Industrial LCD Enclosures – Protecting Any Digital Display on a Factory Floor
Due to the ever falling price of LCD and plasma televisions, this now allows any business to put LCD displays on the factory floor, these can be used as training aids to ensure the production staff are doing the correct process and the completed item looks as it should. With the evolution of the TFT display, more businesses are harnessing the technology, one such company, is a well known US steel manufacturer and they have replaced their 19 inch TFT displays with 40 inch LCD displays and this is estimated to save the company in excess of $23,000 per year on creating engineering drawings. Instead each drawing is displayed onto the 40 inch TV in crystal clear images which is still controlled by the drawing office. Now there are many issues with putting any electronic device in to a production area and they are dust and fluid. We can all appreciate that when dust gets into the circuitry of an LCD TV it can cause short circuits and can cause the display to fail. Likewise, if fluid is present even in the air, when the air borne fluid dries, it leaves a corrosive residue on the internal circuitry, when this builds up it will corrode the circuit boards inside the television, even more so if coolant is present and this applies to around 60 percent of all production facilities. Now there are several options, these are to purchase in expensive industrial IP54, or IP65 LCD television or alternatively, (the most cost effective solution) is to purchase a special protective IP65 HDTV case, this is the route the Steel manufacturer took. The IP65 or NEMA 4X LCD enclosure is manufactured from material that will withstand any corrosive material, within reason, ensuring many years protection on a factory floor. However the units can be manufactured from stainless steel that does offer high anti-corrosion properties, should acids be present. Now the units can house a thin client or small factory PC along with the display and this unit will protect from fluid, so much so you can actually wash these enclosures down with a high pressure water jet!The IP54 LCD enclosure is similar in design to the IP65 unit, however it is cooled differently, these units are cooled using the positive pressure system, this replaces the hot air in the enclosure with cool, clean air. The above Ingress Protection codes are a European standard with the American equivalent being NEMA 4X for IP65. Now there is protection for all displays in all environments, no matter how hazardous.
