Resistive Touch screens: Choose the best for your product

What is a Resistive Touch screen?

A resistive touchscreen is a type of touch-screen display that is made up of two flexible sheets that are coated with a resistive material and separated by an air gap.

How does a resistive touchscreen work?

A resistive touchscreen has a touch layer placed on top of a standard display. Normally, the touch layer consists of two transparent electrical layers separated by a small gap.

When you press the display’s surface, the two separate layers come into contact, resulting in an electrical connection that can be sensed and located.

The resistive touch screens come in two types:

1. Four-wire: An upper and lower layer is used to detect touch commands in a standard 4-wire resistive touchscreen configuration. One of these layers has electrodes oriented in the Y direction, while the other has electrodes oriented in the X direction. The two layers are intended to detect the voltage produced by the opposite layer. When you touch the surface, the upper and lower layers press together, allowing the device to determine the precise point of contact. This is essentially the foundation of 4-wire resistive touchscreens.

 

2. Five-wire: 5-wire resistive touchscreen devices operate in a similar manner, with two layers used to determine the precise point of contact. Only one of these layers, however, contains electrodes. The bottom layer of a typical 5-wire resistive touchscreen configuration contains electrodes on each of the four corners. These electrodes are intended to emit a small but noticeable voltage. The top layer is responsible for measuring the voltage of the bottom layer. When you touch the surface, it presses the two layers together, much like a 4-wire resistive setup, allowing the device to determine when and where the touch occurred.

How is a resistive touchscreen different from a Capacitive Touch Screen?

Resistive touchscreens work by sensing the user’s direct pressure. They can be activated by pressing them with a finger as well as a stylus. They typically support single-finger touch and basic gestures and are less expensive to manufacture.

Projection-capacitance touchscreens, on the other hand, can only detect finger touch. As a result, they have better multi-touch performance.

What are resistive touchscreen advantages and disadvantages?

Pros:

• Resistive touchscreens are unrivaled in terms of durability. For this reason, manufacturers, restaurants, and retailers frequently prefer them over other types of touchscreens. Resistive touchscreens, due to their tough construction, can withstand moisture and stress without being damaged.
• A resistive touchscreen can be used with a stylus or while wearing gloves. The majority of capacitive touchscreens only register commands made with a bare finger (or a special capacitive stylus). If you tap the interface with a stylus or a gloved finger, the capacitive touchscreen will not respond to your command. However, resistive touchscreens register and respond to all types of input. They can be controlled with a bare finger, a gloved finger, a stylus, or almost any other object.
• Resistive touch screens have long been popular, particularly in the industrial sector. One of the primary reasons is the compatibility with various applications. They easily meet the NEMA 12/4/4X and IP65/66 environmental exposure standards and can be easily sealed in the bezel of an industrial display.
• Moreover, resistive touchscreens have a very high anti-interference which makes them very suitable for industrial applications.

Cons:

There are a few potential drawbacks to resistive touchscreens.

• Resistive touchscreens are less sensitive as compared to capacitive touchscreens. They are still responsive, but a resistive touchscreen requires more force to recognize your input.
• One of its cons is that it is single-touch, on the other hand, capacitive screens support up to 10 touch points.
• Thirdly, they are prone to scratches.
• Lastly, they are only available in small and medium sizes (3.5’’ to 24’’). And capacitive touch screen can be made from 0.96” to 105”.

Applications of Resistive Touch Screens

Resistive touch screens due to their durability, low cost, and multiple sensing options are the best choice for industrial applications. They are used in feature phones, digital cameras, GPS, printers, and larger displays.

In many industrial settings, touchscreen users must operate the devices while wearing gloves. As a result, these screens are an excellent fit for this requirement.

Although, for tablets and mobile phones, capacitive touch screens are used mostly, however, these screens are also displacing resistive touch in small products.

Because the costs of projected-capacitance technologies rise exponentially with screen size, resistive touchscreens continue to dominate applications that require touchscreens larger than 10 inches. Furthermore, some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) continue to use resistive touchscreens in feature phones, GPS, digital still cameras, and printers in order to keep costs low in price-competitive markets.

In the defense sector, most of the electronic equipment touch screens use resistive technology because of their durability and ruggedness which is best suited to the military environment.