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ePC Transition to iPC -Continuous Improvement at Work

May 2013

Continuous Improvement

“Making it better!”

Without Continuous Improvement . . . Nothing Improves!

•Sometimes we hear the comment, “Sounds like you’re bashing the older products…”

- If you don’t capitalize on “lessons learned,” then stay with the status quo and . . . “Nothing Improves”.

•If Chevrolet can talk about improvements to their 2014 Corvette 7th Generation, then Nematron can surely explain the reasons for our improvements in an industrial computer. (Click here for video)

•It is worth spending a few minutes to show why Nematron is here to stay and that we are committed to the future quality of our industrial computer products.

• The ePC-Series has been a great series, but we want better!

- ePC-Series has shipped nearly 4,000 units in the last 5+ years- Launched in early 2008- ePC-Series overall has demonstrated a less than 3% warranty failure rate- Fanless and SSD figured separately, less then 2%

How we are going to improve!

• Number ONE issue in Industrial PCs . . . the Rotating Hard Drive.

- Nematron eliminated this and decided to standardize on the Intel 40 GB Solid State Drives nearly 2 years ago

- After shipping nearly 2,000 Solid State Drives, we can count total number of failures on one hand

- We are NOT using the cheapest Taiwanese offering

- Fully UL/cUL certified

• Solid State Drives are Faster, Cooler, & more Reliable!

Solid

State

Rules!

•LCD Displays and Inverters changed to LED-backlit LCDs

- LED backlights eliminate the high voltage CCFL Backlights and Inverters

- Better EMI/RFI performance

- Generally brighter:

• ePC1200 @ 400 NIT => iPC1200 @ 450 NIT

• ePC1500 @ 300 NIT => iPC1500 @ 400 NIT

- Less connections and components resulting in higher reliability

- Being transitioned into the M-Series & ePC-Plus, and WILL be included in all new products

Brighter, More Reliable Backlighting

ePC1200 with Inverter iPC1200 with NO Inverter

LCD

Inverter

Boards

More Reliable Power Supply

• Over 5+ years, Nematron experienced some failures with the 100 Watt AC power supply used in the ePC-Series

– Occasionally burned components on bottom side (less than 1%)– Not good enough!– After several discussions with vendor with no resolution, we designed it out– Replaced with an Emerson (Aztec) 150 Watt power supply

• More margin and de-rating due to higher wattage capability• Conformal coating on bottom side

– Similar Emerson power supply utilized in M-Series without issue for many years

Old 100 Watt Emerson 150 Watt

• Puckering and wrinkling Touchscreens in high humidity conditions- Larger the screen size the more apparent this became- Multiple attempts working with vendor to resolve - over 5 years - to no avail- Switched to a vendor with a more stable and “flat” solution- Switched controller to eGalax version• To prevent issues, not allowed to use controller without the T/S- Much better overall performance and appearance• Higher Temperature & Humidity Specifications• Better Linearity & Accuracy- ePC-Lite and M2200W already use this solution, and all new products will utilize!

Better Touchscreen Solution

• Secondary insulation on power cables to prevent nicking

• More robust Molded SATA and drive power connection

The list goes on!

Old

SATA

&

Power

Connector

New

Molded

SATA

&

Power

Connector

No Insultation On Power Cables Secondary Insultation On Power Cables

• New better fan/sink with much more robust and consistent attachment

• Locking connectors to assure the new ANSI/ISA 12.12.01, Class I division 2 compliance

The list goes on!

Old

Fan/Sink

New

Fan/Sink

No Lock

on old

Connectors

New

Locking

Connectors

The list goes on!

• New I/O board that prevents flexing and intermittent connections- Improved during ePC-Series by adding a standoff

• Cosmetic enhancements

Old I/O Board(2-layer construction)

New I/O Board(4-layer construction, better EMI/RFI performance)

New plating process producing nicer looking rear chassis

New brighter chrome logo nameplates

The list goes on!

• 64-bit Operating System support

• More DRAM

• Dual video options on rear

- HDMI and Analog VGA ports, either can be use with internal LCD

- nPC-Series now available with dual Video!

VGA Port HDMI Port

And Best of All . . .

• No price increase!$ (ePC1500T-T2500-2GB-40SS-XP) = $ (iPC1500T-i5-2GB-40SS-W7)

• And better yet a Huge Performance Increase:

Note: Base level iPC-Series units with Intel Celeron P4500 actually outperform the upgraded ePC-Series units with T2500 for even less cost . . . and have

nearly as high a performance as the upgraded T7500 in the ePC-Plus units