TFT/LCD Displays
Our range of TFT/LCD Displays have been especially designed to give exceptional performance in demanding environments. Their flat screen technology, long life expectancy and zero maintenance make Data Display's TFT Displays a popular choice for a wide range of customer facing applications such as rail stations, bus terminals, airports and shops.
The Data Display 20″ Ruggedised TFT Display, shown here in Merseytravel yellow but is available in a choice of different housing colours.
What is TFT/LCD?
LCD is an acronym for Liquid Crystal Displays. LCD displays are made up of a series of liquid crystals, which can be manipulated by an electric current to block or pass light (usually from a backlight within the display). Colour LCD displays have been around for many years. Going back a decade there were different types of colour LCD displays commonly available — the technically most superior being TFT displays. TFT is an acronym for Thin Film Transistor. TFT displays were the displays of choice for laptop computers and were referred to as TFT displays to distinguish them in the buyer's mind from the lesser types of LCD.
With the advent of flat-screen televisions the term LCD has been widely adopted to distinguish LCD from plasma (which is a totally different technology). But to be accurate these LCD displays are TFT.
Data Display has developed a new range of very low maintenance Ruggedised TFT Displays for applications needing an industrial display with flat screen and full colour capabilities. Standard screen sizes available include 20″, 32″ and 40″. For large projects other sizes can be designed and manufactured to special order.
A unique feature of all monitor sizes is the thermodynamically styled aluminium TFT housing which enables heat generated internally to be dissipated to the outside air. This is achieved without the use of cooling fans and yet maintaining an IP65 seal against dust and water ingress. This means that no routine maintenance is required until it is time to replace the long-life backlight. The backlights have a rated lifetime of typically 50,000 working hours which equates to over 5 years depending upon usage.
All TFT monitors are normally supplied with an integrated single board PC which has a solid state disk. Embedded Windows XP is supplied as standard.
For some specialised applications in the rail sector a non-Windows application supplied by Data Display is used to format the screen display from an external data feed. Supported formats include the Atos Origin EDF feed and the Amey Datel ADP feed.
The PC versions of the TFT displays have an Ethernet interface as standard. Alternatively, an optically isolated serial interface can be provided — either RS232 or RS485.
Alternatively, these displays are available without the integrated PC. In this case Data Display can provide a composite video interface, or RGB (sync on green), RGB with separate sync, or VGA.
All sizes of Ruggedised TFT displays are fitted with tough polycarbonate front screens. As an extra cost option Data Display can fit laminated glass which, although heavier, gives better results optically. This is further enhanced with an anti-reflective finish.
These Ruggedised TFT displays were selected as the standard fit for Departure Summary Boards in confined spaces such as waiting rooms for the Network Rail Modern Facilities at Stations project in 2003.
For high ambient light applications, Data Display is introducing a range of transflective LCD/TFT displays. The transflector operates in transmissive mode to allow the backlight to illuminate the display in low ambient light whilst in high ambient light including direct sunlight the transflector operates in reflective mode to allow the external light to be reflected back through the liquid crystal display.
If you have any specific requirements, please contact us and we will be more than happy to discuss the project in more detail.
