Industrial Keyboards: Touch Sensitive and Wireless Keyboards

There is a whole range of keyboards available in the market today, each one made according to the specific needs of the user. Here we will be talking about industrial computers and keyboards.

The keyboards that we are referring to have been designed for use in harsh environments, or factory floors. Industrial computers and keyboards withstand shock, humidity, vibration, dust, mist, EMI, RFI, and splash.

The industrial computers have been made user-friendly with a wide range of configurations and a variety of CPU's, displays, I/O interfaces. The term industrial computer keyboards refer to a Single Board Computer (SBC). They also refer to the systems they control. Since these computers are used in critical functions and applications they are made powerful.

The functional part of industrial computers and boards are called buses. Basically, buses are a collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. Buses are made up of two parts:

• The Address Bus
• The Data Bus

The function of the address bus is that it acts as a controller, which directs the transfer of data to a specific location or a group of locations, whereas the data bus performs the actual function of transferring the data. The data that is transferred via the buses is based on size, which is referred to as the width.

This keyboard can handle harsh use in public and industrial places. A touch sensitive keyboard has mounts underneath a non-conductive substrate, such as ceramic, glass, wood, or plastic, which is up to 100 mm thick. The keyboard is made as to make cleaning a breeze; this is because the top is essentially flat and there is an absence of keys on the outside.

Actually, the keys are etched on the backlit plastic that is on the top of the keypad. This feature ensures that there are no cracks for crumbs and dirt to fall into, and also ensures that it performs the function of a waterproof keyboard effectively.

The applications that touch sensitive keyboards are put to include printing machines, medical equipment, food packaging equipment, and public access Internet kiosks.

Keyboards that are without wires are called wireless keyboards. These resemble a normal computer keyboard; the only difference is that wireless keyboards transfer typing data to the computer via infrared beams.

When the keys on the keyboard are pressed a beam of information is sent from the keyboard to a receiver that is plugged into a computer. It is because of the absence of wires that the clutter on the desk is reduced considerably.

Infrared keyboards should be placed in a location that can be reached from the infrared beam. A problem can be created if the keyboard is not pointed to the general direction of the receiver.

Industrial keyboards, whether touch sensitive or wireless, are specially built keeping in mind the rough use they are subjected to. While a regular keyboard can be used in such location, the replacement costs, due to rough usage, would be astronomically high.