Industrial Touch Screen Monitors: Enhancing Water & Wastewater Treatment

Water and wastewater treatment facilities manage complex processes that require continuous monitoring, precise control adjustments, and rapid responses to changing conditions. Operators oversee chemical dosing, filtration systems, pump stations, and regulatory compliance monitoring across facilities that may span multiple buildings or remote locations. Industrial touch displays integrated into SCADA systems provide operators with intuitive interfaces that consolidate process visualization, control functions, and alarm management into unified workstations, improving operational efficiency while enhancing system reliability.

Treatment facility environments present unique challenges for electronic equipment, including high humidity from process water, chemical exposure from treatment agents, temperature variations across facility areas, and stringent cleanliness requirements in potable water facilities. Touchscreen monitors designed specifically for industrial water applications incorporate environmental sealing, chemical-resistant materials, and construction enabling reliable operation despite challenging operational conditions. As industrial display solutions providers, faytech North America understands that water treatment displays must balance functionality, durability, and compliance with industry-specific requirements.

SCADA Integration for Treatment Operations

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems serve as the operational backbone of modern water and wastewater treatment facilities. Touch screen monitors function as operator interfaces to these SCADA platforms, enabling real-time facility oversight and control.

Process Visualization

Water treatment involves multiple sequential processes—coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection for potable water production, or screening, primary treatment, secondary biological treatment, and tertiary processes for wastewater. SCADA displays present these complex process flows visually using graphical representations showing:

• Equipment status (pumps running or stopped, valve positions)
• Flow rates through various treatment stages
• Chemical feed rates and tank levels
• Water quality parameters (pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorine residual)
• Alarm conditions requiring operator attention

Touch interfaces enable operators to zoom into specific process areas for detailed views or maintain overview perspectives, monitoring entire treatment trains simultaneously. Color-coded status indicators provide a n at-a-glance system health assessment—green for regular operation, yellow for cautionary conditions, and red for alarms requiring immediate attention.

Control Functions

Beyond monitoring, touch screens enable direct process control. Operators can:

• Start or stop pumps through touch commands rather than physical control switches
• Adjust chemical dosing rates by touching setpoint displays and entering new values
• Modify process flow distributions between parallel treatment trains
• Override automatic controls when manual intervention becomes necessary
• Acknowledge alarms and document corrective actions taken

This centralized control capability reduces the time operators spend walking between distributed control panels scattered throughout facilities. Emergencies benefit particularly from rapid touch-based control, enabling faster response than would be possible with traditional control interfaces.

Remote Monitoring Capabilities

Many treatment facilities operate satellite pump stations, remote well sites, or distributed collection systems requiring oversight. The SCADA system, combined with an industrial control PC, offers remote site visibility through networked communications.

Operators monitor remote locations from central control rooms using touch screen interfaces showing:

• Remote pump station status and flow data
• Well production rates and groundwater levels
• Collection system overflow monitoring
• Lift station wet healthy levels and pump cycles

Touch-based alarm acknowledgment and remote control reduce the frequency of site visits required for routine operations, though critical alarms still trigger physical site inspections.

Environmental Considerations for Water Treatment

Water and wastewater treatment facilities expose their equipment to conditions more demanding than those found in typical industrial environments.

Moisture and Humidity Resistance

Treatment facilities maintain high ambient humidity from open process tanks, aeration systems, and water handling operations. Control rooms and operator stations may not achieve the climate control standards of office environments due to proximity to process areas.

Sealed displays with IP65 or higher ratings prevent moisture infiltration, protecting internal electronics from humidity-related corrosion or short circuits. In areas requiring frequent washdown—particularly in potable water facilities maintaining strict sanitary standards—IP69K washdown monitors withstand high-pressure cleaning procedures without damage.

Front surface sealing around bezels prevents water from entering along the screen perimeters. Sealed cable entry points ensure connectivity remains protected even in wet environments.

Chemical Resistance

Treatment processes utilize various chemicals, including chlorine, ozone, sodium hypochlorite, alum, polymer coagulants, acids, and bases for pH adjustment. Chemical vapors, spills, or splashes can damage displays not designed for such exposure.

Chemical-resistant housing materials, typically stainless steel or specialized plastics, prevent corrosion from chemical contact. Gaskets and seals utilize materials compatible with standard treatment chemicals, ensuring long-term integrity despite exposure to these chemicals.

Glass front surfaces with chemical-resistant coatings allow for easy cleaning with disinfectants used in potable water facilities without compromising optical clarity or touch sensitivity.

Temperature Variations

Outdoor installations at remote pump stations or well sites experience seasonal temperature extremes. Indoor facilities may lack consistent climate control in non-critical areas where displays are mounted.

Industrial displays specified for extended temperature operation (-20°C to +60°C or wider) ensure functionality across temperature ranges encountered in water treatment applications. Cold-rated displays maintain touch responsiveness and display visibility even in unheated facilities during the winter months.

Specific Water Treatment Applications

Touchscreen displays serve various functions across different areas of a treatment facility.

Treatment Process Monitoring

Main control rooms provide operators with comprehensive facility oversight through large-format touch screen displays. Multiple displays showing different process areas enable simultaneous monitoring of intake systems, treatment trains, and distribution networks.

Operators interact with process graphics, touching equipment representations to access detailed status, adjust operating parameters, or review historical trends. Touch-based navigation proves faster than mouse-driven interaction when operators must quickly switch between monitoring different facility areas during dynamic operating conditions.

Chemical Feed Control Stations

Chemical dosing requires precision—overdosing wastes chemicals and may cause regulatory violations, while underdosing compromises treatment effectiveness. Touch screen interfaces at chemical feed locations display:

• Current feed rates and target setpoints
• Chemical inventory levels in storage tanks
• Feed pump status and performance
• Dosage calculations based on flow rates and target residuals

Operators adjust dosing rates through touch input rather than manual valve adjustments or separate control interfaces. Integration with process control systems enables automatic dosing adjustments responding to flow variations while maintaining target treatment goals.

Laboratory Information Systems

Treatment facilities conduct regular water quality testing to ensure compliance with drinking water standards and discharge permit requirements. Laboratory information management systems, integrated with touchscreen displays, streamline data entry and results tracking.

Technicians enter test results directly through touch interfaces rather than recording on paper for later transcription. This real-time data entry provides operators with immediate access to quality results, informing process control decisions.

Operator Training Systems

Touchscreen simulators that utilize actual SCADA interfaces offer training environments where new operators can practice without affecting live process control. Training systems display realistic process responses to operator actions, building competency before personnel assume operational responsibilities.

Touch interaction in training matches actual operational interfaces, ensuring that skills are transferred directly to production operations.

Display Selection for Treatment Facilities

Brightness Requirements

Control rooms may have varying lighting, ranging from bright overhead lighting for daytime operations to dimmed lighting during night shifts. Outdoor installations face direct sunlight exposure. High-brightness touchscreens with 400-1000 nit output maintain visibility across these lighting conditions.

Automatic brightness adjustment based on ambient light sensors optimizes display visibility while reducing power consumption and extending backlight life.

Screen Size and Resolution

Control room displays typically range from 17” to 32”, depending on viewing distances and information density requirements. Larger displays accommodate complex process graphics with numerous data points while maintaining readability from typical control console viewing distances.

Resolution should be Full HD (1920×1080) minimum, ensuring crisp text and clear graphics even when displaying dense process schematics or multiple windows simultaneously.

Touch Technology Selection

Capacitive touch provides superior optical clarity, multi-touch gesture support, and excellent durability for control room applications where operators work with bare hands or thin latex gloves.

For applications that require operation with thick work gloves or in wet conditions, resistive or SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) touch technologies may be more suitable, depending on specific operational requirements.

Mounting Flexibility

Process control systems require displays mounted in control consoles, wall-mounted in process areas, or integrated into operator stations. VESA mounting compatibility ensures displays install easily using standard mounting hardware.

Panel-mount displays are integrated flush into control panels for clean, professional installations. Some locations benefit from articulating arms, allowing operators to position displays optimally, then move them aside when not needed.

Compliance and Regulatory Considerations

Potable Water Sanitation

Potable water treatment facilities maintain sanitary conditions to prevent contamination. Displays installed in areas where water contact is possible should use NSF-approved materials where applicable.

Smooth, sealed surfaces without crevices where bacteria could harbor simplify cleaning and disinfection, maintaining facility hygiene standards.

Explosion-Proof Requirements

Wastewater treatment facilities with enclosed spaces where methane or hydrogen sulfide accumulates may require explosion-proof or intrinsically safe equipment. Verify whether display locations require hazardous area ratings and select equipment that is appropriately certified.

Cybersecurity Standards

Water treatment facilities are increasingly facing cybersecurity requirements that protect SCADA systems from unauthorized access. Displays connecting to control networks should support secure authentication, encrypted communications, and audit logging when required by utility security policies.

Maintenance and Lifecycle Management

Cleaning Protocols

Regular cleaning maintains display visibility and touch responsiveness. Use cleaning solutions approved by display manufacturers—typically dilute isopropyl alcohol for glass surfaces. Avoid abrasive cleaners or rough cloths that could scratch the front surfaces.

Establish cleaning schedules that are appropriate to the facility conditions—daily in high-dust environments and weekly in typical indoor installations.

Display Lifespan Planning

The lifespan of an LED backlight typically exceeds 50,000 hours. At continuous operation, this represents over 5 years before brightness degradation becomes noticeable. Plan display replacement cycles considering operational hours and criticality—displays in 24/7 control rooms require more frequent replacement than those in intermittently used locations.

Spare Parts Inventory

Critical control room displays warrant maintaining spare units,, enabling rapid replacementin the event of failuresr. Ruggedized displays designed for industrial applications typically achieve longer service lives and lower failure rates than commercial displays, but having spare units available prevents operational disruptions when failures eventually occur.

Improving Treatment Operations

Industrial touch screen monitors enhance water and wastewater treatment operations through intuitive SCADA interfaces, reliable performance in challenging environments, and operational capabilities supporting efficient facility management. The combination of process visualization, direct touch control, and environmental durability addresses specific challenges treatment operators face while improving response times and reducing operational complexity.

As treatment facilities upgrade aging control systems or expand capacity, selecting displays appropriate to water treatment applications ensures reliability, supporting critical infrastructure that provides clean water to communities.

Ready to upgrade water treatment facility displays? Contact faytech North America to discuss environmental requirements, SCADA integration needs, and display specifications, ensuring reliable operation in your treatment facility applications.