All the laptops and desktops found in homes and offices are certainly not made to cope with a harsh environment and use in an industrial environment. The best option is to opt for a purpose-built industrial computer that can easily cope with harsh conditions and continuous use in outdoor and dirty conditions. This not only means that the computer case will be able to deal with that harsh environment, but it also means that what is inside the device, such as the motherboard and other parts of the device, will be able to last as long as possible in an industrial environment or of manufacture. The same applies to screens. Now you can easily find industrial touch screens or industrial LCD monitors that are perfectly suited for such a harsh environment.
Industrial LCD monitors are actually panel-mounted monitors and are typically used with a rack-mounted industrial computer. These monitors are usually available in different sizes. Typically, you will have a screen that is around ten, fifteen and eighteen or even twenty inches. You might think that every part of the industrial computer will be big and heavy, but actually you are wrong. More and more industrial computer parts are thin and light. With screens as thin as just three inches and weighing no more than three kilograms, they fit easily on any industrial LCD monitor panel.
A rack-mounted computer, on the other hand, can be mounted as a separate item in a nineteen-inch rack or embedded in an industrial device, with the possibility of having industrial touch screens mounted with it as well.
The common mouse and keyboard used at home or in an office certainly couldn’t cope with such a harsh environment as found in a plant, for example. They could not deal with the dirt, liquids and other elements found in an industrial environment. That is why it will always be better to use an industrial mouse and industrial keyboard that is specially designed to withstand the harsh conditions found in an industrial environment. Those mice would usually be made of stainless steel and heavy rubber that will be completely sealed to make sure no dirt or liquid gets into the device. Most industrial mice are now completely submersible and do not fear contact with liquids of any kind.