Industrial PC with bright 15-inch touch panel
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

noax Technologies is a Germany-based developer and manufacturer of industrial touch panel PCs with offices in Europe and the United States. The company, which makes its own proprietary all-in-one motherboards, has many years of experience in the development and production of completely sealed industrial touch panel PCs without external fans. The panels are designed to be resistant to heat, cold, moisture, dust, vibration, shock, acids and detergents.

Though rather large, the C15 Industrial PC is part of the noax Compact Series. It measures 16.9 x 13.9 x 4.5 inches and weighs about 21 pounds. It is a completely sealed system that can be mounted in control panels or switching cabinets. The C15 has a tough aluminum/plastic enclosure and a large and very bright 15" XGA resolution TFT display with integrated resistive analog touch panel and automatic brightness control. The touch screen allows for simple operation via custom software applications. DC/DC converters are used to allow for diverse power supply conditions.

Heavy-duty connector locks and the absence of failure-prone components protect the C15 industrial computer against extreme mechanical stresses and environmental factors such as vibration, shock, dust or wetness. Sealing is either IP54 or IP65, depending on the connection cover used.

The C15 can be ordered with one of two noax-designed motherboards using either a 1GHz Intel Celeron M or a 1.4GHz Pentium M processor, has a wealth of on-board interfaces including four USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, digital video,, optional WiFi, and easy expandability through free standard slots that permit integration of various peripheral devices like transponders, chipcard readers or barcode scanners. Easy integration of various peripherals make the C15 with its very large display suitable for use in many areas of industrial production and logistics that require more power and connectivity than the smaller C8 and C12 panels.

A special Micro-Controller is standard in all noax industrial PCs. It performs a variety of monitoring, controlling, and statistical tasks such as temperature control, backlight control, or counting operating hours, and it can be adapted to customer requirements. noax also uses a proprietary touch controller for automatic panel control and readjustment.