Buttons and Touchscreens

"Don't play with my knobs!" ≠ "Don't push my buttons!"

In some situations the process operators are required to wear gloves. Ever tried a touch screen in gloves?

Other situations the process operators hands are dirty/greasy and the touch screen quickly becomes soiled. Some screen suppliers have peel-off film that can be replaced at regular intervals to protect the screen surface, other suppliers do not. (Allen Bradley take note!!!)

This does not only apply to dirty industries. Some food/pharma processing situations have similar problems.

Screen durability in the above cases is a major concern, but touch screen life in ideal conditions does not come close to the life of the average process plant. Until touch screens are produced with a working life of 10-15 years, their advantages will be outweighed by their short life. With lost production typically running at $5K to $20K per hour, reliability is paramount. It takes about four hours to replace, configure, and upload the program to a screen (assuming your model has not gone obsolete in the two years since you installed it). Any cost/time savings during installation are lost the first time a screen goes down.

Have to agree about life of touchscreens - if they last 5 years its a miracle whetever make it is.

We have to use hard wired switches for ESD systems because of reliabilty issues.

Yes, everything is obsolete, and you and I are too. Pretty soon, the entire device will be completely robotic to the extent you tell it what to do, and where to collect the sample, or where to stab the probe, and it will take over from there, and do it 100,000 times per day.

I have a stockpile of 2000 dollar digital refrigerators, washers, dryers, and many other appliances that the common man cannot afford to fix and pay the bill for the parts much less the repair. Business is not bad, we have priced ourselves out of business.