In a marine environment, capacitive touchscreens (like your cell phone or tablet screen, but more rugged) need to cope with harsh conditions such as salt spray, humidity, exposure to sunlight, vibration, and more. Without proper protection, screens are prone to malfunction, scratches and even complete damage. Here are some protection methods to help you extend the screen life from a certain extent:
1, the marine environment on the touch screen of the 4 “killers”
(1) salt spray corrosion
Problem: Salt particles after the evaporation of seawater will corrode the screen bezel and circuitry, resulting in touch failure.
Solution: Use stainless steel shell (such as 316 marine steel) + fully sealed design (waterproof like a diving watch).
(2) Humidity and condensation
Problem: The temperature difference between inside and outside the cabin is large, the screen is easy to fog or water inside.
Solution: The screen is equipped with an automatic heating film (similar to the defogging of automobile mirrors), which is automatically activated at low temperatures.
(3) Sun exposure
Problem: the strong light can not see the screen, ultraviolet light will also make the screen aging yellow.
Solution: choose a bright display, and increase the anti-glare coating, can effectively reduce the adverse light response. For ultraviolet light, the budget is sufficient, you can increase the anti-UV coating, can effectively reduce the damage of ultraviolet light on the screen.
(4) Boat vibration
Problem: Wave shaking leads to mistaken touch or screen loosening.
Solution: Fix it with anti-vibration bracket and add anti-false-touch settings on the software (e.g. long-press for 1 second to take effect).
2、5 Practical Protection Measures
(1) Choose the right screen material
Outer layer: choose high-quality tempered glass, good hardness, anti-scratch, long service life.
Coating: anti-fingerprint treatment, water beads and salt spray fall off as soon as you wipe.
(2) Strict waterproof and dustproof
Ensure that the screen reaches IP67 or IP68 waterproof grade (able to soak in 1 meter deep water for 30 minutes without breaking).
All interfaces are sealed with rubber plugs, and the bezel is waterproof adhesive (such as marine silicone).
(3) Salt spray resistant design
Use stainless steel or titanium alloy for metal parts to avoid rusting.
Wipe the screen weekly with a fresh water damp cloth to prevent salt crystal buildup.
(4) Sunlight and heat resistant
If often used in the open air, choose a screen with a brightness ≥1000 nits.
Avoid prolonged exposure to the sun, and cover the screen with a sunshade when it is out of service.
(5) Software optimization
Enable glove mode (increase touch sensitivity, can be operated even with gloves).
Anti-false touch design: add anti-false touch algorithm on the software side.