#Industry News
Anti-Fingerprint Tablet Screen Coatings
Below is the tablet glass coating technologies that go into every Estone Tech tablet and panel device . We want to offer the most durable tablets around, and it all starts with durable, functional tablet glass.
Why We Offer AF (Anti-Fingerprint/Oleophobic) Coatings
Anti-Fingerprint and Oleophobic Coatings on screens are useful anywhere that a fingerprint or similar mark may impair the use of a screen. Though Estone Technology Tablets and Panel PCs are rugged, regular cleaning with harsh abrasives is not recommended, and it would be very inconvenient anyway. Because our rugged tablets are meant to be used in the field, we expect that they will become dirty and marred from time to time. To extend device life and make cleaning easier, we offer Anti-Fingerprint Tablet coatings and Anti-Fingerprint Panel PC coatings on many of our most rugged and medically certified devices. This helps ensure that they wipe clean easily without smearing.
Many Estone Tech tablets and Panel PCs offer Oleophobic Anti-Fingerprint coatings, including our rugged 10 “ MD-100, MR-100, MJ-100, and MJC-100 tablets, and our smaller and larger MJ-80 and MT-140 models.
Anti-fingerprint Principle
Based on design structures seen in lotus leaves, anti-fingerprint coatings are nanometer thin layers covering the outer surface of a glass screen. On leaves, an arrangement of microscopic hairs reduces contact between the surface of the leaf and any dust or water that falls upon it, up to a 90% reduction in contact area. Because of the reduction, the natural surface tension of water causes it to bead up rather than spreading out. Screens treated with technology derived from this arrangement work the same way, staying bright and clean under use.
Like a lotus leaf or other object’s hydrophobic (water-resistant) coating, oleophobic (oil-resistant) coatings resist and shed fingerprints through surface tension. When liquids, including the oils found in fingerprints, rest on a glass surface, they tend to spread out flat, creating a dome-shaped puddle of liquid with a lot of surface area contact with the glass. This harms visibility, smudges easily, and is difficult to clean.
In anti-fingerprint or oil and water repellent coatings, the surface tension on the substrate is reduced by using novel perfluoropolyether (PFPE) molecules coating the glass or other substrate. Since PFPE has very low surface contact area, when it coats on substrate, it can greatly reduce the surface contact area of that substrate and thus make it hydrophobic and oleophobic.