Touch-screen PC for food processing

IP65-rated industrial PCs can also be supplied with custom stainless steel enclosures

Hoffmann + Krippner has developed a family of 10.4-inch touch-screen industrial PCs that meet the needs of modern food processing environments. Models in the flex-IPC® M series allow for rapid and easy front panel replacement and support cost-effective panel customisation in order volumes as low as just 20 units. Further flexibility comes from their ability to provide the custom, stainless steel enclosures demanded by the food processing industry.

The open architecture flex-IPC® M series comprises three robust and durable panel PCs with front panels based on Hoffmann + Krippner’s innovative membrane input technology. This technology ensures IP65/NEMA compliance, making the PCs ideal for environments requiring protection from moisture and liquids and where front panels need to be regularly washed down and cleaned. Removal and replacement of the front panel is simple (involving just a few screws) and front panels can be customised in accordance with customer requirements. Options include addition of company branding and logos, specification of colour schemes and labelling of individual keys to specific requirements.

Featuring 49 function keys and an integrated alphanumeric keypad, flex-IPC M industrial PCs combine a 10.4-inch resistive touch-screen with extensive I/O connectivity and a variety of processor and memory configurations. This touch screen panel PC family is made up of the flex-IPC M ‘Basic’, Flex-IPC M ‘Advanced’ and flex-IPC M ‘Power’ models. Based on a 500MHz AMD Geode LX processor and with a power consumption of just 5W, the Basic model is optimised to deliver an excellent power/performance ratio. The flex-IPC M Advanced is a high-performance system built around an Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz and the flex-IPC M Power model uses an AMD Mobile Athlon Neo L325 dual core processor and combines high performance with scalability. Both the Basic and Advanced models are supplied with Microsoft WinCE 6.0, while the Power model comes with Microsoft Windows 7.

Standard system memory configurations for the new industrial touch-screen panel PCs are 512MB for the Basic model and 1GB for the Advanced and Power models. The flex-IPC M Basic and flex-IPC M Advanced feature 2GB of solid state Flash storage, rising to 16GB for the Power option. Depending on the specific model connectivity options include Ethernet and Gbit Ethernet ports, internal mini-PCI connections, RS-232 and RS-485/422/232 ports and up to two USB 2.0 interfaces. All models feature audio line in/out.

As well as offering options for full turnkey front panel design the new flex-IPC M series can also be used in conjunction with the flex-IPC EasyLabel system. Using Microsoft Word templates that can be downloaded from www.flex-ipc.co.uk/downloads, EasyLabel allows users to print their own customised key labels on any laser printer.