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Customized HMI solutions for mechanical engineering — robust, durable and precise

Touch displays, optical bonding & control panels especially for industrial requirements

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Technical ques­tion

Why standard HMIs are often not enough in mechanical engineering

Mechanical engi­neer­ing places par­tic­u­larly high demands on the tech­nol­ogy used: pre­ci­sion, reli­a­bil­ity and com­pre­hen­sive pro­tec­tion against dust, mois­ture, shocks and vibra­tions are essen­tial here. Standard solu­tions are often unable to cope with these com­plex con­di­tions and there­fore quickly reach their lim­its, mean­ing that spe­cial­ized, robust and application-​oriented HMI sys­tems are required.

Here you will find some of the most impor­tant require­ments for HMIs in mechan­i­cal engineering:

User friendliness

User-​friendliness (usabil­ity) is a key cri­te­rion for HMIs in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing. Intuitive oper­a­tion with clear sym­bols and log­i­cally struc­tured menu nav­i­ga­tion enables users to con­trol machines quickly and safely. Unnecessary com­plex­ity should be avoided in order to reduce oper­at­ing errors and min­i­mize train­ing time. A clearly struc­tured inter­face not only sup­ports effi­ciency in day-​to-​day work, but also makes a deci­sive con­tri­bu­tion to safety and reliability. 

HMI Mechanical Engineering_Usability

Safety and compliance with standards

Safety and com­pli­ance with stan­dards are essen­tial in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing in order to reli­ably pro­tect oper­a­tors and sys­tems. Compliance with rel­e­vant stan­dards such as EN ISO 13849 or IEC 60204–1 ensures that HMIs meet the legal require­ments. A clearly rec­og­niz­able emer­gency stop func­tion that can be reached at any time is just as impor­tant as clear error and warn­ing mes­sages. These help to min­i­mize risks, avoid fail­ures and ensure a high level of oper­a­tional safety. 

HMI Mechanical Engineering_Safety

Mechanical resistance

Robustness and reli­a­bil­ity play a cen­tral role in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, as HMIs must be able to oper­ate per­ma­nently under harsh indus­trial con­di­tions. They need to be highly resis­tant to dust, vibra­tion, tem­per­a­ture and mois­ture in order to ensure con­tin­u­ous oper­a­tion. Mechanical resis­tance is just as cru­cial and very impor­tant to ensure that the hous­ing and oper­at­ing ele­ments remain undam­aged even under heavy loads or impacts. 

HMI Mechanical engineering_Mechanical resistance

Protection against liquids

In mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, devices are often exposed to harsh envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions and must there­fore be cleaned and main­tained reg­u­larly. The sys­tems should be fully resis­tant to the ingress of dust, oil, coolants and lubri­cants, chips, mois­ture or water. In mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, IP pro­tec­tion class 65 in accor­dance with ISO EN 60529 is there­fore gen­er­ally rec­om­mended. This ensures both the safety of the user and the long-​term func­tion­al­ity of the systems. 

HMI Mechanical engineering_Protection against liquids

Presentation of information

A pre­cise pre­sen­ta­tion of infor­ma­tion on the dis­play is cru­cial in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing in order to mon­i­tor work processes safely and effi­ciently. Process sta­tuses and machine para­me­ters should be clearly struc­tured and dis­played with opti­mized leg­i­bil­ity, whereby opti­cal bond­ing improves vis­i­bil­ity and con­trast per­cep­tion so that oper­a­tors can clearly under­stand the cur­rent sta­tus at all times. Supporting color cod­ing, for exam­ple red for mal­func­tion and green for oper­a­tion, enables quick visual recog­ni­tion of crit­i­cal situations. 

HMI Mechanical engineering_Information display

Electromagnetic compatibility

To ensure the oper­a­tional safety of machines and sys­tems, the IEC series of stan­dards (e.g. IEC 61000) spec­i­fies increased require­ments for EMC behav­ior in indus­trial envi­ron­ments. This affects fac­tors such as inter­fer­ence and radi­a­tion, con­ducted cou­pling and elec­tro­mag­netic com­pat­i­bil­ity between con­trols, dri­ves and sen­sors. Whether robust, trans­par­ent or opaque — your sen­si­tive con­trol and power elec­tron­ics are reli­ably and per­ma­nently protected. 

HMI Mechanical Engineering_EMV

HMIs in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing are char­ac­ter­ized by a wide range of appli­ca­tions and diverse uses. We would like to high­light the fol­low­ing areas as examples: 

Industrial con­trols:
Touchscreens, mem­brane key­pads and front mem­branes enable intu­itive oper­a­tion and pre­cise con­trol of machines. In addi­tion, mechan­i­cal or short-​stroke but­tons enable blind feel and oper­a­tion of the buttons. 

Automation tech­nol­ogy:
Our dis­plays and user inter­faces make it easy to mon­i­tor and con­trol auto­mated processes.

Special machines:
Robust cover glasses, car­rier plates and hous­ings pro­tect the oper­at­ing sur­faces from exter­nal influ­ences such as dust, mois­ture or vibrations.

Control cab­i­net con­struc­tion:
Customized solu­tions for con­trol pan­els that ensure ergonomic and reli­able interaction.

Our ref­er­ence cus­tomers include well-​known com­pa­nies and insti­tu­tions from the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing sec­tor who rely on our solu­tions and use them suc­cess­fully in their applications:

  • BERGHOF
  • Schubert
  • Beckhoff
  • Kistler
  • Rexroth
  • SFC
  • Corpuls
  • attocube

    • Do you have any ques­tions? We have the answers! In our FAQs you will find an overview of the most fre­quently asked ques­tions about HMIs in med­ical tech­nol­ogy. If you can­not find the right answer here, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us directly — we will be happy to help you. 

    Safety & com­pli­ance with stan­dards — emer­gency stop func­tion, com­pli­ance with rel­e­vant stan­dards (e.g. EN ISO 13849, IEC 60204–1)
    Robustness & pro­tec­tion — indus­trial pro­tec­tion classes (e.g. IP65), resis­tance to dust, vibra­tion and tem­per­a­ture
    User-​friendliness & ergonom­ics — intu­itive menu nav­i­ga­tion, oper­abil­ity even with gloves
    Information dis­play & pre­ci­sion — clear visu­al­iza­tion of sta­tuses, stan­dard­ized colour codes (red = fault, green = oper­a­tion)
    Reliability & dura­bil­ity — high reli­a­bil­ity, con­tin­u­ous oper­a­tion capability

    The opti­mum mate­ri­als and input tech­nolo­gies depend on the spe­cific appli­ca­tion, the quan­tity struc­ture and your bud­get. We will be happy to advise you and find the best solu­tion together. 

    Yes, depend­ing on the appli­ca­tion, the size, oper­at­ing con­cept, opti­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions and inter­faces can be adapted. With us, you get every­thing from a sin­gle source!

    Whether it’s spe­cial dis­play sizes, hous­ing mate­ri­als, user inter­faces or brand­ing – the more pre­cisely the require­ments are defined, the more accu­rately we can develop the HMI.

    Our HMIs offer flex­i­ble inter­faces (e.g. USB, Ethernet) so that they can be eas­ily inte­grated into exist­ing IT and med­ical sys­tems. Customer-​specific adap­ta­tions to pro­pri­etary inter­faces are also possible. 

    Optical bond­ing is a method used to bond touch dis­plays and pro­tec­tive glass or films together with­out an air gap. The use of a trans­par­ent opti­cal adhe­sive cre­ates strong, bubble-​free bonds that min­imise reflec­tions and sig­nif­i­cantly improve opti­cal qual­ity. Optical bond­ing offers increased resis­tance to shocks and vibra­tions and pro­tects the dis­play from dust and mois­ture ingress. Optical bond­ing pre­vents con­den­sa­tion from form­ing in front of the display.

    An HMI dis­play in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing must be read­able in chang­ing light con­di­tions, pro­tected against dust, liq­uids, tem­per­a­ture and vibra­tion and chem­i­cally resis­tant. This is why sunlight-​readable, anti-​reflective, high-​brightness dis­plays (1000+ cd/​m²) in robust stain­less steel or alu­minum hous­ings are often used. 

    With many years of expe­ri­ence as a man­u­fac­turer, we know the spe­cific require­ments of the indus­try inside out. Our exper­tise in tech­ni­cal solu­tions enables us to develop reli­able, inno­v­a­tive and prac­ti­cal HMIs that meet the high­est demands. 

    General questions

    With our man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ners in Asia, we can offer a low-​cost alter­na­tive for almost any HMI.

    - Long avail­abil­ity of mate­ri­als
    - As few prod­uct changes as pos­si­ble
    - Traceability
    - Consistent qual­ity
    - Local con­tacts for ques­tions and find­ing solutions

    Yes, of course EP can sup­port you with the inte­gra­tion of your exist­ing dis­play and elec­tri­cal com­po­nents. Our team is at your side with exper­tise and prac­ti­cal solu­tions to ensure smooth and effi­cient inte­gra­tion into your exist­ing application. 

    1. Send enquiry: Please send us all avail­able infor­ma­tion along with your enquiry, such as draw­ings, require­ments, data sheets and other documents.

    2. Check fea­si­bil­ity: We then check the fea­si­bil­ity of your project inter­nally and con­tact you with any ques­tions or sug­ges­tions we may have. 

    3. Quotation: After a suc­cess­ful fea­si­bil­ity study, we will pre­pare a detailed quotation. 

    4th order: Check fea­si­bil­ity: With your order, we start cre­at­ing the release draw­ing. Questions may still arise dur­ing this phase, which we will clar­ify together. 

    5. Approval & sched­ul­ing: Once you have con­firmed the approval draw­ing, we will start sched­ul­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing the product.

    6. pro­duc­tion & deliv­ery: Production starts as soon as the mate­r­ial arrives. After suc­cess­ful pro­duc­tion and out­go­ing inspec­tion, your items are dispatched. 

    7 There are no min­i­mum order quan­ti­ties with us: Even a cus­tomized sam­ple is pos­si­ble. Whether small, medium or large quan­ti­ties — we real­ize your project reli­ably and flexibly. 

    The deliv­ery time gen­er­ally depends on the com­po­nents used and the tech­ni­cal approval. The deliv­ery time is there­fore deter­mined indi­vid­u­ally when the quo­ta­tion is pre­pared. However, if com­po­nents have already been deter­mined, we can go into pro­cure­ment prior to over­all approval in order to reduce the over­all deliv­ery time. 

    You can con­tact us directly via our con­tact form or by email. Please pro­vide us with the details of your project and we will pre­pare a cus­tomised quote for you.

    Everything from a single source

    Why EP Electronic Print?

    At EP Electronic Print, we rely on state-​of-​the-​art com­po­nents and tech­nolo­gies to develop inno­v­a­tive and cus­tomized HMI solu­tions.

    Do you have any ques­tions or would you like to find out more about our HMI solu­tions?

    Our team will be happy to advise you and work with you to find the best solu­tion for your project. Use our con­tact form or call us directly — we look for­ward to hear­ing from you!

    Project request
    Technical ques­tion

    We are here for you


      Fragen zu Ihrem Projekt:
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