Panasonic ATEX Certified versions of its 5” fully rugged TOUGHPAD handheld tablets for hazardous work environments

Panasonic launched ATEX certified versions of its leading fully rugged 5 inch Windows and Android handheld tablets designed to revolutionise productivity in potentially hazardous industries such as oil and gas, mining, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The addition of these two specialist devices for hazardous work environments underlines Panasonic’s commitment to the handheld tablet market with its range of four different 5 inch tablets now available on two operating systems.

The Panasonic Toughpad FZ-E1 ATEX and FZ-X1 ATEX tablets bring together the best of the handheld, smartphone and tablet market and have been certified for above ground, Zone 2 Working Space use in potentially explosive gas environments (Acetaldehyde, Gasoline, Ethylene). Safety design features incorporated into the ATEX certified tablets include such as addition of leather casing and an antistatic screen film for the device. A built-in 1D/2D barcode reader has been integrated into the design and a distinct yellow bezel has been added for customers to easily differentiate ATEX certified models from the standard 5 inch Panasonic Toughpad tablets.

Where inefficient pen and paper usage is still common in Zone 2 areas, the Panasonic Toughpad ATEX tablets deliver a safe and usable PDA, voice call, and barcode reader in one device. It can be used for email and voice communications on the move around the plant, accurate data entry for workers reporting on manufacturing or industrial processes. The bar code reader can be used for inventory and product registration and the inbuilt camera capabilities are ideal for fast image and video capture in emergency scenarios, for example.

The Toughpad FZ-E1 ATEX (Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld update 2) and FZ-X1 ATEX (AndroidTM 4.2.2) bring together the best of the handheld, smartphone and tablet market in the most rugged, easy to use, long working device. The devices are powerful enough to deal with all mobile industrial applications, with their Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM Quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM and 32 GB flash storage.