Admetro

1
(No Transcript)
2
(No Transcript)
3
Tment thanks to innovations from this livewire
company.
Written by Robert Hoshowsky
ouch screen technology has come a very long way
since A
D Metro was founded in 1993, with some of that
advance-

• Today, its hard to imagine a time without this
  timesaving technology, appearing on everything
  from smartphones and self-serve kiosks in
  fast-food restaurants to handheld game consoles,
  all-in-one computers, ATMs, and more. And then
  there are the specialist applications, such as
  military and aero- space, transportation,
  industrial, medical, and marine.
• Providing touch screen solutions to leading
  original equip- ment manufacturers (OEMs), system
  integrators, and value- added resellers, A D
  Metros range of control panels, kiosks, and
  mobile computing solutions continues to advance
  the tech- nology and broaden the market, bringing
  the company repeat business and a respected place
  in the field.
• Much of A D Metros success comes from the
  companys well-earned reputation for service,
  quality, and stability.
• A D Metros touch screen technology is also found
  in products delivered by Fortune 100 companies
  for applications in defense, aerospace,
  industrial automation and medical equipment.
• Much of A D Metros success comes from the
  companys well- earned reputation for service,
  quality, and stability, says Albert David,
  President, CEO, and Chief Technical Officer. The
  company creates the raw sensor technology which
  fits into monitors, ter- minals, and other
  applications.
• Once products are qualified, they cannot be
  changed unless theyre re-qualified. One instance
  is a small medical patient monitor, which the
  company has supplied to a client for about eight
  years.

• Even if we wanted to change the simplest little
  component on the touch screen we make for them,
  theyd have to go through a re-qualification
  process, and that holds everything up, David
  explains. Once the design is set in stone, they
  start producing high volumes, but nothing can
  change on it. So the key to our success is
  delivering a reliable, quality product, with
  great service, to ensure that this captive
  audience in both medical and defense applications
  is not motivated to try and change developers.
• An industry veteran, David was active in
  technology long before founding A D Metro 30
  years ago, and was working for a Japanese company
  distributing computer componentry. There was
  plenty of competition in the market, and the
  companywhich rebrand- ed product and sold it
  under its logobegan to lose market share.
  Davids assessment was that there was a market
  out there, but for an expanded product line, if
  he could acquire more sup- pliers. He soon found
  a partner in Montreal and launched Prime
  Peripheral, which focused on PC point-of-sale
  peripherals.
• About three years later, David bought out his
  partner, moved the head office to Ottawa, and
  changed the name to A D Metro. It stands for
  Alpha Delta Metro, not Albert David, he
  laughs. The reason for that was to get us to the
  top of lists in trade shows and publications with
  a name that started with an A.
• The companys early years focused on
  point-of-sale and PC peripheral products like
  cash drawers, receipt printers and
  displaysessentially everything that would be
  connected to a PC to make it a point-of-sale
  system. The reason, he says, was that Canada
  introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in
  1991. When GST came in, you had to be able to
  track input credits and apply them against what
  you had to pay at the end of the reporting
  period, he explains.

4
Dedicated cash registers werent able to do that
at the begin- ning, so a lot of software vendors
started developing software to make intelligent
point-of-sale systems. Once that became
successful, restaurant management systems began
to flourish and use some of the same basic
peripherals, like touch screens.
screens became a natural evolution of
point-of-sale and restau- rant management
systems, making ordering easier, incorporat- ing
barcode scanners, and being able to pick an item
from a menu on a screen without navigating via
mouse and keyboard.
Touch screens were a natural evolution, says
David, adding that since these screens were also
smaller than a keyboard and mouse, they helped to
save table space.
Thanks to touch screen technology, businesses
like restau- rants were able to track orders and
receipts. Servers couldnt invite friends to have
a free meal, because nothing could be ordered
through the kitchen unless it went through the
point-of-sale system.
At the time A D Metro started, all touch screens
were convex- shaped bent touch screens, designed
to sit in a cathode-ray tube (CRT), back when all
monitors were CRT. The challenge was to find
vendors who could slump the glass to match the
curvature of a 14-inch CRT monitor, form the
polyester
Along with deterring theft, point-of-sale systems
unified orders and sped up how quickly they could
be inputted. Touch
5
as receipt printers, cash drawers, pole displays,
and barcode scanners, went from branded status
items to commodities. As competitive pressure
from Asia grew, David realized there were
servicing gaps relating to defence, military,
medical, and industrial requirements. While
offshore producers were putting out cheaper,
consumer-type products, these were not
suitable. Described as a game changer for
medical, military, and defence applications,
ULTRA Resistive Touch Screens can go where
capacitive and regular resistive technology
cannot. Higher-end applicationsindustrial,
medical, and military cant use and dont want
to use products like that, he says. We started
looking for technology that would differentiate
our offerings from cheap suppliers because there
was a need, and people started coming to
us. This led to his finding a way to put very
thin micro glass on a resistive sensor, which
resulted in the creation of the com- panys
flagship product, ULTRA. Described by David as a
game changer for medical, military, and defence
applications, ULTRA Resistive Touch Screens can
go where capacitive and regular resistive
technology cannot. Working the same way as
resistive touch screen sensors, ULTRAs
Glass-Film-Glass (GFG) construction features a
boro- silicate glass membrane (essentially
tempered Pyrex), which reduces fracturing,
prolongs lifespan, and has an extended
operational temperature range.
Available in display sizes ranging from 3 to
24, the ULTRA 5-Wire resistive armoured touch
sensors are ideal for applica- tions such as
airports, railways, and rapid transit systems.
Its still being sold, and is our number one
product, with many patents on it, says David.
membrane with a conductive coating on it to fit
the shape, and put everything together to make a
membrane-type touch screen.
You couldnt just put an ad in the paper and
hire an engineer who had touch screen technology
and knew how to do this, and there were also
trade secrets. Using his engineering knowledge,
David cobbled a system together and found a
supplier who could make bent glass. A D Metro
then began making the first bent touch screens,
selling them under their own brand. As technology
evolved, the industry moved away from bent CRTs
to flat-screen LEDs. Around the same time,
peripherals sold by the company, such
6
Unlike capacitive touch screen technologies,
ULTRAs resistive touch technology does not emit
any radiofrequency, so it is ideal for the
stealth requirements of defense applications. It
is able to operate in any weather, and the
companys demon- stration video shows it taking a
beating, still functioning after being burnt,
frozen, and having ice scraped off it. Also able
to operate underwater and in any environmental
conditions, it is well-suited for outdoor
applications, such as car washes.
Recently, A D Metro received a call that the
kiosk manufacturer wanted them back supplying
ULTRA touch screen solutions. Thats a good
example of where we can go, and where other
technologies cannot go.
ULTRA is also used in many medical applications.
Durable and salt-free borosilicate glass is
resistant to many chemicals, which allows the
screens to be sanitized.
David recalls a large Canadian Oil and Gas
customer using ULTRA touch screen terminals
outside car washes until recently, when the
company making kiosks was replaced by another
manufacturer and used touch screens from another
maker. The new business didnt use ULTRA, but
some sort of projected capacity touch screen
which was rife with problems, especially touch
screens turning dark and discolouring from
sunlight.
Along with ULTRA, A D Metro has developed other
leading technologies. These include LCIR (Linear
Correlating Infrared) touch screens used in
avionics, particularly in helicopters where the
technology solves a problem specific to these
aircraft.
7
The combination of a helicopters fast-rotating
blades and sunlight can create a strobe effect
that interferes with light- registering
instruments. A D Metro came up with a unique
technology that works in an environment where
competitors products will not, since they cant
function with sunlight hitting the optics. As a
frame-based technology working with infrared
light beams, LCIR can tolerate direct sunlight.
hard-wired to the computer. Plug in the ARGON
controller and it will sense channels and
parameters to ensure optimal touch performance.
It is so sensitive it can be operated wearing
latex gloves.
We can do a lot of things with the ARGON product
that we developed to make plug-and-play usage out
of projected capacitive that you cant do with
just a standard projected capacitive controller,
explains David. Theres no need to work with
suppliers on programming changes and operation,
unlike with other products on the market.
With LCIR, there is no substrate glass covering
the display, so nothing impedes the optics. This
makes it ideal for radar, mapping applications,
high-contrast applications, and avionics. While
some manufacturers claim that their products can
work with sunlight, it is only possible with a
deep top to shield the optics, shading them from
direct sunlight.
The company has several prominent suppliers of
Projected Capacitive (PCAC) chips expressing
interest in ARGON. Were working with a few of
them right now to see if we can make an industry
standard of that to make it much easier to use
projected capacitive technology without the high
level of support thats required.
Thats kind of inelegant, whereas we have a very
compact design, says David. Our frame is
one-eighth of an inch high and a quarter of an
inch thick, whereas the competition might be
three-quarters of an inch thick. The very tight
restrictions in avionics control panels make them
impractical to install where space is extremely
limited and displays crush up against each
other, he explains. Thats where weve got the
edge. You dont need that type of top cover to
keep the sunlight out.
Although there are no particular plans to mark
the companys 30th anniversary, Albert David is
upbeat about A D Metros future.
If we are here today, we wont be gone tomorrow
we were here in 1993, and were still here in
2023. Were not a fly-by- night operation, and we
have a solid, in-demand product line. Were
servicing a niche market that a lot of higher
volume sup- pliers dont seem interested in.
Thanks to A D Metro, these screens are also
impervious to dirt and debris. Since optics are
in front, theyre easy to clean, and will
actually instruct the user to wipe the screen.
The company is also behind the ARGON PCAP. A
projected capacitive controller, it senses and
adapts to the connected (off-the-shelf) PCAP
sensor size, format, and cover glass. Projected
capacitive controllers need to be programmed to
the actual sensors theyre working with because
they have a sequence of horizontal and vertical
channels. These channelsand there can be 100 of
themare
Content Developed by Jamal Francis-Anderson
Designed by Ebic Tristary
8
1390 Star Top Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1B
4V7 P 1 613 742 5545 F 1 613 742 5245 E
support_at_admetro.com admetro.com
As featured in
December 2023 - January 2024