Asset protection: Enclosures cover computers in sweet industrial setting

At one Nestlé plant, 175 industrial computers are rugged enough to take plant-floor abuse. Here's how.

By Control Engineering Staff

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Austin, TX, and Mt. Pleasant, PA – When you’re not using an industrial computer in an industrial environment, the enclosure, keyboard, and integrated mouse better stand up to the environment. At Nestle, 175 computer stations are rugged enough to take plant-floor abuse.

Beginning in early 2007, iKey Ltd. (Austin, TX) worked with ITSEnclosures (Mt. Pleasant, PA) to provide ITS’ client Nestle with 175 human resource kiosks for employees. ITS chose to use iKey’s DU-5K-OEM keyboard with integrated iKey HulaPoint pointing device, citing durability and success of prior collaborations between ITS and iKey.
The keyboards and kiosks are so durable they have achieved a less than a 3% failure rate over one year. Nestle’s HR department says unnecessary calls have declined steeply, because the kiosks allow self fulfillment of many routine requests.
Durability was needed for the 175 kiosks, each with hundreds of potential users daily. They needed to:
– Withstand spills, bumps, and constant repetitive use in a busy, uncontrolled environment, and resist theft, vandalism, and other property concerns; 
– Be user-friendly and accessible with industrial keyboard and pointer;
– Withstand environmental and reliability concerns by being waterproof, easy to clean, and difficult to steal or vandalize. 
To meet theseiosk, it would be theft-proof as well as durable, waterproof, and user-friendly, according to ITS. Having compared iKey’s DU-5K to competitive keyboards, ITSEnclosures recommended the keyboard to Nestle, and Nestle agreed.
– Edited by  Mark T. Hoske , editor in chief
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