The customer initially invested in a rugged mobile tablet solution with vehicle docking station for their fleet of underground vehicles. However the durability of the product in a fine dust environment combined with general wear and tear resulted in a high number of failures. The associated cost of repairs and downtime prompted a re-evaluation of their requirements. The organisation concluded that a custom in-vehicle solution would offer the performance and durability required.

Solution Designed to Perform, Survive and Protect

After initial discussions APC Technology proposed an in-vehicle solution comprising of a custom stainless steel designed and manufactured 10.4” display with resistive touchscreen, custom connectors, mounting bracket and the IBASE MPT 7000 fanless PC.

• To reduce the previous vibration issue the display has been designed with a custom mounting bracket allowing the solution to be bolted directly onto the vehicles’ interior.
• The inclusion of a resistive touchscreen provides a significantly more durable screen technology allowing gloved and ungloved operation plus the use of objects such as a stylus pen.
• To ensure fine sand cannot ingress the unit, it is a fully sealed IP65 rated display.
• The unit has a power supply that enables it to withstand the extreme fluctuations that can be present in unregulated power provided by mining vehicles.
• An easy accessible dimmer switch located on the front panel enables the brightness of the screen to be adjusted as per the users’ requirements.

An additional custom option requested by the customer was M12 compatible connectors. The M12 connector offers a reliable hardened fully sealed solution for harsh environments plus a connectivity system which makes assembling, testing and servicing faster and less expensive. APC Technology developed and made M12 connectors for VGA, USB and the power supply based on the length specified by the client.

The MPT 7000 is a fanless PC solution from leading industrial equipment supplier IBASE and is distributed by APC Technology within ANZ. It offers ignition power control and is certified to EN50155/EN45545 ensuring vibration, shock, humidity and temperature industry standards are met providing reliability in a gruelling mining environment.