Ever walk up to a screen and touch it thinking it is or should be a touch screen? Human to machine interfaces are everywhere now so it is not uncommon to expect that functionality on everything. Functional printing is what makes those interactions possible.
You’ve seen it before, holding your phone over a payment box, or touching your hotel room key up to the door to unlock it – this new, convenient, technology uses Near Field Communications (NFC) antennas. These antennas allow data/information to be transmitted wirelessly, requiring no mechanical manipulation or physical interaction.
Ever wonder how design engineers take your ideas for a product and poof, the size, the color, the circuitry, every detail is on point? It takes years of knowledge and experience but here's a little secret...they get some assistance from handy software programs! (SHOCKING, I know). Let me tell you a little bit about these helpers, the most commonly used by design engineers are Adobe Illustrator, SolidWorks and AutoCAD.
You might be thinking, "what is a clean room?" or maybe you're thinking, "I don't care about them so I'm willing to take that bet.." Well imagine this:
In an effort to keep our employees informed on best practices to stay safe, in any environment, we called in the Milwaukee Police Department to give us the low down. As difficult as some of the topics were, our employees were able to leave with the basic knowledge of how to be prepared and stay safe. During this safety and crime prevention training we learned of some key take-aways:
Printed Electronics Now reported that Cambrios Technologies is shutting down.
Why is this news for Xymox? Because Cambrios made silver nanowires which were used to make clear conductive films used in projected capacitive touch sensors. Xymox also manufactures projected capacitive sensors. Does Cambrios’ departure from the touch screen ecosystem impact Xymox? In one word, No, but we are interested in those that make it and those that don’t within our market.
In some applications and harsh environments, a membrane switch may not fit the bill. You may want a very thick overlay for an application where the front of a keypad may see some abuse or harsh use. Or maybe you need a thick polycarbonate overlay (.060” or greater for example), but often those are too thick for the user to press and short together the membrane switch circuit.
Our partner, Enfucell, put out a press release for an exciting new product using the same printed battery technology that Xymox manufactures!
