FEATURE DISPLAYS & UIS
MAN MACHINE INTERFACE ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE
now – as users feel much more engaged if they control a system through the screen. Where the usage environment means that touch isn’t possible, a good alternative is to use flexible buttons alongside the screen. Manufacturers like Anders can provide oversized screens which allow the buttons to be inset onto the screen area itself.
SUNLIGHT READABILITY A few customers manufacturing handheld instruments are still specifying monochrome displays, even so. The reason is power consumption and sunlight readability. In bright conditions, the backlight on a colour display needs to be turned right up whereas a reflective monochrome display can actually use the ambient light to improve readability. The best solution to improving sunlight
Paul Mullen, Sales Director at, Anders Electronics considers how industrial displays are outperforming their consumer counterparts with the latest technology, evolving the man machine interface
T
raditionally, the industrial electronics display world lags behind the volume
commercial market by about 18 months, but this time lag is shrinking. It is probably just six or nine months now. That said, there is still a lag – but it is there for a reason. Industrial electronic displays can cope with a far harder life, last longer and are kept on the market for much longer than their volume consumer equivalents. Nevertheless, it is inevitable that the
smartphone and tablet market will set the bar for systems designers and industrial users alike in terms of appearance. We are now seeing customers showing interest in higher resolution displays with IPS like (IPAD2) optical performances. The trend is now for smartphone displays to get bigger rather than smaller, which means that production lines for the smaller 4.3” sizes and below are increasingly being turned to producing larger sizes. In this context, how should a designer approach specifying a display for their user interface? The starting point is how is the system going to be used? Who is using it, what for, and where?
10 OCTOBER 2014 | ELECTRONICS
GRAPHICS ARE HERE TO STAY As a general rule, for new projects, a graphics display is now a must have feature – especially for global applications where different character sets need to be accommodated. Since graphics displays come in a relatively small number of standard sizes, the move to TFT has led to a lot of products looking relatively similar. A key challenge is differentiating the appearance of a system when using a standard display size. Until now, the cost of manufacturing a custom size has been uneconomic for most industrial applications, but it is possible to get displays cut down to a ‘letterbox’ format at relatively modest cost, giving a drop in replacement for a character LCD module. AndersDX is now able to cut standard small format TFT displays to a specified height. A good example is rack mounted equipment. A standard TFT screen is too high to fit into a 1U rack case. The new semi-custom service based is on standard 4.3” and 2.8” colour TFT displays, which can be cut to a specified height to suit the space available. A touch screen too, is almost essential
Figure 1:
Industrial equipment is now being designed with the same level of HMI consideration as consumer devices
readability is optical bonding, a well- established technology which dramatically reduces the reflections in displays by eliminating air gaps between the layers using an optically matched filler adhesive. Using this technique, reflections can be reduced from 13.5 percent of the incident light to just 0.2 percent. This makes a huge difference to readability, especially in brightly lit and outdoor environments. Optical bonding also prevents condensation and improves mechanical shock resistance. Whilst in the past this technique was only economic in volume, new flexible manufacturing processes are allowing optical bonding to be offered on displays of 2.8” to 23.6” sizes with a very low minimum order quantity. Budget is almost always a challenge, but designers should resist the temptation to source low cost displays on the spot market. The quality and appearance of the display is central to the user’s experience of your product, and you absolutely need to take care that this component is of a consistent high standard. Good quality industrial displays from reputable manufacturers are offered with guaranteed availability, whereas low cost consumer displays are often in production for as little as six months before the design or specification is changed.
Anders Electronics
www.andersdx.com 020 7388 7171
Enter 201 / ELECTRONICS
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