In our previous article, we analyzed why most capacitive touch screens require tooling, touching on differences between custom and standard touch screens. As the touch screen market continues to grow, customization has become a trend. To help buyers better understand the distinction, this article focuses on their core gaps from three dimensions: design philosophy, performance specifications, and application scenarios.
1. Design Philosophy
Standard touch screens aim for mass production, adopting fixed dimensions (e.g., 10.1″, 15.6″ standard sizes) and basic functional configurations to meet the fundamental interaction needs of over 80% of general scenarios. For example, they suffice for basic touch responses in bank ATMs, hospital self-service check-in kiosks, etc., with no need for special protection or customized interfaces.
Custom touch screens are oriented toward “solving specific problems,” involving re-engineering from hardware to systems. Examples include:
- Structural design: Customizing screen cut angles, back wiring, or even irregular shapes (e.g., circular, sloped) to fit special installation spaces.
- Function integration: Pre-installing specific operating systems, integrating communication drivers (e.g., PLC protocol adaptation), or deeply customizing scanning logic/serial port configurations to directly meet seamless docking needs of production line equipment.
- Material selection: Using impact-resistant tempered glass, anti-glare coatings, or anti-fingerprint/UV-resistant surface treatments for industrial scenarios, whereas standard consumer screens typically use plain glass.
2. Performance Specifications
Environmental Adaptability
Standard touch screens generally operate within 0°C–40°C and 20%–80% humidity.
Custom touch screens can push limits: industrial-grade models support wide-temperature operation (-30°C–85°C) and pass IP65/IP67 waterproof/dustproof certifications; medical-grade models meet ISO 13485 certification with antimicrobial glass coatings and chemical corrosion resistance.
Interaction Precision
Standard touch screens (e.g., consumer capacitive screens) are limited by finger contact area, with a click precision of ~3–5mm, making it hard to operate UI elements smaller than 1cm.
Custom touch screens achieve sub-millimeter precision via optimized touch algorithms—for example, supporting 0.5mm stylus tracking in medical devices.
3. Application Scenarios
Standard touch screens primarily serve standardized scenarios like consumer electronics and commercial terminals, such as multi-touch interaction in smartphones/tablets, and POS systems/self-service ordering kiosks in retail.
Custom touch screens deeply penetrate vertical industries like industrial automation, medical, and automotive:
- Industrial automation: Supporting glove operation, precise touch in oily environments, or even integrating vibration feedback to enhance blind operation efficiency for operators.
- Medical devices: Using antimicrobial glass and fanless designs to meet strict cleaning requirements in operating rooms, with support for gloved or disinfection-pen operation.
- Smart vehicles: Integrating OLED displays with capacitive touch to enable seamless interaction on curved center consoles, and passing automotive-grade certifications (e.g., AEC-Q100) to ensure reliability in -40°C–80°C environments.
Notably, the consumer electronics industry is also highly competitive, with user experience as a key focus—thus, customization is gradually becoming a trend here too.
Customization is set to be the future, and enterprises weigh multiple factors when choosing it, especially cost. The next article will focus on analyzing the costs of custom touch screens to help avoid pitfalls in customization.
