For one of our client companies, we made front panels in plexiglass (or PMMA) for an IOT chronothermostat, helping it to find the most suitable functional and aesthetic solutions. The new product is unveiled for the first time at MCE in Milan exhibition.
Building a partnership takes time and effort, requires sharing goals and responsibilities, open and two-way communication. That’s why we’re proud when it happens.
This is the case of a company from Vicenza, our client since 2005, which produce electronic systems for temperature control, gas detection, and combustion detection and analysis, to which they recently added devices IOT(Internet Of Things), such as chronothermostats or leak detectors connected to the Network and controllable remotely.
For a last generation chronothermostat we made front panels in plexiglass (or PMMA)
For the past six months we have been involved in the project of an IOT chronothermostat with capacitive membrane switch and E-Paper display, which was presented in absolute preview at MCE – Mostra Convegno Expocomfort in Milan (June 28-July 1).
With this product, we made plexiglass front panels with graphics that reflected the design studied by the customer.
“In the past, this type of product was managed by another supplier who also handled the assemblies” points out Mr. Alessandro Vignaga, Director and sales manager of MCS. «Our customer later internalized the assembly operations of the instruments, hence the need for a local supplier».
Intensive collaboration to overcome a functional criticality
Several samplings of these plexiglass front panels were made because on the one hand, the customer made special requests of us in that rather stringent touchpad sensitivity characteristics had to be met, and on the other hand, to remedy an issue with the functionality of the touchpad itself.
In fact, from the first tests, it was found that the thickness of the panel created an air gap between the sensitive area of the touchpad and the panel itself. Due to electrotechnical issues, this air gap prevented proper operation because it created false positives, spurious activations of the thermostat.
An intense exchange of analysis, suggestions, and proposals was immediately made to try to solve this critical problem. In the end, the problem was solved by making modifications to the PCB and reducing the thickness of the plexiglass panels as much as possible, in order to minimize the air gap.
The results were satisfying, representing a good trade-off between functionality and the user’s feeling of this product.
Customized coloring to achieve the best aesthetic result
The new chronothermostat has a very minimalist design, in accordance with the family feeling of the recent product series that the client company is offering to the market.
The thermostat features an E-Paper type display, plus two temperature increase and decrease buttons with a black background and a white arrow (one facing up and one facing down of course), plus a power button.
In the first deposition tests, the black of the keys emerged in sharp contrast to the display, which was gray in color.Therefore, we made custom colorings to reduce this contrast and make the coloring of the keys as close as possible to that of the display. Not a very easy thing, but was appreciated and adopted by our client.
The plexiglass front panels are completely white, so there could have been the possibility of transparency effects depending on particular angles of light. Therefore, we offered various deposition trials free of charge so that the company could choose the one they preferred.
Important feedback
As we have already mentioned, the new product is being previewed at the Milan exhibition, so at the time it is not possible to get feedback from end users.
We felt it was important that the company could receive a sampling of these panels in time for the exhibition -a kind of “preview” of the future 10,000 pieces to be produced-and it was.
The project manager let us know that he liked it, and that he was happy and proud to bring this product to the exhibition and present it to his customers, because it is a very good and aesthetically pleasing solution. And that for us is the most important feedback.