"Due to the current coronavirus situation, more and more emphasis is being placed on cleaning and disinfecting HMIs," explains Gerhard Fragner, Sales Manager at Aaronn Electronic. "This means more demanding and more durable seals. There is a general trend towards HMIs with higher IP protection classes."
In addition, the emphasis is increasingly shifting from resistive to projected capacitive touch display technology: "Projected capacitive is becoming more and more important, especially when it comes to reducing disturbing elements such as drops of water or the palm of the hand on the display," he explains.

Hygienic design is therefore one of the topics that Aaronn, as a system integrator for products from Advantech and Kontron, among others, will be focusing on at SPS Connect. The 'FlatClient HYG' panel PC from Kontron has been developed in accordance with the EHEDG guidelines (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) and is protected with its stainless steel housing in the IP69K swivel arm version.

A cost-optimized device variant with VESA 100 mounting offers IP68 protection and allows cabling via M12 connectors or cable glands. All variants have a smooth, seamless display surface. Thanks to its stainless steel housing, the Panel PC is also suitable for washdown applications such as high-pressure cleaning. Its PCAP touch display can clearly differentiate between legitimate control inputs, even when operated with gloves, and disturbances such as the impact of water droplets or the accidental pressing of the entire ball of the hand.

At SPS Connect, Aaronn will also be presenting Advantech's ARK-1000, ARK-2000 and ARK-3000 series of box PCs designed for machine automation, which are particularly versatile thanks to their 'iDoor' concept. The concept is based on expansion modules according to the mini-PCIe standard, which enable a high degree of flexibility in terms of interfaces. More than 100 interface combinations are possible, from fieldbus modules to sensors, WLAN or mobile radio to the connection of displays and peripheral devices. Box PCs can therefore be quickly and easily equipped with different extensions in industry despite the standardized device base.

As an authorized system integrator, Aaronn offers suitable 19-inch rackmount servers from Kontron for AI applications that require high GPU performance. The 'KISS 4U V3 SKX-KI' version works with processors from the dual-intel Xeon SP series. It can be equipped with up to twelve DIMM DDR4-2666 modules and 768 GB of RAM. Up to three high-end GPU cards from Nvidia ensure the high GPU performance that is important for AI applications. This means the servers are equipped for automation, predictive maintenance, image analysis and image processing in medicine or as the basis for digital inspection systems.