You are in:
Keeping the coffee flowing
The sealed, easy-clean touch-keypad, measuring 837 by 204mm, features a graphics overlay manufactured from Autotex V200 film
Successful vending machines must attract customers and then offer reliable operation. Material selection plays a critical role as German-based Richard Wöhr explains
Data entry system and industrial housing specialist, Richard Wöhr, has launched an innovative vending machine keypad system using MacDermid Autotype film. Developed for vending machines dispensing coffee, snacks, cans and bottles, the keypad features commands for variable coffee strengths and automatic cup recognition and has been designed to offer reliability exceeding current market requirements in every way.
The sealed, easy-clean touch-keypad measures 837 by 204mm and is designed to withstand continuous service. The design of the pad means each beverage can be labelled with individual lettering or numbering on insertion strips, allowing customisation at point of sale.
Eighteen 16mm, gold-plated, snap domes encase the electrical switches and provide tactile response. These are then embossed for better performance. These keys are printed with conductive silver and carbon inks on MacDermid Autotype Autostat AHU-5 polyester film. Autostat is a heat-stabilised polyester film distinguished by its lay-flat characteristics.
For the graphics overlay Richard Wöhr used Autotex V200 film. This textured film comprises a polyester base and flexible, chemically bonded, UV-cured textured coating. The film is designed to surpass switch life and offer chemical resistance. Windowed areas were created using Windotex Gloss, a UV-curable, windowing lacquer designed to produce clear windows in Autotex film. This production method is designed to offer a simple, cost-effective way of producing windows without die-cutting or selective printing. Autotype states a further benefit of Autotex and Autostat is optical clarity that significantly reduces light loss and diffusion. Thus, lacquers and printed images on the reverse or insert strips retain their correct colour saturation, luminosity and contrast.
Richard Wöhr’s Stefan Wöhr explained: “Vending machines are an ongoing requirement and the market expects a constant supply of improved, maintenance-free and easy-to-use data entry systems. Conventional polycarbonate films are out of the question for applications like these. That's why we turned to MacDermid Autotype to provide this solution.
"We have used Autotex and Autostat regularly and have found these two materials to be simple to handle and process, especially for tactile or domed switches, where they offer a constant service life of more than five million switch actuations (tested to the DIN 42 115 standard). What is perhaps equally important is the fact that they offer extremely high chemical and mechanical strength and are therefore perfect for keypads that have to withstand constant use in demanding conditions.
“The stringent demands made on our products by their challenging fields of application call for the highest precision. Given our high quality standards, we needed a supplier with a similar approach to quality and reliability. With its industrial films, MacDermid Autotype is the market leader in the field of polyester overlay films and MTS films, and is therefore the ideal partner for us because we can count on their unrivalled strengths of quality, consistency, reliability and product availability."
