[originator]

Hello all.

In the photo there is a high tech oven shown that is made in Europe. The surface looks like black glass or some type of polymer.

I want to find a nice looking material for a graphic overlay to place on top of a PCB that has touch sensors [capacitive]. The concept is there are no physical switches, the finger touching the panel alone creates a pulse from the sensors beneath the exposed surface layer.

Glass is not an option as it needs to be milled, drilled, etc, and that would be too costly. Plexi is not good as it is too soft and will collect scratches.

The application is a numeric keypad and data entry panel, but it must look expensive, elegant, and most companies on google under "face plates", "name plates", "graphic overly" all carry the same basic "cheap" looking medical type display material. It cannot be metal or electrically conductive.

If anyone knows of a material like this stove top that can be laser cut or worst case machined, please let me know. I do not need the high temp capacity such as the stove, but the look is what I am after, scratch resistant to regular touching by hand, attractive. 1/8" is the goal or it can be laminated if needed. This is new territory for me, any suggestions appreciated!


Thanks

[ImanCarrot]

You could do worse than optical grade cast acrylic- it machines very well (don't use extruded, that doesn't machine nice). Get an optical company to tint it and stick a hard anti scratch coating on it- that'd work. Attached is a cube that I made from acrylic and tinted it, it's not polished, but you can get the idea of the tinting effect.

Hope this gives you a little help

Oh, RS catalouge sells the stuff here in the UK there's probably loads of sign companies that sell the stuff too.

[apache405]

the picture you attached is of glass with a black coating on the underside. you might be able to get UHMVPE in a glossy tint, but i'm not sure your button design would still work.

[mactec54]

Hi originator
Corian would do the trick or Corian type materials machine it how you like