to offer protection against liquids and particulates. This makes them an ideal choice for public-access kiosks, industrial control panels, and other HMI applications where standard keyboards would quickly fail. The robust design ensures consistent performance and a long operational lifespan, reducing maintenance needs and improving user experience in challenging settings.
Rugged Limited understands the importance of customisation and efficiency in demanding environments, which is why several of their rugged keyboard models are designed with programmable keys. This feature allows users to assign specific functions, macros, or shortcuts to individual keys, tailoring the keyboard to their unique operational needs and workflows. The flexibility offered by a
rugged keyboard
with programmable keys can significantly enhance productivity and ease of use in various industrial, public service, and specialized applications where rapid and precise input is critical. This commitment to adaptable and robust input solutions ensures that professionals can achieve optimal performance even in challenging conditions.
Rugged Limited offers a range of durable keyboards specifically engineered to meet the stringent requirements of cleanroom settings. These rugged keyboard solutions are often fully sealed and easy to clean, preventing the accumulation of dust and contaminants crucial for maintaining cleanroom protocols.
Our industrial keyboards are built with materials and designs that can withstand harsh cleaning agents and frequent sanitization without compromising performance or integrity. This makes them an ideal rugged keyboard choice for pharmaceutical, medical, and other controlled environments where hygiene and reliability are paramount.
Rugged Limited understands the importance of versatility in industrial and demanding environments. That’s why our range of rugged keyboards is designed to accommodate global users by supporting multiple language layouts. This means that whether you require a keyboard with a UK, US, German, French, or another specific language layout, Rugged Limited can provide a solution tailored to your operational requirements.
This adaptability in language options ensures that users worldwide can operate our durable keyboards efficiently and comfortably, without compromising on the ruggedness and reliability that our products are known for. When sourcing a rugged keyboard, it’s important to specify your language layout needs to ensure the best fit for your application.
Rugged Limited provides a range of rugged keyboards specifically engineered to meet the demanding requirements of military applications. These keyboards are designed to withstand extreme temperatures, vibrations, shocks, and exposure to dust and liquids, making them ideal for deployment in challenging operational environments.
Our rugged keyboards feature robust casings, often manufactured from stainless steel or aluminum, and incorporate sealed keypads to prevent ingress of contaminants. Many models also include features like adjustable backlighting for use in varying light conditions, and some are night vision compatible, which is crucial for covert operations. The design prioritises reliability and consistent performance, ensuring that critical data entry functions remain operational when they are needed most.
Furthermore, the durability of a rugged keyboard from Rugged Limited ensures a longer product lifespan and reduced maintenance, offering a cost-effective solution for military organisations seeking dependable input devices.

iKey is a US manufacturer that specialises exclusively in rugged input devices: sealed keyboards, keypads and pointing devices built for harsh and mission-critical environments. Rather than spreading across many product types, iKey concentrates on industrial-grade human interface hardware, which is reflected in its deep catalogue of desktop, panel mount, mobile mount, rackmount and OEM keyboards. Its products are engineered around sealed silicone rubber keys, reinforced housings and certifications such as IP66, NEMA 4X and MIL-STD-810G. This focus makes iKey a recognised choice for defence, emergency services, industrial manufacturing, marine and offshore, oil and gas, and other sectors where standard keyboards quickly fail.
iKey ruggedises its keyboards through sealed construction and durable materials rather than added covers. Keys use industrial silicone rubber with a dust-sealed overlay, giving tactile mechanical-snap feedback and a rated life exceeding 10 million actuations. Housings are typically ABS polycarbonate or stainless steel for impact and corrosion resistance. Many models are sealed to IP65, IP66, IP67 or IP68 and meet NEMA 4X for protection against dust and liquid ingress. iKey keyboards are also tested to MIL-STD-810G for shock and vibration, with models such as the SL-86-911 withstanding 50g shock pulses and operating across wide temperature ranges. This combination supports continuous-duty use in vehicles, control rooms and industrial settings.
iKey is known for sealed, industrial-grade rugged keyboards and pointing devices designed to keep working where consumer hardware fails. Its reputation rests on durable silicone rubber keys rated beyond 10 million actuations, sealed ABS polycarbonate and stainless steel housings, and certifications including IP66, NEMA 4X and MIL-STD-810G for shock and vibration. iKey is also recognised for its breadth: desktop, panel mount, mobile mount, rackmount, wearable and OEM formats, with options for backlighting, integrated pointing devices and hazardous-area protection. This makes the brand a frequent specification in defence, emergency services, industrial manufacturing, oil and gas, marine and offshore, and similar demanding sectors.
Yes. iKey produces dedicated keyboards for hazardous and explosive atmospheres. The BT-870-TP-EX2, for example, is rated for ATEX Zone 2 and 22 use, sealed to IP67 and NEMA 4X, and tested to MIL-STD-810G. iKey also offers intrinsically safe (IS) models such as the DT-1000-IS, which uses a stainless steel enclosure, optical isolation and separate bulkhead cables and is certified for Factory Mutual Class I, II and III hazardous zones, along with non-incendive (NI) variants. These options suit oil and gas, offshore operations, chemical, pharmaceutical and mining environments. Always confirm the specific certification on the chosen model, as ratings differ between IS, NI and ATEX variants.
Yes. iKey offers an extensive range of backlit rugged keyboards, identifiable by SLK and SLP model families, with backlighting integrated beneath the sealed silicone overlay rather than added externally. Standard backlighting is typically red, and some models such as the SLK-101-8L provide multiple adjustable lighting levels. For night-vision operations, iKey produces NVIS-compatible green backlit models, including the AK-39-NV wearable keyboard, which combines a green NVIS backlight with several adjustable brightness levels. Backlit options span desktop, panel mount, mobile mount and OEM formats, making iKey well suited to low-light control rooms, vehicle cabs, defence and emergency-services deployments where key visibility is essential without compromising the sealed, rugged design.
Yes. iKey has substantial OEM and custom capability and maintains a dedicated OEM range covering panel mount keyboards, keypads and trackballs. Many standard products are also available in OEM versions for integration into larger systems and enclosures. Customisation options recorded across the catalogue include keyboard and keypad layout, language, backlight colour, cable type and length, interface, custom logo, and epoxy or PU key coatings. iKey also produces device-specific snap-on keyboards, such as the IK-PAN-FZG1 series that latches directly onto Panasonic FZG1 tablets, and the IK-SAM-AT for Samsung. This flexibility makes iKey a practical partner for integrators and manufacturers needing input hardware tailored to a specific platform or application.
iKey builds its keyboards from materials chosen for sealing, durability and environment. Most housings use ABS polycarbonate for impact resistance and dust sealing, while models intended for corrosive, wash-down or hazardous settings, such as the DT-102-SS and DT-1000-IS, use stainless steel enclosures. Keys are made from industrial silicone rubber with a dust-sealed overlay, providing tactile mechanical-snap feedback and a rated life exceeding 10 million actuations. Some snap-on models use magnesium alloy housings with carbon-contact key technology. iKey also offers optional epoxy or PU key coatings for additional wear resistance. These material choices underpin the brand’s IP66, NEMA 4X and MIL-STD-810G performance across continuous-duty deployments.
A buyer chooses iKey when a standard keyboard would not survive the environment or the duty cycle. iKey keyboards are sealed against dust and liquids to ratings such as IP66, IP67 and IP68 with NEMA 4X, tested to MIL-STD-810G for shock and vibration, and built with silicone rubber keys rated beyond 10 million actuations. The range covers specialist needs that consumer hardware cannot meet: ATEX and intrinsically safe hazardous-area models, NVIS green night-vision backlighting, wide operating temperatures, and integrated pointing devices such as HulaPoint, FSR, touchpad or trackball. With desktop, panel mount, mobile mount, rackmount and OEM formats plus extensive customisation, iKey gives engineers a single, durable input solution for defence, industrial, marine and emergency-services use.








