Brother Industries
Contents
Overview
Brother Industries, Ltd. (Japanese: ブラザー工業株式会社) is a Japanese manufacturer, founded in 1908.
Keyboards
Identification
Brother seldom if ever produced keyboards for off-the-shelf purchase, and it is possible that they did not even have any reference models. Brother keyboards were custom-produced for keyboard and typewriter manufacturers and for their own typewriters. In some cases, the Brother name appears inside, but quite often it does not. Examination of various keyboards suggests several ways that Brother can be confirmed as the manufacturer.
The UL file number E57888 and the CSA file numbers LR53866 and LR94080 appear to represent Brother keyboard products, and can be used to identify Brother as the manufacturer without opening the keyboard. (Although these codes are generally only known from IBM keyboards, they also appear on a single Unisys keyboard that appears to corroborate the theory that these codes represent Brother and not IBM Japan.)
Membrane keyboards may have the Brother logo present on the membranes. The presence of the logo is not necessary for identification, as the PCBs and membranes use a distinctive part number format that can be used as identification instead. In rare cases, a 556-series code is included on the outside of the keyboard.
Examples
| Keyboard | Switch type | Brother code | Membrane/PCB code | Date | Brother branding | Reference | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM RT keyboard | 556-712-01 | ca. 1985 | — | Bitsavers | Appears to be an IBM 6298389 with different labelling | ||
| IBM 6298389 | Brother capacitive dome over PCB | B48U077-2 (PCB) | 1985-03-25 | — | Flickr | PCB also marked GCMK-81X (certification?) and KB-77-3 | |
| Unisys PCK101-KBD | Rubber dome over membrane | 556-352 | B48J240-1 (PCB) B48J241-1-A B48J241-1-B |
ca. 1991 | Membranes | Flickr | FCC ID B3QPC101 |
| IBM 79F0167 | Brother buckling spring | B48J243-3 (PCB) | ca. 1992 | — | Flickr | ||
| IBM 6247440 | Rubber dome over membrane | B508195-3-A B508195-3-B |
1994-04-14 (PCB) | Membranes | Deskthority |