NIS2, IP65 and IP69 Touch Panels in Food Production

In a modern dairy, bakery, bottling line or food warehouse, the computer on the production line is not just a screen. It often carries ERP transactions, recipes, batches and stock movements, HMI/SCADA visualisation, quality control and communication with external suppliers.

That is why cyber-resilience rules matter for line hardware too. The EU’s NIS2 Directive brings food production, processing and distribution into scope, and UK manufacturers with EU operations, or supplying EU customers, increasingly meet its requirements through their contracts. NIS2 does not tell companies which touch panel to use, but it does demand stronger risk management, business continuity, supply-chain security and protection of the systems that keep the business running.

When an operator terminal is connected to ERP, SCADA, MES or the production network, it is part of that picture.

Food production has a specific problem: the environment is nothing like an office. There is dust, flour, water, steam, condensation, temperature swings, grease, cleaning chemicals and direct washing of equipment.

So “Is it IP65?” or “Do you have IP69?” is not a formality. It shows the customer is thinking about the real environment:

IP65 generally means dust-tight and protected against water jets. With industrial panel PCs, however, check carefully whether the rating applies to the whole enclosure or only the front panel.

Many standard industrial touch panel PCs are IP65 at the front. That can be entirely sufficient for:

• dry production areas
• dusty areas
• places with occasional splashes
• operator panels mounted in a cabinet or panel cut-out
• environments where the rear and connectors are protected

Many companies start their NIS2 or Cyber Essentials work with firewalls, VPNs, segmentation and policies. That is right. But in a factory the endpoints on the line matter too.

If the ERP terminal is old, hard to maintain, has no clear lifecycle, sits in the wrong environment or is reachable from an uncontrolled network, it becomes a weakness. The network side is covered in detail in our article on NIS2 and network hardware. A practical approach:

1. Separate office, ERP, production, cameras, guests and external contractors.
2. Identify which terminals are critical for production, batches and traceability.
3. Replace unsuitable devices with industrial configurations.
4. Choose the right IP rating for each environment.
5. Introduce controlled remote access and logging for external support.

IWILL offers industrial touch panel PC configurations for production applications. Standard ITPC panel PCs suit IP65 front-panel applications where the rear is protected and the unit is not washed directly.

For wet areas, condensation, direct washdown or aggressive chemicals we recommend a custom IP69 version with a 316 stainless steel enclosure and sealed waterproof connectors. That lets you choose the right combination:

The quickest route to an accurate recommendation is to describe the environment:

• What software will run on the terminal?
• Is there direct washdown?
• Is there condensation or aggressive chemicals?
• VESA, panel mount, stand or machine mount?
• What screen size do you need?
• Windows, Windows IoT, Linux or no OS?
• How many pilot units, and what volume after the pilot?

For food producers, cyber-resilience rules are not just a document or a firewall project. They are a reason to review the whole digital production environment, from the network to the operator terminals.

If a touch panel works in a dusty, humid or washdown area, the IP rating is a business decision, not just a specification. IP65 is the right choice for many production locations; for washdown, condensation and aggressive cleaning, IP69 is the safer direction.