Compact industrial PC with touch panel
(by Kirk Linsky)

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.

The C8 Industrial PC is part of the noax Compact Series. It measures 9.2 x 7.3 x 3.9 inches and weighs just over 8 pounds. It is a completely sealed system that can be mounted on or inside forklift trucks, order picking vehicles or all sorts of construction machinery. The C8 has a tough aluminum enclosure and a daylight-readable 8.4" 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 C8 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. A variety of mounting possibilities exist, all using standard VESA 75 standard mount brackets.

The noax-designed N7 motherboard uses an Intel Celeron 400 MHz processor, has on-board interfaces, optional WiFi, and a variety of expansion options such as PC/104+, low-profile PCI, or PC card slot that permit integration of various peripheral devices like transponders, chipcard readers or barcode scanners.

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.