Trying to find out what material used in photo.

[ToddChapman]

Hello all.

I have developed a product and have a need to replace an expensive aluminum anodized touch panel with a cheaper and more easily produced substitute.

In the photo there is a high tech oven shown that is made in Europe. The surface looks like black glass or some type of polymer, hard to tell.

I want to find a very nice looking material for a graphic overlay to place on top of a PCB that has touch sensors on it [capacitive-Qprox]. The concept is there are no physical switches, the finger touching the panel alone creates a pulse from the sensors and circuitry, the circuitry and sensors are just below the surface.

Glass is not an option as it needs to be milled, drilled, etc, and that would be too costly. Plexi is not good as it is too soft and will collect scratches. A multi layer [laminated] approach is probably best as there as I would prefer to have a transparent or translucent top layer, and with various holes on the sub layers light can pass through from LED's.

The application is a numeric keypad/thumbprint scanner and data entry panel that is visible to the public and requires a nice aesthetic, it must look expensive, elegant.

After days of emailing companies on Google under "face plates", "name plates", "graphic overly", they all carry the same basic "cheap" looking medical type display material. That cheap look will not work for the appearance needs.

It cannot be metal or electrically conductive, the aluminum version is milled/electrically separated and reassemble with glue, very time consuming and costly on the milling and gluing, anodizing etc.

If anyone knows of a material like this stove top that can be preferably laser cut, or worst case machined, please let me know. I do not need the high temp capacity such as the stove requires, but the look is what I am after, scratch resistant to years of regular touching by hand, plus attractive and visually appealing. 1/8" is the total thickness, or it can be laminated if needed.

This is new territory for me and I have no experience with materials other than metal, so any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[patprimmer]

The cook top looks like glass to me.

Acrylic (Plexiglass) is about the most scratch resistant of all clear hard plastics.

Polycarbonate can be treated to improve scratch resistance. The best known brand is Lexan MR, but I am sure that a competitive product will also be on the Makrolon range. This also gives excellent scratch resistance.

Regards

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[ToddChapman]

Thanks a lot for the Lexan MR info, I spoke to a rep and am looking into it as an option.

There is an issue with it being not good with accepting glue, and finding singled sided MR was not possible [or feasible cost wise as the require special order]. They suggested mechanical fastening, which is not an option.

I am looking at a treatment for Acrylic as an alternative.

 

[Demon3]

Pat's right. I have worked in the industry and those tops are made of a special glass with a thermal expansion coefficient of zero. That's so that they don't crack due to heating and cooling. It's expensive stuff.

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