I’m developing a touch based gaming unit and I need it to take a beating. I’m told that there is a difference in my options for coverglass on PCAP – that it’s easiest to have thick glass instead of polycarb – is this true and why is that?
Gamer Dude,
Touch Guy knows about beating on gaming machines, and not only the one he beat after it stole his money.. At one time, during the heyday of S-cap in gaming machines, TI was the largest supplier to the Las Vegas repair market; we have photos of bullet holes, deep cuts from keys and diamond rings, and a brick being tossed at an outdoor gaming machine in Europe. So we can help you make your machine super-tough.
P-cap has yet to become the dominate force in gaming machines, mostly because the market is not expanding as fast as it once did, and many casinos are holding on to their machines longer than they did in the past. However, compared to the existing S-cap and IR systems, P-cap offers a lower cost, more reliable solution. But you knew that, and are asking about the touch surface. In Touch Guy’s experience, based upon outside, unsupervised machines, (ATM’s comes to mind), you will find a tempered glass first surface to be your best choice. Tempered glass, is a very low cost material and can be laminated with a standard p-cap sensor all the way up to the level of being bullet proof (literally). Automobile windows are laminated tempered glass. Should your machine need a curved touch screen, this would be the way to go as well. Bring on the pounding.
Chemically hardened plastics have been remarkably improved in the last two years, some claiming scratch resistance equal to that of glass….we have tested and can confirm that is
accurate. Touch uses these magic plastics in products it is shipping now and our customers are pleased with the performance. However, we need to warn you that they are extremely expensive. As a minor consideration, the image from the display is not quite as good, and the touch sensitivity may be a little bit less good than with glass. If you are one of the lucky ones that does not have a weight problem, I mean your machine does not have a weight budget, lower cost tempered glass, even chemically strengthened glass, is a better choice than any of the exotic plastics.
If you have not read the white paper on hardened glass you might take a look at http://touchinternational.com/literature/Glass-Substrates-Whitepaper.html
However, if you really want to use those expensive plastics, you might as well consider TI’s soon to be release PCAP Plus, which will add pressure sensing and immunity to the cuba libre dumped on your new machine while preserving the no-wear, great image, and mutl-touch features of the p-cap solution.
Until Next Time,
Touch Guy