In place of extreme temperatures, moisture,high vibration,shock and altitude-your expensive laptop will get damaged.But you can't left it,as you are integreted with your laptop for work.Thus to continue work in those environment, you need a rugged laptop that can sustain such harsh situation and at the same time can maintain computing.
If you want to buy a new laptop then ask yourself the question below-
Do you want to use your laptop where there is probability of-
- Drops and shocks
- Liquid spills
- Vibrations
- Dust
- Extreme temperatures
- Extreme freezing or cold temperature.
If the answer is yes then you should buy a rugged laptop.
If you have already decided to buy a rugged laptopthen,The key factors to keep in mind while buying a rugged laptop are:
Do you really need a rugged laptop? i.e. do you need to spend the extra money and live with potentially reduced performance and features. Perhaps a water resistant & drop protection laptop case will do?
What kind of hazards do you think your laptop will be subjected to?What is your usage environment for this laptop?
---As rugged laptop are directed to special features-Over heating protetion special,shock prove special.
As laptops become more and more integrated into people's personal and professional lives, importance of their reliability keeps getting more important. Most of us have to deal with consequences of a laptop falling out of its bag or spilled coffee on laptop keyboards etc. This results in lost productivity, or worse, loss of important data. A robust laptop is a vital tool in modern information age.
A rugged (or ruggedized, but also ruggedised) computer is a computer specifically designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions. They are designed from inception for the type of rough use typified by these conditions; commercial units upgraded for this purpose make poor substitutes.
What makes a laptop rugged?
Various techniques are used to protect notebooks against specific issues:
Sealed port and connector covers
Removable shock-mounted hard drive (preferably SSD)
Vibration-resistant LCDs
Flexible internal connectors
Materials used and construction: A rugged notebook chassis is typically made of strong materials, such as Magnesium alloy which is significantly stronger than typically used ABS plastic. The screen hinges and latches for rugged notebooks are considerably strengthened as compared to mainstream laptops. Many rugged laptops (e.g. Panasonic Toughbook-74 and Itronix GoBook XR-1) also come within an integrated handle for outdoor uses.
Hard drives: A rugged laptop typically comes with a shock mounted hard drive. In some cases, these drives are single platter 1.8" units, mounted inside a regular 2.5" enclosure. The drive is constructed with special dampening materials inside the enclosure that can provide up to a 145 percent increase (per Dell) in shock protection.
Some laptops use a Solid State Disk (SSD) instead of the usual conventional disks (which have spinning platters). Since SSDs are based on non-volatile flash memory and don't have any mechanical moving parts they tend to be significantly more robust (and silent) than the conventional disks. Tests done by engineers at Dell show that the SSD has an operating shock tolerance of up to 1,300 Gs, which is twice the rating of mechanical drives. However, the price point of a similarly sized SSD is significantly higher than a conventional disk. Medical, automotive and military applications are beginning to use solid state drives. In March 2007, Fujitsu announced limited availability of its Lifebook laptop series with Flash SSD as an option. Around the same time, Dell announced availability of SSD drives with Latitude D420 and D620 ATG models - an upgrade to 32GB SSD from the default 60GB conventional disk will set you back $480 (June 2007 pricing). Although cost on SSDs is coming down fast. In January 2009, on a Latitude XFR D630 Dell laptop difference of cost between a conventional 80GB drive and a 128GB Mobility Solid State Drive became only $50!!
If you intend to use your laptop in harsh temperature conditions, the all-weather Fujitsu hard disk (Model MHW2040AC - Ultra ATA/4200RPM drive) is worth looking into. It provides stable operation in extreme temperature environment(-30 to +85 degrees Celcius).
One of the ways to protect a traditional hard drive from shock and vibration is to use a shock pad wrap. E.g. some authorized Toshiba service providers can add one such wrap around many Toshiba notebooks. This wrap consists of a thin, pliable, jell-like material, which can be applied in strips or a complete wrap as the hard drive cavity design permits. The wrap serves to isolate the drive from hard inner surfaces of the notebook case or drive mounting. Vibration and shock inputs are partially absorbed with less energy being transmitted to the drive itself. Installation consists of removing the drive from the notebook, applying the shock pad material to the drive housing or mounting caddy, and reinstalling the drive in the notebook computer. The amount or location of shock pad material may be limited by the notebook computer’s drive cavity design.
Car Mounting: Since many applications of rugged laptops involve them being mounted in a car, many rugged laptop manufacturers provide tools to make their laptops relatively easier to mount and unmount on a vehicle.
Security: Since many of the ruggedized laptops get used in military applications, some of them come with special security features. For example the GoBook VR-1 from Itronix comes with Removable hard drive, Fingerprint scanner and Smartcard reader.
Ready for outdoors: Ruggedized laptops often get used in outdoor applications, and hence need to account for both bright sunlight and dark conditions. So, some of the rugged notebooks have Sun-light Readable display and backlit keyboard. E.g. Panasonic Toughbook 30 sports a amazingly bright 1,000 Nit screen enabling easy outdoor readability. The Dell ATG D620 comes with a red (which is easy for human eyes in the dark) task light to illum
Some of the factors that are considered while classifying "ruggedness" of a laptop include:
Shock resistance: This is a measure of how much shock can the laptop handle. It is typically measured in the height of the fall that the laptop can take. E.g. "The Panasonic Toughbook 28 was sequentially dropped in non-operating mode, onto each face, edge and corner for a total of 26 drops from a height of 36 inches. The drop surface was defined as two-inch-thick plywood over a steel plate over concrete. The Toughbook 28s were visually inspected after each drop and a functional check (boot-up into Windows) was performed after each drop."
Water resistance: Water (and liquids in general) is hazardous to many electrical components in a laptop. This spec measures whether the laptop works after being subjected to rainfall etc.
Dust resistance: Air vent system for cooling tends to a collector of dust particles from ambiance. Toughbook CF-W5 and CF-T5 models do not employ an air vent system, thereby preventing dust and dirt particles from infiltrating the inside of the notebook - instead CPU heat is released through the casing.
Vibration resistance: How does the laptop standup to continuous vibration - e.g. when it is being used for in-vehicle computing. Vibration can cause keyboard damage and internal component damage to a laptop.
Extreme temperature exposure: How well does the computer perform while being exposed to very high or very low temperature? E.g. The Itronix GoBook III laptop can operate under following temperature range: -23° to 60° C (-10° to 140° F) - for cold temperatures they do require purchase of an optional hard drive heater. By contrast a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop can operate in the temperature range of -32° to 104° F. The ML910 Rugged Notebook from Motorola (introduced in March 2007) includes as a standard feature a hard drive heater for startup and operation in freezing temperatures and also has diagnostic software that monitors internal conditions and prevents outages due to extreme heat and cold.
Rugged laptop, the Sony VAIO Type G will offer protection against spills, scratching and being dropped. The VAIO Type G includes a drainage system under the palm rest with drainage holes on the bottom of the notebook. If something is spilled the notebook will automatically shut itself down and drain the liquid, it is also recommended to have the notebook professionally checked just to be sure no further damage was done.
Along with the drainage system Sony has added a special coating to the LCD that will help prevent scratching, the notebook can also withstand a fall from 35.5-inches when turned off or 28-inches when running.
Vehicle mounted environments (e.g. public safety vehicles or utility trucks) are well suited for rugged computers as the vibration and jolts inherent there would cause failures in typical portable computers. Ruggedized laptops, rugged notebooks, rugged tablets and rugged UMPCs (ultra-mobile personal computers) are made of magnesium alloy materials made to be 20 times stronger than standard plastic found on commercial laptops. Hard Disc Drives are shock mounted with foam or reinforcing material to withstand vibrations of daily use.
While most manufacturers (hopefully) try to make their laptops robust against saccidents, very few have this as their primary focus. Specialist manufacturers provide a spectrum of "semi-rugged" to "rugged" to "bullet-proof" laptops. In early 2007, Dell announced its first semi-rugged notebook computer - the Latitude ATG (All-Terrain Grade) D620. It followed it up in early 2008 with a fully ruggedized notebook, the Latitude XFR D630. So, what are the various factors to look at while considering to buy a ruggedized laptop?
- Drops and shocks
- Liquid spills
- Vibrations
- Dust
- Extreme temperatures
Standards
MIL-STD-810 (also known as Mil-Spec): a military standard, issued in 1962, which establishes a set of tests for determining equipment suitability to military operations. Often used as a reference in the commercial laptop industry.
MIL-STD-901: a military standard for shock which applies to equipment mounted on ships. Two levels apply. Grade A items are items which are essential to the safety and continued combat capability of the ship. Grade B items are items whose operation is not essential to the safety and combat capability of the ship but which could become a hazard to personnel, to Grade A items, or to the ship as a whole as a result of exposure to shock.[1]. Qualification testing is performed on a barge floating in a pond where TNT is detonated at various distances and depths in the pond to impart shock to the barges. See Barge Test .
IEEE 1613 Computers in electrical substations used to concentrate data or communicate with SCADA systems follow IEEE 1613 "Standard Environmental and Testing Requirements for Communications Networking Devices in Electric Power Substations."
IP (Ingress Protection): see IP Code
IS (Intrinsic Safety): see Intrinsic safety
ATEX (Potentially Explosive Atmospheres): see Equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres
NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association): see National Electrical Manufacturers Association
IK Code (Also known as EN50102) see EN 50102
European railway standard EN50155, “Railway Applications—Electronic Equipment Used On Rolling Stock”, provides an example of a tough non-military specification. It extends operating temperature range (-25/+70 degrees C), resistance to humidity, shocks, vibrations, radiation - encountered in vehicle or airborne installations.
Noteworthy providers
Intel Classmate PC is also well-protected against accidental damage.
Intergraph
Intermec
Motorola ML and MW Series
One Laptop per Child Association
Panasonic Toughbook
Psion Teklogix
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories For Harsh Electrical and environmental applications
Symbol Technologies
Systemax SR Series
Toshiba Tecra Series
Systel Inc
Trimble Navigation Rugged mobile computers; Nomad, Ranger, Recon
Ampro by ADLINK
Advantech Corporation
Vision4ce GRIP series rugged PC IP65
NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association): see National Electrical Manufacturers Association
IK Code (Also known as EN50102) see EN 50102
European railway standard EN50155, “Railway Applications—Electronic Equipment Used On Rolling Stock”, provides an example of a tough non-military specification. It extends operating temperature range (-25/+70 degrees C), resistance to humidity, shocks, vibrations, radiation - encountered in vehicle or airborne installations.
Rugged laptops are commonly used by public safety services (police, fire and medical emergency), military, utilities, field service technicians, construction, mining and oil drilling personnel. Rugged laptops are usually sold to organizations, rather than individuals, and are rarely marketed via retail channels.
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