DIFFERENT ASPECTS WHEN USING GLASS PANELS
In part 2 of my blog article on the topic of capacitive operating solutions today, I particularly want to deal with the aspects of design, hygiene, environmental effects and haptics.
Aspect II: Hygiene
The issue of cleaning and hygiene is very important for many of our customers. This is particularly true in times where there is an increased risk of infection – e.g. in regular flu epidemics or the Covid-19 pandemic at the moment. The clear goal is to avoid as many sources of danger as possible to prevent infection. It is important here that the necessary hygiene and disinfection measures, which are predefined for the relevant areas, can provide their maximum effect.
Operating panels made of glass and their options have a clear advantage, particularly in this respect.
Glass is basically an extremely robust material. IP protection ratings on the front are no problem. Its resistance to cleaning and disinfectant agents is excellent, as the design print is normally located on the rear.
The smooth, enclosed surface is, firstly, not prone to any dirt – and, secondly, it is possible to clean it easily without any “dirt-collecting edges”, with just one wipe, as it were.
Integrating a capacitive operating panel within a work surface can be a good solution here too. It is even sensible to use the space for other purposes, if the keyboard is switched off and not being used.
However, the glass may still break, which is a major disadvantage. Even if we use hardened glass, which has better properties in this regard, breakage cannot be fully ruled out. Alternatively, it is possible to use materials like acrylic glass (also known as Plexiglass®), polycarbonate (also known as Markrolon®, Lexan®) or Corian®, if their properties are suitable.
There is absolutely no doubt that a glass input panel is clean and hygienic!
Aspect I: Design
The issue of design is both exciting and very complex, in my view. The “new” surface involving glass as an operating element opens up a wealth of design options and is therefore completely in line with the latest trend. Who does not think that a high-class glass panel is stylish?
Developers have to consider several parameters material:
- The material thickness
- The printing
- The glass processing
- The shape and size of the operating elements
A smooth, transparent material provides an incentive to play with colors and shapes. There is a great deal of freedom when designing operating panels.
The shape of the keys in each case emerges from the interplay of the geometry of the key element and the printing of the cover material, which normally takes place on the rear. If there is already set hardware available for the key surfaces, the print design can still be adapted to a certain degree in terms of the shape of the keys, colors (CI) and logos.
This saves costs for hardware development and the necessary certification – e.g. EMC. The design of the key surfaces themselves is much freer than when using predefined mechanical keys too.
Aspect III: Environmental effects
A capacitive keypad is naturally exposed to a wide variety of environmental factors too.
The challenge here involves ensuring that keys are not triggered by a defined amount of force applied to the key, as on classic keyboards, but through activating an electric field via a change of capacity.
This particularly applies when it comes to water on the keyboard.
>> Side note: Did you know that 75% of muscle tissue consists of water? <<
Even our fingers, which we use to operate the keys, largely consist of water.
It is therefore not that easy to recognize what is actually next to or on a key.
This includes residual moisture from cleaning procedures, for example.
Depending on the usage, there are various ways of minimizing these effects. They include recalibration if particular variables change, key debouncing times or certain algorithms when assessing the key parameters and switch-off functions for cleaning.
However, there is still one huge advantage … there are simply no crumbs in the keyboard or it does not give up the ghost because a cup of coffee has been spilt on it.
Capacitive glass operating panel
Industrial panel PC
