Glossary · HMI, SCADA and operations
Panel PC
Also known as: Industrial panel PC, IPC with display
German: Panel-PC
In industrial automation, a panel PC is an industrial computer integrated with a display, usually a touch screen, in one housing designed for front mounting in control cabinets or machine enclosures.
- HMI and SCADA
In one sentence
A panel PC is an industrial PC with an integrated touch display, built for front mounting on machines or cabinets.
Example
A packaging line uses a 19-inch panel PC that runs the HMI and a software PLC, plus a browser for work instructions.
How it applies
- Engineering: A panel PC runs a general-purpose operating system and can host HMI, SCADA clients, software PLCs or edge applications. It offers more performance and flexibility than a dedicated operator panel.
- Security and maintenance: A general-purpose operating system needs Patch management, antivirus or application allowlisting and backup concepts, planned together with the network's Security zone design.
- Documentation: Document the operating system version, installed software and their versions, and the procedure for restoring from a backup image. Operating manuals should state which functions the user may access outside the HMI, if any.
Panel PC vs. operator panel
A dedicated Operator panel runs only the vendor's HMI runtime on an embedded system. A panel PC is a full PC, with the flexibility and maintenance effort that implies.