Dispensing water hot or chilled or sparkling

IGT Industries has supplied an innovative control solution to the advanced water systems supplier Vivreau for their Vi Tap which dispenses chilled still and sparkling water, plus boiling water from a single tap.

Established in the late 1980’s, Vivreau has grown to become a global leader in the development and manufacture of purified drinking water systems. Vivreau believe that water systems are more than just a vending machine and should be designed to suit individual environments.

The new Vivreau Vi Tap replaces older technology tap head units with a new and innovative user interface proving customers with extra features which needed an HMI interface to match. The sleek and modern tap head control unit design imposed severe space constraints and required a solution from IGT including both capacitive switching and their proprietary thin film backlighting.

IGT were selected by Vivreau as they had the ability to turn the design concepts into a working end product, providing, in-house, all the design, manufacturing, assembly and control software. IGT has many years of experience in manufacturing such complex parts and ensuring the right materials are selected for reliable long term operation...

Their capacitive switching was the chosen HMI solution as it has no moving parts, requires zero maintenance, has an easily cleaned surface and is a familiar interface for those already used to using touch sensitive technology. IGT’s thin film backlighting provides a control surface less than 1.5mm thick, creates bright, clear and even illumination with no light spill between buttons and can be animated if required. Colour options are infinite and include tricolour LED’s providing very clear and positive feedback to user input with low power consumption.

The combination of capacitive switching and thin film backlighting enables environmental sealing to a high level which can be used in many sectors, both consumer and industrial, with a range of control interface protocols including I²C, UART, USB and more.

Sales and Marketing Director for IGT, Terry Moss, says that “The new Vivreau Vi Tap is an excellent example of what IGT does best. Working closely with a customer to provide an innovative human machine interface which not only fulfils the technical and environmental requirements of a design but provides an outstanding aesthetic solution.”

IGT-Industries have been at the forefront of Man Machine Interface technology for more than twenty years and have been responsible for many technological innovations now in common use. These include numerous backlighting techniques, integral RFI screening and most recently the development of capacitive switching systems, both touch screen based and single press control panels with optional back-lighting. IGT products are widely used in rail, marine, aviation, industrial and medical markets.