Putting together a machine with a TFT LCD module requires immense accuracy and attention to detail. And this is indeed true if you’re a manufacturer of a crucial machine such as a ventilator.
Ventilators are essential medical equipment that can help save the lives of critically-ill patients. These machines are most needed nowadays, what with the increasing number of people getting sick from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. Hence, it’s important to use the best touch screen display module for ventilators to ensure that the machine works its best all the time.
This post is meant to raise awareness on why TFT-LCD modules are the best types of display panels for ventilators in china. We’ll also give you a brief preview of what ventilators are, how a TFT LCD display module works for a ventilator machine, and why a touch screen TFT LCD screen is the best choice for ventilator screens.
A Brief Overview of What Ventilators Are
Ventilators are life-saving machines used in critical care areas, operating rooms, and hospital wards. Simply put, ventilators assist all kinds of patients in breathing. It does so by moving breathable air in and out of a patient’s lungs.
Ventilators are used in patients with conditions that affect lung function. Such conditions include:
- Respiratory illnesses such as flu, pneumonia, and COVID-19
- Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
- Lung conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, and lung cancer
- Stroke
- Brain injuries
- Damage to muscles and/or nerves used in breathing
- Drug overdose
In an operating room setting, the ventilator is used to ensure that the patient under general anesthesia continues to breathe while he is deeply asleep from sedation. In critical patients with great difficulties in breathing, the ventilator itself partially or completely helps the lungs expand and breathe. Premature babies may also be hooked to ventilators until their capacity to breathe on their own fully develops.
Parts of a Ventilator Machine
Ventilators are made up of many parts, all working together to provide life support to patients with breathing problems. Ventilators vary in designs depending on their manufacturer. However, the general parts of all ventilators include the following:
- Touch screen LCD display for patient monitoring and control settings
- Compressible air reservoir
- Tubes and valves set
- Air and oxygen supplies
- Disposable or reusable patient circuit plastic tube set
- Alarms, oxygen tanks, power back-ups or batteries
- Safety valves
- Pneumatic system or a computer-controlled turbopump (for modern machines)
A ventilator machine is a life-critical system. This means that any failure in its operations may result in patient death. Hence, ventilator manufacturers strictly design these machines in a way that no single point of failure will endanger a patient’s life.
Why a Touch Screen LCD Display is the Best for Ventilators
Modern ventilators in china now use TFT touch LCD display monitors. This is a big leap from the old ventilator models with minimum to no monitor displays.
So, why is a touch screen LCD display the best display module for ventilators? We enumerate them here:
1. Accurate Display Output
A TFT color LCD display allows the ventilator to accurately display patient monitoring parameters and machine settings. This is possible because the combination of TFT-LCD technologies results in high-resolution images displayed on the screen. And since the ventilator is a critical life-saving machine, an accurate display is of tantamount importance.
2. Easy to Operate
Touch screens make the ventilator easier to operate.
Before the advent of the touch LCD module, ventilators use buttons and dials to operate various machine settings and control patient alarms. But with the use of a touch screen LCD display, it’s easier to silence alarms, adjust machine parameters, and check on a patient’s vital signs.
A single touch and you can quickly operate the machine without any hassle. Also, you can even lock the screen with a single button so that no one can accidentally touch and change the ventilator settings.
3. Easy Cleaning and Less Susceptible to Contamination
Medical equipment like ventilators can be contaminated with various pathogens. Bacteria and fungi can transfer to the ventilator’s surface and even inside it due to frequent use and exposure to hospital air circulation.
Therefore, regular cleaning and disinfecting is a must for ventilators. This is to avoid transferring the harmful pathogens to the patient, watchers, and health care workers.
Now, using a TFT touch LCD display screen makes ventilator cleaning easier. This is because the screen is predominantly flat in a ventilator with a touch screen interface. Furthermore, there are fewer buttons and dials in such ventilators. A machine with plenty of buttons and dials makes for a good breeding space for harmful pathogens, as they’re harder to clean than those with flat touch screen interfaces.
4. LCD touch screens are multifunctional.
As previously mentioned, a ventilator with a touch LCD display screen has fewer dials, knobs, and buttons than those who use a non-touch TFT LCD display. And this is because of a touch screen’s multifunctional nature. The screen can display content while acting as an interface device at the same time.
5. Allows more ventilator portability
Machines meant to help patients breathe aren’t necessarily portable and lightweight. But using a touch TFT LCD display screen makes a full-blown ventilator significantly less bulky and more portable.
Imagine if you’d use an old display technology such as cathode ray tubes to power a ventilator’s display system. Now, that would be impractical and bulky.
TFT-LCD modules are made up of thin-film transistors built within the LCD-containing glass. Such a module makes the finished ventilator screen lightweight and thin.
A small TFT-LCD monitor with touch screen technology can also be used for ventilators that are meant to be portable. Examples of such portable breathing machines are those used on emergency vehicles and operating rooms.
Capacitive Touch Screen Technologies for Ventilator Screens
There are several kinds of touch screen technologies that touch screen display suppliers and manufacturers use to power a ventilator screen. But the capacitive touch screen is the one that’s most widely used. Here’s an overview of what this touch screen technology is.
Defining Capacitive Touch Screen
The capacitive touch screen is the most widely-used touch screen technology on medical equipment like ventilators. In this technology, electric charges from the human user pass through the screen surface, distorting the screen’s electrostatic field and prompting the device’s reaction to the touch.
The most unique feature of a capacitive touch screen is that only a human finger or a special stylus can operate it.
What’s in a Capacitive Touch screen?
A TFT LCD capacitive touch screen panel is made up of the following:
- Glass insulator
- Transparent conductor coating
- Microchip controller (usually a CMOS ASIC chip)
- CMOS digital signal processor
- Backside glass coated in adhesive for mounting
All these layers are topped off with a final protective layer that’s usually made of glass as well.
What’s a Projective Capacitive Touch screen?
Projective Capacitive Touch screen (PCT) is a type of capacitive touch screen technology that uses intelligent finger sensing.
In this technology, the display panel is made up of a glass sheet with transparent electrode films embedded in it. An integrated circuit chip is added to create an electrostatic field that is three-dimensional.
PCT technology is now preferred over regular capacitive screens because of the following:
- Ability to activate multi-touch features
- Detects fingers even through thin cotton gloves and surgical gloves
- More responsive and durable in the long run
Lots of industries use PCT in their machine displays, including the medical field. For instance, an increasing number of ventilators now use TFT LCD capacitive touch screens with PCT technology for their displays.
Benefits of Capacitive Touch screen Technologies for Ventilator Displays
Rarely will you find a modern ventilator being powered by touch screen technologies other than capacitive ones? And this is for good reason! Here are the benefits clinicians can enjoy while using a ventilator with a TFT LCD capacitive touch screen:
1. Clearer Images
Capacitive touch screen panels provide significantly better image clarity than other technologies. For instance, compare the output clarity of capacitive versus resistive technology (touch screens for ATMs and supermarket kiosks). Resistive touch screens have poorer clarity because the actual image display is right behind the protective glass layer. This isn’t the case in capacitive screens.
Furthermore, pairing up a capacitive touch screen with a TFT LCD module ramps up the output’s clarity. This is extremely needed in ventilator displays to ensure that clinicians and other health care workers clearly see the patient’s vital signs and machine parameters. This will eventually aid in better evaluation of the patient’s breathing status and general condition.
2. Easier to Use
Resistive touch screen technologies are oblivious to whatever touches it, meaning styluses and gloved fingers can be sensed. However, it needs pressure to accurately detect and respond to touch. And most of the time, the need for pressure makes it harder to operate in a fast-paced environment such as hospital emergency rooms, wards, and critical-care units.
Capacitive touch screens are easier to use since they don’t require pressure to detect and respond to touch. A simple gentle touch is all you need to operate the ventilator’s display! Using a projective capacitive touch screen (PCT) makes a TFT LCD screen even more friendly to the gloved fingers of health care workers and clinicians.
3. Long-term durability
Capacitive touch screens are a perfect match for life-saving devices such as ventilators. This is due to its durability and extreme resistance to liquids and surface contaminants like grease and dust. A TFT LCD capacitive touch screen is also easy to disinfect once contaminated.
Most TFT LCD module manufacturers recommend disinfectant wipes with less than 70% alcohol for disinfecting touch screen ventilator screens. However, the disinfecting agent may widely vary among LCD screen manufacturer guidelines or hospital protocol, so be sure to double-check them first.
Nevertheless, capacitive touch screens generally withstand harsher environmental conditions and strong cleaning agents than touch screens using other technologies.
Wrapping It All Up
To conclude, we’ve talked about touch screen display modules and why it’s the best choice to use for medical ventilators. We also tackled some facts about ventilators to further understand why touch screen LCD display modules are often used for their screens.
TFT-LCD display modules are good for ventilators because they make the machine lightweight, portable, easily cleaned, and easy to operate. Such modules also create clear and crisp screen displays.
Meanwhile, touch screens are the best interface for ventilators because of the following:
- Multi-functional screens
- Sharp image display quality
- Durable and easy-to-use
Regular and projected capacitive touch screen panels are often installed in ventilator screens in china and around the world.
If you are a ventilator manufacturer in china, consider using a touch screen LCD display for your next ventilator design. Look for a reputable touch LCD display manufacturer who can provide you with high-quality TFT LCD touch screen modules for your breathing machines. Remember, your ventilators will save patient lives, so choose the best TFT LCD modules with a touch screen display now!
Ventilators played a critical role in the outbreak, especially in rescuing critically ill patients in the ICU. At present, the supply of ventilators in various regions is in short supply, and several enterprises have opened new production lines to produce ventilators. Medtronic, an American firm, has also released full information on ventilator production, calling on other regions and companies to produce more machines to ease a growing shortage.
The TFT LCD touch screen is a crucial part of the breathing machine. As a professional TFT LCD supplier, Beijing STONE has served many professional ventilator manufacturers all over the world in the past. We will provide effective guarantee and support to each ventilator manufacturer, ensure the smooth process of the whole ventilator production and rapid development, and do our best to alleviate the situation of ventilator shortage.