Unicomp

Unicomp, Inc

Type	Private
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	Lexington, Kentucky, USA April 1996 (1996-04)
Headquarters	Lexington, KY, USA
Products	Keyboards
Website	PCKeyboard.com

Near-view from the side of a black Unicomp SpaceSaver 104 (UNI0P4A) keyboard.

Unicomp is a manufacturer of computer keyboards and keyboard accessories. The company is based in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.

History

Unicomp was founded in April 1996 when they purchased the license, tooling and the rights to the design for the buckling-spring keyboard technology (the technology behind the famous IBM Model M and many other keyboards) from Lexmark International, Inc.

Products

Unicomp's product line historically consists mostly of IBM or Lexmark-originated designs, or slight modifications of those designs. For example, Unicomp's Classic (formerly called Customizer) 101 is essentially a renaming of IBM's 42H1292 (a later variant of IBM's Model M) keyboard, with the same non-detachable cable, drain holes in case of beverage spillage, and built on the same machines as the original. Other than the manufacturer's logo, the only changes to the Classic 101 from IBM's 42H1292 are the additional option of a black-colored case with lighter-gray keys and availability of the keyboard with a USB cable. A lighter variant of the Unicomp Classic containing thirty percent less plastic is sold under the name Ultra Classic (formerly called SpaceSaver). A variant of the Ultra Classic, still sold under its former name as the SpaceSaver M, is intended for Macintosh computers as a buckling-spring replacement for the laptop-style Apple Keyboard. Special requests are also handled, at additional cost.

Recently, Unicomp has begun expanding their product line. Due to customer demand showing that this was no longer a special request, Unicomp now sells beige, black, and colored key caps, with printing and without. In addition, Unicomp sells replacement parts for older IBM/Lexmark keyboards, and will repair just about any keyboard manufactured by themselves, IBM, or Lexmark.

Production

Unicomp's entire product line is manufactured in the United States at their Lexington factory, and include an 18-month warranty, except for the Value Plus/SK-720C and SK-7500 wireless, which are manufactured by contract manufacturer SiliTek, a division of the Taiwanese peripheral manufacturer LiteON.

Unicomp's products can be purchased at their online shop or by telephone. In addition, Unicomp offers custom design services which allow consumers to special order modified variants of existing keyboards with custom coloration (color scheme) and/or layout (e.g. AZERTY or DVORAK).

Gallery

From top to bottom: IBM Model M Square Logo 1390131 (1986), Unicomp Spacesaver M UNIZPHA (2011), IBM Model M Space Saving 1392934 (1991)
Unicomp Classic 104 (UNI044A) keyboard, manufactured April 23, 2012.
Unicomp SpaceSaver 104 (UNI0P4A) keyboard, manufactured March 10, 2010.
Unicomp Model-M with removed z key. Visible the exposed buckling spring.
Unicomp Model M exchange key caps for a Apple keyboard layout: Option and Command key.
Backside of a Unicomp UNI0P46 built 2005, repaired 2009.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, September 28, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.