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The right touch

touch

The right touch

Special features of and for touch displays in medical applications.

Touch displays for medical applications must follow strict rules and regulations. This makes a lot of sense because: Where many fingers touch the display, the chances of bacterial transmission are many times higher. Preventing this is a very desirable goal, not only for hospitals. Of course, displays must therefore be manufactured accordingly or prepared for use in medical applications. The biggest challenge for displays is therefore chemical: everything used in this environment must necessarily be regularly disinfected.

Medical equipment in general and displays in particular must be cleaned and disinfected several times a day to ensure that they are as sterile as possible when handling patients. As a result, they are exposed to a significantly higher chemical influence, in contrast to commodity devices such as tablets or mobile phones, for example. Since they cannot be made thermally sterile in a large box like scalpels or other utensils, special cleaning agents are used.

These contain aromatics or solvents in one form or another to eliminate bacteria and viruses. However, they not only act on these bacteria and viruses, but also on the entire device including its seals, surface coatings, the paint and much more. Displays in medical applications then try to intercept these attacks through design, material or construction. Typically, this is exactly the problem. Common weak points are the sealing areas and the sealing materials. This is where the cleaning agents penetrate most easily or are even massaged in with a brush with an actually good intention - and change the materials chemically: they become crumbly, sticky, hard or start to smear, the surface coating becomes dull or forms colourful streaks.

Too much of a good thing?

But it is precisely the idea behind a touch surface that means that displays are (have to be) touched frequently. This naturally increases the frequency of cleaning the surfaces and at the same time the risk of negative effects on the materials. Because if cleaning agents get into the interior of the devices, damage is caused by moisture and condensation. Bacteria can then penetrate even more easily into the interior and spread from there back to the surface. This is particularly critical for medical applications.

The design is therefore such that corners and edges or unnecessary openings are avoided from the outset, so that no dirt can collect in them or any agents can penetrate them. However, even the largest possible glass surface that extends over the entire device only helps to prevent the cleaning agent from penetrating superficially. Somewhere the glass must be attached to the rest of the housing - and this area is critical. The same applies to any connections or outputs of the device. The openings of, for example, loudspeakers, microphones or USB ports are predestined weak points. Often enough, antiseptic, anti-reflection or anti-fingerprint coatings are added to the general coating on the surface of the touch glass. These, however, then also become the first attack surface for cleaning agents that are smeared onto the glass.

Spoilt for choice

On the one hand, this creates the need to clean displays frequently. On the other hand, the surface finish, including seals and openings, must be protected so that it is not destroyed by cleaning agents. So be your fingers dirty, be it viruses or bacteria: The reagents with which the surface is to be cleaned or disinfected must be compatible with the material used in the display to such an extent that its surface quality does not change. Coatings, construction and design must also be so robust that they cannot be attacked. It is of no use if the display is disinfected, but is streaky, whitish or yellowish, or if parts of the light appear spotty or as a rainbow in different places. The latter can even lead to misinterpretations: In some cases, the white spot on an X-ray is actually just a white spot on the display - and nothing worse

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