Industrial panel PC with touch screen
(by Kirk Linsky)

noax Technologies is a Germany-based developer and manufacturer of industrial touch panel PCs with offices in Europe and the United States. The company, which makes its own proprietary all-in-one motherboards, has many years of experience in the development and production of completely sealed industrial touch panel PCs without external fans. The panels are designed to be resistant to heat, cold, moisture, dust, vibration, shock, acids and detergents.

The P15 Industrial PC is part of the noax Panel Series. It measures 16.6 x 12.2 x 3.8 inches and weighs about 15 pounds. It is a completely sealed system that can be mounted in control panels or switching cabinets. The P15 has a tough aluminum body with a polished stainless steel front plate and a 15" XGA resolution TFT display with integrated resistive analog touch panel and automatic brightness control. The touch screen allows for simple operation via custom software applications. A standard power supply or DC/DC converters are used to allow for diverse power supply conditions.

Heavy-duty connector locks and the absence of failure-prone components protect the P15 industrial computer against extreme mechanical stresses and environmental factors such as vibration, shock, dust or wetness. Sealing is either IP54 or IP65, depending on the connection cover used.

The P15 can be ordered with one of two noax-designed motherboards using either a 1GHz Intel Celeron M or a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor, has a wealth of on-board interfaces including four USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, digital video,, optional WiFi, and easy expandability through free standard slots that permit integration of various peripheral devices like transponders, chipcard readers or barcode scanners. Easy integration of various peripherals make the P15 with its large display suitable for use in many areas of industrial production and logistics that require more power and connectivity than the smaller P8 and P12 panels.

A special Micro-Controller is standard in all noax industrial PCs. It performs a variety of monitoring, controlling, and statistical tasks such as temperature control, backlight control, or counting operating hours, and it can be adapted to customer requirements. noax also uses a proprietary touch controller for automatic panel control and readjustment.