Consider the lowly keyboard…NOT

Andrea Ebersbach was in today to visit us. She is Sales Manager for Indukey North America. She had lots of interesting product literature in tow and some really neat products for us to look at.
Remember that Dell wins the Readers’ Choice Award for Industrial PC every year. Now think about the keyboards that are supplied with Dell PCs. Made in China or elsewhere where labor is inexpensive and raw materials are too, they sell for about three bucks in quantities of 1000.
So how long do you think they survive on the plant floor? Not long, I betcha.
Now think about the latex and other plastic keyboard covers…remember how they yellow into unusability because you can’t see the key labels? And they still can’t take a washdown….
Now here’s a set of keyboards, with built in trackball (actually more of an eraserhead in action) that
is IP68/NEMA6P, is backlightable, can be dipped in disinfectant, dunked in water up to 6 feet, has great tactile feel, and is for all intents and purposes as good a factory floor keyboard as I’ve ever seen.
If I were a machine builder, an OEM, a major automation vendor, or just an end-user with lots of keyboards around my plant being “single point of failure” devices, I’d sure get me to my Indukey rep and get me some.
It is a joy to see what attention to detail, even for the “lowly” keyboard, can do.