Today's ruggedized computer touchscreens can extend the power of the PC into areas too hazardous for normal PC operations. Managers like the fact that the host computer on which the data reside can be located up to two miles away, in a secure and stable environment, while several monitors equipped with interactive touch displays are exposed to the fork trucks, power surges, and spilled coffee. Touchscreen software technology, allowing manufacturers to run a a network of touchmonitors from a single PC, is one of the advancements that are making these peripherals of great benefit to industrial users. Elo TouchSystems Inc.
Touchscreens also allow operators to use a computer immediately, with little or no training.
Freed from having to navigate a keyboard or master mouse-clicks, operators simply point to what they want to do. Almost as important as the touchscreen technology itself are the ways the monitors can communicate back and forth with a host computer. The type and thickness of monitor glass can also be customized. Xycom, Inc., Saline, MI, has found its market opportunity in building PCs, displays, and peripherals that are designed to withstand harsh industrial settings, such as near welding robots and blast furnaces. The company's strategy is to build ruggedized PCs from its own designs, using its own motherboards, as well as other components purchased from outside.