The use of electric cars is quickly becoming commonplace around the globe, with the adoption of such vehicles being seen in nearly every industrialized country. In 2018 alone, the amount of electric vehicles in use nearly doubled from the previous year to 5.1 million according to the International Energy Agency, an autonomous intergovernmental organization.
With such a meteoric rise in the consumer use of such vehicles, we cannot discount their viability in the industrial space. Electric vehicles are not only better for the environment, but also better for the productivity of the industrial sector. Integrating electric cars and electric vehicles into your industrial or warehouse space can lead to boosts in productivity and worker health.
Electric Vehicles: Not Just For Commuters
When one thinks about electric vehicles, thoughts gravitate towards the big name electric car companies that are seemingly always in the headlines. While these companies are making great strides in the mileage range and cost of consumer electric vehicles, other companies have been innovating electric vehicles for industrial use under the radar. In fact, many industrial vehicles—from forklifts to personnel carriers— have electric vehicle variants ready for use.
F15 Touchscreen Industrial Computer
These vehicles are less noisy, and more versatile than their combustion engine counterparts. The lack of a noisy combustion engine makes these vehicles the perfect platform for mobile working. When paired with touchscreen industrial computers with programmable function keys, electric vehicles become the ultimate mobile workstation. Allowing for one hand use, touchscreen industrial computers plug directly into your electric vehicle and connect directly to your warehouse management system or network.
Better For The Environment, Margins, And Workers
Everyone knows that electric cars are better for the environment, but as an added bonus they are also better for margins. The cost to operate electric vehicles is half the price of combustion engine vehicles, according to the U.S. Department Of Energy, owing in part to the relatively stable price of electricity compared to oil-based fuels. Electric vehicles can take out the worry about how fluctuations in the global oil supply will affect your operating expenses, cutting travel costs in half and normalizing your budget—all while giving you the peace of mind knowing that your company has made a small step towards a greener future.
In addition, electric vehicles are safer to operate than their older combustion engine relatives. Electric cars are favored by consumers not only for their low operating cost and environmental impact, but also their lack of dangerous fume exhaust. Prolonged exposure to exhaust such as carbon monoxide can lead to serious health complications, including heart problems and brain damage. Fumes spit out by traditional industrial vehicles can slowly cause these health problems for your workers, leading to increased medical expenses or worse. Electric vehicles offer a safe, promising alternative to a workplace problem damaging the environment, margins, and workers.
Electric Vehicles: The Future, Today
Electric vehicles are poised to take over the transportation sector, and industrial vehicles are no exception to this. When upgrading your fleet to include electric vehicles, make sure your workers get the most out of this investment by equipping them with touchscreen industrial computers.
Gone are the days where warehouses saw multiple workers crowded around a belt, placing SKUs on products and referring to inventory sheets. With today’s Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), industrial computers have taken over the bulk of SKU tracking and allowed for picking to become the dominant money sink, taking up as much as 63% of the operating costs of a typical warehouse according to Georgia Tech.
While a rise in automation has lead to a decrease in total warehouse operating costs, the burgeoning operating cost of picking cannot be ignored. Optimizing your picking systems is more crucial to the overall productivity of your warehouse than ever before.
Schools Of Picking
There’s no one way to optimize picking for every warehouse, but there are several competing schools of thought regarding picking that may serve your warehouse’s specific needs.
Waves Picking
Waves picking is a style of picking that is not optimized for the shortest route length possible, but instead other parameters. These “waves” could include things such as intended delivery date, picking zones, delivery location, and other sets that to fit your warehouse’s logistics and deployed by your WMS.
Batch Picking
In batch picking, a group of orders is combined into one order through the WMS in order to minimize the amount of repeat trips needed. Instead of a picker needing to go back to the same line multiple times, they can simply receive one order for multiple items and save a drastic amount of time.
Cluster Picking
As the name implies, cluster picking allows a worker to pick for multiple orders at once by utilizing a cart or basket with slots for multiple orders in a “cluster.” These orders can be assigned by your WMS for optimized pathing, enabling a picker to collect multiple orders at once.
One thing all the picking styles have in common is their use of a WMS running on an industrial computer to make decisions for the warehouse. Each warehouse is unique, and different picking methods should be deployed and tested to see which optimizes routes for time and productivity. Industrial computer tablets can help optimize your picking, allowing workers instant access to inventory, picking jobs, and warehouse updates.
Industrial computer tablets are rugged, easy-to-carry devices that enable your pickers to access tasks from the WMS on the move. Industrial computer tablets can come with built in barcode scanners for instant SKU sorting and tracking, and can withstand temperatures from -4° to 140°F so that even your refrigerated facility can benefit from industrial computer tablet use. Some even come ready out of the box for forklift and warehouse vehicle mounting.
Industrial Computer Tablets: A Picker’s Best Friend
Whatever school of picking you decide to employ in your warehouse, industrial computer tablets can help your pickers make the most of their work day. With picking costs making up the majority of the operating costs of contemporary warehouses, getting the most productivity possible from your pickers is crucial to creating a profitable enterprise.
Industrial PCs have come a long way since their original implementation, and the rise of the internet has made these Industrial PCs both invaluable and necessary tools for every industrial sector. In a time where productivity is falling in the factory setting, the concerted use of industrial PCs to create smart factories is proving to be even more necessary, and may very well help save U.S. manufacturing. One of the biggest problems with creating a smart factory is the very same thing that makes them possible: the implementation of industrial PCs in nearly every aspect of a factory.
Simply put, not every Industrial PC is capable of being deployed in any location in a facility. While many Industrial PCs do just fine sitting in the office or above a conveyor belt, they may falter in environments where actual production occurs. Fanless Industrial PCs offer a compelling solution to this conundrum, surviving and thriving in the bowels of chemical, automotive, and even material industrial facilities.
Fanless Industrial PCs Go Where Others Cannot
Transforming your industrial facility into a smart factory requires much more than giving all your employees the latest smartphone. A smart factory requires a network of sensors, microcontrollers, trackers, and most importantly Industrial PCs across the entire facility to truly make the differences seen by the early adopters of such strategies as previously described. Fanless industrial PCs help achieve this goal by going where other industrial PCs cannot. Fanless industrial PCs, like the Rugged Mini E3 from Tangent, feature a passive cooling system devoid of openings. Without a gaping opening that constantly circulates air through their enclosures, fanless Industrial PCs are able to operate in environments where dust, liquids, and metal shavings are a fact of life.
Rugged Mini O
Less Maintenance, More Productivity
Keeping your Industrial PCs up and running is crucial to the smart factory mission, and the longer it takes to maintain your industrial PCs the less productive they are. Fanless Industrial PCs, like the Rugged Mini O from Tangent, require significantly less maintenance than their fan-based counterparts as their solid enclosure does not let pollutants in, keeping their delicate components safe. What’s more, dust build up promotes component overheating, leading to a decrease in Industrial PC lifespan and in severe cases can fry the CPU, rending the entire Industrial PC useless. Fanless Industrial PCs bypass this problem entirely, letting your IT staff worry about the big picture, not dusting schedules.
Fanless Industrial PCs: No Compromise
Fanless Industrial PCs may lack fans, but they make no compromises when it comes to surviving the most extreme temperatures. Whether near a forge or in a refrigerated facility, fanless industrial PCs like the Rugged Mini C1 from Tangent are capable of withstanding temperature ranges from as cold as -40°F to as hot as 144°F with ease. Truly, fanless industrial PCs are the glue that can hold your burgeoning smart factory together, going where other industrial PCs cannot.
Winter is one of the best seasons, allowing for friends and family alike to gather together and enjoy one another’s company. These sorts of festivities are only bolstered by the cold weather, which promotes people staying indoors and keeping warm. While winter may be fun for people, it presents a unique challenge to the industrial sector. Making sure that your industrial equipment can withstand the frigid temperatures that winter brings is important when selecting equipment for use in climates that are particularly affected by the seasonal change. Upgrading industrial equipment, such as industrial grade PCs, before the onset of winter can help ensure that your site does not have any unnecessary halts in production.
Rugged Mini E2
Surviving The Cold
When thinking about PCs, it may seem as though you only have to worry about them overheating, after all they do have fans to keep them cool. However, prolonged exposure to cold can have adverse effects on PCs as well, causing physical warping to components and risking condensation damage. Commercial grade PCs are not built for such conditions, and may suffer these sorts of damage. Industrial grade PCs are an elegant solution to the extreme cold, as many can operate in such conditions. Industrial grade PCs like the Rugged Mini E2 or Rugged Mini C1 from Tangent can operate at temperatures as cold as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. WIth this sort of resistance, there’s seldom a place that these industrial grade PCs can’t be used:
Oil Drilling: The extraction of oil over land presents unique challenges that are different than those faced on the drilling platforms used in the ocean. Oil extraction sites in the northern U.S. can regularly see winter storms that drop temperatures well below freezing. Industrial grade PCs from Tangent can perform in these conditions with ease as in vehicle computers, sensor managers, and remote control stations.
Emergency Services: The last thing emergency services should be worrying about on their way to a car crash or at-home emergency is if their PCs are working. Industrial grade PCs ensure that emergency services can focus on the problems that really matter.
Outdoor Equipment: Regardless of the sector, industrial grade PCs allow you to create a workstation, remote control outpost, or system control station wherever the job demands. Having an industrial grade PC in your system means that it can operate year round without worry
Whatever the job entails, industrial grade PCs will do it regardless of the temperature. In addition to mini industrial grade PCs, industrial grade PC panels and industrial grade PC tablets can operate below 0 degrees, allowing for even more flexibility this winter season. Get a jumpstart on the season before it gets the jump on you with industrial grade PCs from Tangent.
Stress impacts us in a variety of different ways. From our relationships with others to our quality of sleep, stress limits our ability to function at our prime. When workers bring stress into the job site, it can lead to a drasticincrease in accidents in the workplace. According to Dr. David Spiegel, a medical director of the Stanford Center on Stress and Health, “[i]t’s very clear that a big proportion of safety problems are due to human error, and some of that is related to stress.” Companies hoping to retain the edge in the increasingly competitive industrial sector will need to find ways to reduce stress and hassle in the workplace, not only to avoid costly accidents but to increase productivity overall. To that end,industrial grade PCs offer a compelling avenue for decreasing frustrations in the workplace, freeing workers from the stress of handling subpar technology.
Industrial Grade PC’s are Tough, Versatile Products Employees Can Rely Upon.
When an employee is faced with pressing deadlines and the day-to-day demands of their job, the last thing they need is a piece of equipment they cannot rely upon.Industrial grade PCs perform where commercial PCs cannot. For instance, theR14 Industrial Tablet PC, featuring a 14” screen and dual, high capacity batteries that can sustain up to 18+ hours of demanding video-based programs, allowing for usage well beyond the typical 8-hour workday. The R14 can also, like many other of Tangent’s industrial grade PCs, withstand temperatures ranging from -4° to 140°F, allowing for use in nearly any industrial or manufacturing environment. Without the worry about whether or not their equipment can perform across a wide range of environments, and with a battery capacity over twice the standard workday , employees with industrial grade PCs can focus solely on the critical aspects of their role.
Up To The Task: Powerful Industrial Grade PCs.
Sluggish, unresponsive technology is annoying for anyone to deal with, even more so for employees relying on that technology to perform vital roles in their company. Fortunately, Tangent’s line of industrial grade PCs come packed with power. Industrial grade PCs like theRugged Mini E3 sport up to an Intel 6th Gen. Core i7, along with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, to guarantee lightning-fast response times with even the most demanding programs. Commercial PCs may be able to offer similar responsiveness, but only industrial-grade PCs marry that performance to resilience. Industrial grade PCs. such as theVITA KW. feature dust and water resistance, backed by an IP65 certified rating, along with a fanless cooling system that prevents the buildup of particulates that can lead to the degradation found in less durable commercial PCs. Employees can rest easy knowing their industrial grade PCs will hold up in the toughest of workplaces.
The Fusion of Productivity and Flexibility: Industrial Grade PCs.
No one wants to be stressed, but the accumulation of stress in the workplace seems more and more like a fact of life. Industrial grade PCs from Tangent can help negate stress in the workplace. With incredible battery life and lightning-fast Intel processors, Industrial Grade PCs can give your workers one less thing to worry about.
It’s a both awe-inspiring, and terrifying prospect: a fully automated factory. While there are debates surrounding the use of such facilities, a fully automated facility is still some time away. Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment recently said in an interview with Reuters that the technology needed to automate an entire Amazon facility was still at least a decade away. Until then, the prospect of automating every aspect of a manufacturing facility remains just as unlikely as occurring. However, this does not mean that there aren’t ways of upgrading your facility with automation technology, and increasing efficiency and reducing cost in the process.
Industrial grade computers are the backbone of any modern-day manufacturing facility, and rightly so. Industrial grade computers serve as a bridge between automation and good old fashioned labor, allowing for workers to finish jobs that used to take hours in just minutes. Just like how Email reduced the waiting time for correspondence from days to seconds, industrial-grade computers have exponentially increased worker productivity. Their use in quickening tasks extends beyond operating as workstations; industrial grade computers can help turn your facility into a smart facility.
Creating Networks
One of the rising uses of industrial grade computers is the creation of facility wide networks. These networks can be used to monitor sensors, change up the production line, and even provide real time reports on errors and issues. Industrial grade computers, like the Rugged Mini C from Tangent, feature up to eight ethernet ports for connectivity. These ethernet ports can each handle up to 2.5 GT/s of data transfer, allowing the Mini C to easily communicate information from one end of the facility to the other with lightning speed. The Mini C’s small form factor, less than that of a cereal box, combined with flexible mounting options allows this industrial grade computer to be placed anywhere and everywhere.
Going Where Workers Can’t
While it would be nice to have a worker perform real time analysis of site that’s underwater, freezing cold, or freezing hot 24/7, this simply just is not possible. That’s where industrial grade computers like the Rugged Mini O from Tangent come in. The Rugged Mini O is IP69K certified water and dust proof, allowing for it to be used in situations where workers simply cannot be. This IP69K rating is complemented by an extreme operating temperature range of -40°F to 185°F. This industrial grade computer can be mounted in locations where other computers simply could not, and become a vital part of your industrial grade computer network.
Staying Safe And Secure
With every new leap in automation technology, there is an equal leap in the ability of phishers and hackers to hijack your facility. These hackers may be benign malevolent, but either way keeping them out of your facility is a top priority. As more components of your facility become automated, it is important to keep the software of each individual device up to date. This can help reduce the likelihood of hackers being able to find backdoors into your systems. Industrial grade computers like the Rugged Mini E3 from Tangent come equipped with a trusted platform module from Infineon. This security module can help beef up the security protocols of your network by employing cryptography and encryption algorithms to protect the integrity and authenticity of embedded devices and systems.
Automation: It’s On The Way
While automation is nowhere near ready for full deployment, it is on the horizon. Keeping your facility up to date with the latest industrial grade computers can help bridge the gap between modern-day labor and the future of automation.
It’s a big world out there, full of not only people — but competition. Each and every day, technology is advancing in all fields, with industrial fields being no exception. While it may be nice to think that one can always stay at the forefront of industrial technology, doing so would be extremely cost-prohibitive. That’s one of the main reasons why legacy equipment is so common in the industrial sector: new equipment can cost a small fortune while your legacy equipment hums away without issue. While using legacy equipment is common practice, there are cost-effective ways of “upgrading” this equipment and gaining the upper hand over competition in the process.
Tangent S Series 19″
Optimize Readouts
Whether your legacy equipment is ten or twenty years old, industrial grade computers can serve as well overdue upgrade without breaking the bank. Older legacy equipment may not seem as though it can benefit from co-mingling with industrial grade computers, but this could not be further from the truth. Industrial grade computers, like the Tangent S Series can become a natural extension of legacy equipment. When hooked up to a video camera, the S Series industrial grade computer panel can serve as a remote access interface to perform readouts on equipment. If hooked up to sensors and other equipment, the S Series can be used to remotely control features of the legacy equipment from the comfort of an office. With sixteen gigabytes of RAM, the S Series can handle multiple video camera inputs at once, becoming a hub for viewing your legacy equipment.
Rugged Mini C
Network Sensors
Speaking of hubs, creating a sensor network around your facility can help mitigate rising problems before they have a chance to affect production. Many forms of legacy equipment produced in the last twenty years have input/output ports in the form of ethernet ports. With an industrial grade computer like the Rugged Mini C from Tangent, these ethernet ports can be hijacked to turn the equipment into a makeshift sensor network. The Rugged Mini C can be customized to have up to eight ethernet ports compared to most commercial grade computer’s singular port. This allows the Mini C to read information from multiple legacy equipment at once, and with the proper IT magic, spoof a program to act as a brain for the equipment.
Rugged Mini E3
Customization Options
There’s no one size fits all solution to updating your legacy equipment. Many forms of updating legacy equipment amount to jury-rigging a customized solution for every situation. That’s why having a large selection of customization options for your industrial grade computers is so important, as these choices allow you to create custom solutions that are the best for each problem. Take the Rugged Mini E3 for instance, which is an industrial-grade computer that can be customized to have up to thirty two gigabytes of RAM, allowing it to run a plethora of programs simultaneously. Or the R14 Industrial Grade Computer tablet, which can serve as a mobile industrial-grade computer for workers who are constantly on the move. For every situation, there’s an industrial-grade computer that can be customized to thrive in.
There’s one environment that is seemingly designed to destroy computers from the inside out. Scorching heat that prevents CPUs from cooling down, kicked up sand that threatens to short circuit motherboards, and a cascading environment that can change in the blink of an eye. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m referring to the desert. Even though deserts constitute 33% of the entire world, our modern day computers struggle to operate for even a few hours in the conditions presented by them. This is unfortunate, as many industrial operations such as mining and oil extraction occur there. Luckily, Tangent’s Industrial PC Line features computers that can not only operate under the extreme conditions of the desert, but thrive in them.
Extreme Temperature Operation.
One of the main challenges of operating an industrial site in the desert is the wide range of temperatures one can expect. Freezing nights quickly turn into scorching days, and commercial computers simply cannot handle such variations on a daily basis. Industrial PCs like the Rugged Mini E3 from Tangent have extreme temperature operating ranges, being able to operate from -13°F to as hot as 158°F, easily meeting the demands of even the most perilous desert.
Sand Proof Casing
Sand presents a unique problem in the industrial sector, as it can quickly wear down equipment or otherwise pollute it. Sand presents an even greater threat to computers, being able to destroy a computer’s delicate innards simply by touching them in the wrong location. Traditional computers have fan-based cooling systems that are prone to sucking up and storing dust on the inside of the case; in the desert these computers would instead suck up sand and destroy themselves. Tangent’s rugged industrial PCs like the Rugged Mini C1 have passive, fanless cooling systems that keep the PC cool without letting dust or sand in. This allows them to work in the harsh desert without worry that their components will be damaged.
Extreme Shock And Vibration Resistance
Industrial equipment is loud, it’s heavy, and it vibrates. Industrial PCs from Tangent are built just for this sort of working environment, and can be placed anywhere on the job site regardless of the equipment surrounding it. The Rugged Mini Tank is the goto example of Tangent’s engineering here, living up to its name. The Rugged Mini Tank has Military Grade vibration resistance, being able to withstand the rigors of military use with ease. This allows it a special use on industrial job sites, being able to perform in any scenario.
Adaptable To Your Needs
No two jobs are the same, and every situation needs a unique solution. Tangent’s industrial PC lineup features PCs like the Rugged Mini L1, with a sleek form factor that can fit in practically any space. This 2 pound industrial PC is lightweight enough to be placed anywhere on the job site, and sleek enough to fit into even the smallest of crevices. Our Mini Industrial PCs can turn any space, regardless of size, into a workstation.
We’ve come a long way since the days when computers would take up an entire warehouse sized room. Today’s computers are far more powerful than anything in the past, while also being small enough for use in nearly any setting. But sometimes even small tower based PCs can seem too big for an office space.
According to real estate information provider CoStar, average square footage per office employee fell from 197.3 square feet in 2010 to 182 square feet in 2017. As offices get smaller, tower PCs become less of a convenience and more of a space taker. That’s where Mini PCs come in, providing the same power as traditional desktop PCs in a small case. Mini PCs do not take up floor or desk space at the rate tower PCs do, and can be mounted underneath desks, behind monitors, and in multiple other convenient locations.
Rugged Mini FX
Many Advantages
Small Size: Mini PCs aren’t just small—they are extremely small. With enclosures as small as your uncle’s copy of Moby Dick and some weighing less than a gallon of milk, Mini PCs can fit into nearly any work environment.
Flexible Mounting Options: As offices get smaller, so to do the number of ways to organize the office space, and designing an office space entirely around where a computer can fit can make the entire setup a hassle. Mini PCs can be mounted in numerous ways, from standard VESA mounting options to DIN RAIL and even behind-the-monitor solutions.
Durability: Mini PCs are built to be able to withstand harsh environments and drops with ease. Fanless Mini Pcs are not only built tough, but they are virtually silent and won’t be a workplace distraction.
Customizability: Mini PCs come in many different sizes and configurations, each designed to be an effective part of a computing ecosystem. Tangent offers Mini PCs for nearly every workstation, so whether they’re for behind the desk work or in digital signage apparatus, Mini PCs are up to the task.
Real estate prices are going up and office spaces are getting smaller everyday. Making sure that your employees can be as productive as possible in their given space is critical to an efficient work environment. Mini PCs can help alleviate office congestion, and make cramped offices feel less crowded, boosting employee morale.
Water, dust, bacteria: these three contaminants and many more can spell disaster if they come into contact with your work PCs. Anyone who’s worked in a factory, food or beverage processing plant, or pharmaceutical plant knows that these contaminants can easily find their way into any nook or cranny available. PCs in these settings are no exception, and over time can fail, or require intensive maintenance to repair, due to contaminant ingress. Some companies attempt to retrofit their existing commercial grade PCs in order to make them seemingly waterproof, but these well-intentioned jury rigs are not certified or guaranteed to work.
Only properly Ingress Protection(IP) rated waterproof computers are certified to be water resistant and waterproof. These wide ranging standards help computer companies design PCs from the ground up to be contaminant protected, ensuring a PC in any work environment can operate as long and effectively as a commercial PC sitting in an office building. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has created the IP guidelines in order to help both computer companies and their customers find the right waterproof computer for their job site.
These guidelines have varying levels of ingress protection that are applied to PCs based on how well they operate while withstanding the elements. Ranging from IP00 up to IP69k, the IP scale covers everything—from PCs that are completely susceptible to water damage to PCs that can withstand high pressure water jets. The two digit number represents the PCs resistance to solids and liquids: the first number indicates solid resistance on a scale of 1 to 6; the second number signifies the PC’s water resistance, on a scale from 1 to 9k (the additional k rating is unique to the 9 liquid rating).
Every work environment is unique and presents its own elemental challenges to be considered when deciding which IP rating you need for your job site. At Tangent, we design nearly all of our PCs and monitors to be at least IP65 certified water resistant and dust proof. At this rating, our PCs are completely dust ingress protected, and impervious to stray water jets. Two of the most common ratings for IP rated PCs are IP65 and IP69K: each of these ratings carries a list of advantages that make them well suited for work environments.
IP65 Rating For PCs and Monitors
When a PC or monitor meets IP65 standards, the device is completely insulated from dust and particle contamination. This means that the enclosure housing the PC or monitor has no openings save for I/O ports. This negates the possibility of dust coming into contact with vital computer components or building up and constituting a health hazard. Commercial PCs feature exhaust ports for their fan-based cooling systems to circulate air through. IP65 rated PCs feature fanless cooling systems, which in addition to being quieter do not require the openings that their fan-based counterparts do. With no fan or openings, IP65 rated PCs and monitors are able to work in dusty or dirty environments without worry.
VITA KW Industrial PC
At the IP65 rating, PCs like those in the Vita KW Line from Tangent are able to withstand jets of water from any direction on their front panel. This makes IP65 rated PCs close to being waterproof computers, and capable of withstanding environments where liquid presence is a common risk. In food and beverage processing plants, IP65 rated PCs and monitors are perfect for workstations where workers may be moving from a wet assembly line to the PC throughout the day. These nearly waterproof computers also make for easy cleaning, and can be cleaned with traditional cleaning supplies, as though they were just another surface on the factory floor.
While commercial grade computers can be jury rigged into a seemingly waterproof enclosure, they do not carry the IP65 rating and are prone to failure. In addition, their fan-based cooling systems would be choked off from outside air, and computer components may suffer damage from overheating in the stale environment. The only way to ensure that your work PCs are safely effectively dust and waterproof/resistant is by acquiring IP rated PCs from the start.
IP69k Rating For PCs and Monitors
The IP69K rating is the highest IP level available for waterproof computers to be rated. At this level, PCs are completely dust and particle proof and protected against high temperature and pressure water jets. IP69k rated computers are designed for the dirtiest work environments, and help keep your job site moving. Like IP65 rated PCs, IP69K PCs sport sealed casings and fanless cooling systems. This allows them to be operated in dust riddled environments without any damage to their interior components. However, unlike IP65 rated PCs, IP69K PCs are waterproof computers able to withstand high pressure water bursts with ease.
Tangent S Series 19″
IP69K rated waterproof computers are also able to withstand high temperature water jets as well, making them perfect for food and beverage processing facilities where hot liquids are common. Computers like the Tangent S Series are able to withstand hot water blasts and the resultant shock and vibrations that accompany them. In a 24 hour work environment, these computers are to work continuously without needing excessive maintenance due to dust build up, and can easily be cleaned with traditional cleaning supplies or those used on machines. The S Series features a stainless steel enclosure that is corrosion and damage resistant. This is a critical part of the S Series meeting IP69K criteria to being a waterproof computer. There is no bulky enclosure surrounding the S Series that makes it a waterproof computer, instead the PC is one solid device designed around being waterproof.
Waterproof Computers and Monitors In The Workplace
Every work environment is unique, and requires specialized equipment to produce the most efficient workplace possible. IP rated waterproof computers can play a crucial role in helping make a variety of workplaces more productive.
Food And BeverageProcessing Plants
The food and beverage processing industry is seeing itself becoming increasingly computerized to meet demand. These computers help parts of the plant communicate with one another and ensures the plant on a whole is running smoothly. But these work environments are highly susceptible to both liquid and particle buildup on surfaces— computers and monitors being no exception. That’s why IP rated waterproof computers are so crucial to food and beverage processing plants, providing non-stop computing power to meet the needs of plants. Not only do IP rated waterproof computers run better in food and beverage processing facilities than their commercial counterparts, but they also help plants meet the rigorous safety guidelines set out by the Food and Drug Administration(FDA).
F15 Industrial Computer
Tangent’s full lineup of Panel PCs features full-touchscreen monitors that are IP rated waterproof, allowing them to be used with dirty hands without damage. IP rated Panel PCs differ from traditional desktop PCs in that they do not require a mouse, keyboard, or external monitor to operate. They are all-in-one devices capable of performing at the level of desktop computers. The all-in-one design of PCs like the Tangent F15 negates the need for users to have a full desk with a mouse and keyboard. This saves crucial square footage, and allows workers to operate multiple workstations at once.
These waterproof computers can be mounted virtually anywhere in a plant, as their high water and temperature resistance allows them a nearly universal usage. Their all-in-one design not only allows for mouse and keyboard-less use, but saves IT departments the hassle of trying to find certified waterproof peripherals.
Hospitals and Medical Facilities
There’s no question about it: Waterproof computers are healthier and safer for use in the medical setting than their water susceptible counterparts. So much so, that nearly every medical PC on the market meets some IP rating. Medical computers are required to meet a litany of criteria to be called a medical computer, all centered around ensuring both medical staff and patient safety.
Every medical computer sold in the United States is required to meet UL-60601 guidelines, which ensures that these computers are safe for use around both patients and medical equipment. Medical computers also feature antimicrobial enclosures, which inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria on the PC’s surfaces. Antimicrobial additives are baked directly into the enclosures of these PCs, making them resistant to being wiped away during cleaning. The antimicrobial component of medical computers plays a critical role in reducing the likelihood of nosocomial infections, as multiple medical staff can be expected to use the same computer throughout the day.
By making our antimicrobial enclosures IP rated waterproof, our medical computers are able to be sanitized and cleaned regularly without fear of stripping the antimicrobial additive. Medical computers like the Medix T24B from Tangent are IP65 rated waterproof, and can withstand regular cleaning with disinfectants. Our medical computers, like our panel PCs, are all-in-one computers that do not require mouses and keyboards to operate. This means that doctors and nurses can interact exclusively with the antimicrobial touchscreen, and not have to worry about the germs they are spreading via keyboard and mouse. If a medical room needs more than one display, Tangent’s Medical Monitor is IP65 rated waterproof and features our antimicrobial additive.
Military and Outdoors
There are no days off for soldiers on the battlefield, and their technology should be able to keep up with their rigorous schedule. IP rated waterproof computers are a crucial component of any successful operation, built specifically to endure the harshest environments the earth has to offer. Tangent’s lineup of rugged computers features PCs that are custom built for situations in which dust and water ingress can cripple an operation.
Tangent’s R14 Industrial Computer
The R14 Tablet from Tangent meets IP65 specifications for water resistance, and is the perfect computer to accompany servicemen on missions. The R14 meets military standards for both shock and vibration, and its IP65 rating means that it can survive a drop into mud or wet dirt with ease. When on a mission, the last thing you want military personnel to be worrying about is whether their computers are working, and the R14 ensures that they won’t have to. In drier environments, the R14 is rated at the highest level for dust ingress, and can survive the dustiest and sandiest environments without damage to interior components.
Pharmaceutical
In the pharmaceutical setting, ensuring that the environment is as safe and sterile as possible is critical to success. Pharmaceutical companies often utilize clean rooms to limit laboratories from being exposed to outside contaminants and bacteria. These clean rooms can only have a certain number of particles in the air, and must be able to be sprayed down for cleaning.
Rugged Mini O
Traditional computers could not handle this environment, and would quickly jeopardize efforts by personnel to create a sterile work environment. Traditional computers utilizing fan-based cooling systems would kick up and collect dust, quickly defeating the purpose of the clean room. Only IP rated computers with a first digit of 6 should be used in these settings, as they do not allow dust to enter their enclosures at all. At Tangent, we have designed the Mini O rugged PC with an IP rating at the maximum of IP69K. This ensures that the Mini O is as safe as possible for clean room usage, and will not negatively impact the cleanliness of the room. The Mini O is a fully waterproof computer, capable of being sprayed down in the clean room without issue.
Industry and Warehouses
It may seem that waterproof computers are highly specialized for specific niche sectors, but this is simply not the case. Every sector can benefit from having waterproof computers in house, even factories not specializing in liquid or medicine production. IP ratings measure both the water resistance and dust resistance of computers; even facilities that do not use liquid in the production process have dust.
Tangent’s lineup of all-in-one Panel PCs are IP rated waterproof, and perfect for the factory floor. Where there is just not enough room for a full workstation, a Panel PC can operate as a full fledged computer. Most of our Panel PCs feature an IP6x rating, which means that they are fully dust proof. This allows Panel PCs from Tangent to operate on a 24 hour basis without needing excessive maintenance. Full dust protection can make the difference in any industrial setting, quickly turning areas of a factory that lacked automation into fully functioning computerized stations.
Waterproof Computers: Built to Last
At Tangent, we take IP ratings extremely seriously and have designed our lineup of waterproof computers to reflect that. Each model showcased today features some IP rating which makes it resistant to both dust and water, and therefore an ideal choice for work environments that are susceptible to these contaminants. Choosing the right computer for a specific task is crucial to ensuring an efficient workplace, and choosing a waterproof one is one way to produce such a workplace.
