Polyester film cuts cost of large touch screens
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MacDermid Autotype product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Nov 12, 2003
U-Touch has entered the large-format touchscreen overlay market with an innovative product based on Autotype's Autoflex EB polyester film.
U-Touch has entered the large-format touchscreen overlay market with an innovative product based on Autotype's Autoflex EB polyester film.
By using the high-quality hard-coated film, the London-based firm has created a reliable product and has also slashed production costs by 20%.
Plasma screens are the must-have audio-visual accessories in boardrooms up and down the country.
The streamlined displays, sleek profiles and crystal-clear images define modern corporate communication.
Business doesn't stand still for long, however, and there is a growing demand for additional uses for these impressive wall-mounted screens.
The innovative retrofit solution introduced by U-Touch exploits Autoflex EB's inherent properties to create a truly interactive and durable display, converting large-format plasma screens into resistive touchscreens, which can be used to navigate around Windows or multimedia programmes.
U-Touch's overlays are formed from Autoflex EB films, which have been coated with a clear, conductive ITO material.
This process is known as sputtering and eliminates the need for additional lamination.
It has provided U-Touch with considerable cost savings and a tangible advantage over its competitors, which typically rely on conventional methods of lamination.
Liam Slattery, one of U-Touch's founding directors, says the 175-micron film is a fundamental element of the company's ultra-thin overlay design.
"It's the absolute crux of how the overlay works", Slattery says.
"Not only does it have an antiglare surface, it's also thin enough to retain the look and feel of the plasma screen, to the extent that customers often don't know the overlay is there".
"Before launching U-Touch in 2001, I had gained a lot of experience working for touchscreen manufacturers that used traditional multi-layer methods to produce touchscreens", Slattery explains.
"When I started my own business, I wanted to use Autotype because I knew it supplied good-quality materials that can make a real difference to production costs.
For example, because Autoflex EB already has a conductive layer, we save about two hours of production time on each touchscreen.
Add materials to that, and it roughly translates into a 20% cost saving on each unit".
Autoflex EB's chemical, abrasion and scratch resistant surface also protects the plasma screen, helps to eliminate reflection from the face of the screen, and allows text or graphics to be drawn on the outer face.
Slattery concludes that, "Autoflex EB is the only film of its kinds that provides the levels of performance we need for our customers.
It has exceptional clarity, superb scratch resistance and is easy to process".
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Contact MacDermid Autotype
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