5 sure-fire signs your HMI or control panel is about to fail

A game-changer in HMI repair!

Today we launch a major service improvement for our HMI repair customers. Not only are we guaranteeing a 24-hour turnaround on backlight replacement, we will also guarantee the backlights for the lifetime of your HMI!

Fletcher Moorland Ltd has always been innovators in the electronic equipment service and repair industry and today is no exception. We are improving our HMI repair service by offering two major new benefits to all our customers. Firstly, we all know that HMI failures can impact on production and speed of repair is paramount in reducing downtime. We are used to delivering quick and reliable repairs to our customers after all, our repair workshops are continually manned 24 hours a day, but we were finding delays in the repairs process were often down to waiting for backlights to be delivered to us. When we have customers relying on us to repair their HMIs quickly, waiting for parts to be delivered is never a good message to pass on. That’s when our technical department decided to see how we could speed up the process. After considerable research and testing, we are delighted to be able to offer all our customers a guaranteed 24-hour turnaround on HMI backlight replacement. Secondly, we will guarantee the operation of the new backlights for the lifetime of your HMI.

Backlight replacement in 24 hours
Guaranteed! Lifetime warranty on backlights!

From our research, backlight failures are the number one reason an HMI is removed from service. Prevent this happening again when you next have a failure. We feel by adding these incredible features to our HMI repair service, customers will benefit greatly by preventing future failures happening. Why not benefit too when you next have an HMI that requires repair or service? You will find that repairing HMIs is a cost-effective alternative to buying new or refurbished units. Call our services team on 01782 411021 anytime day or night.

www.fletchermoorland.com


An LCD screen being refitted to an HMI after having its backlights replaced.

Here’s some information about HMI failures from a post I published in April 2016

So what signs should you be looking out for if you want to prevent a failure happening? Well here are 5 sure-fire signs that your HMI will fail.

1 – The screen becoming dull or flickering. This is often seen as an annoyance to the operator, but in truth, it’s the HMI telling you the backlights are about to fail. This can happen over a period of months before the backlights totally fail. Plenty of time to arrange a spare unit to be fitted or to remove the HMI for refurbishment.

2 – Lines appear across or down the screen. This means the LCD is failing, it will probably be just a few lines that appear at first and the operator can still continue to use the HMI, but a failure will happen.

3 – The HMI needs a few goes at powering-up. This is probably one of the most common signs of failure if your HMI needs power-cycling to start then it’s indicative of an internal power supply failing.

4 – The touch screen becomes less responsive. touch screens are wearing parts; you may find that an area of a touch screen has stopped working or a soft-button needs several ‘presses’ to respond. This is a sign the touch screen element is failing. A big tip here, and pardon the pun but never use the tip of a screwdriver or pen to operate a touchscreen, it will scratch very easily or shatter the LCD glass. We see this all to often and is can lead to an instant failure of the HMI. You wouldn’t use a screwdriver or a pen to operate your smartphone, would you? 

5 – Key-presses don’t always work. Keys such as ‘process start’, ‘enter’ or ‘passcode keys’ can have the heaviest use on an HMI, they are very often seen as the keys with the legends worn away, but, ‘everyone knows that’s the start button’. Over time these will fail and the operator may just have to press a little harder than he did before. This is a sign the switch is failing and a new switch or a whole new membrane might be needed.

Read more about HMI service here.