Off-highway machines are going through the same digital transformation that reshaped factories over the last decade. Construction equipment, agricultural vehicles, material handling machines and municipal vehicles now rely on electro-hydraulic controls, assistance systems, telematics and increasingly electrified drivelines. These machines have become complex, connected systems, and the place where all this complexity meets the operator is the cab display.
Yet a cab is not a control cabinet. An HMI that performs perfectly inside an industrial plant can quickly reach its limits on a construction site or in an open field. Off-highway displays face conditions that factories rarely see: direct sunlight, extreme temperatures, continuous vibration, dust, mud and rain, and the high-pressure cleaning that ends many working days. They are powered by vehicle electrical systems rather than stable cabinet supplies, and they must speak the native language of the vehicle: CAN.
What Makes an HMI Ready for Off-Highway Environments?
This is why off-highway HMIs need to be designed around a specific set of requirements. The first is readability. Operators work outdoors from dawn to dusk, so the display must remain clearly legible in direct sunlight. High brightness alone is not enough: optical bonding, which removes the air gap between the cover glass and the display, reduces internal reflections and the risk of fogging, while a UV filter protects the display from long-term sun exposure.
The second requirement is sealing. In the vehicle world, protection is defined by ISO 20653, the standard for road vehicles. An IP6K9K rating means the device is dust-tight and withstands high-pressure, high-temperature water jets: exactly what happens when a tractor or a sweeper is washed down at the end of a shift.
Then come temperature and power. A machine parked overnight in winter must start reliably at sub-zero temperatures, while a cab exposed to the summer sun can become extremely hot. On the power side, the HMI must accept both 12 V and 24 V vehicle systems with a wide input range. Finally, the display must integrate natively with the vehicle network, typically through multiple CAN interfaces, ideally isolated to improve robustness against electrical noise and ground differences.
There is also the human factor. Capacitive multitouch screens offer an intuitive, smartphone-like experience, but on a machine moving across uneven ground, or when operators wear gloves, physical keys remain essential for fast, reliable, often blind operation.
Meet the XA100 Series: Rugged HMIs Built for Mobile Machinery
This is the context in which the new XA100 Series from EXOR International has been designed. Building on EXOR's long experience in industrial HMIs, the XA100 Series brings that know-how into the cab of mobile machines with four models: the XA105 (5"), XA107 (7"), XA110 (10") and XA112 (12").
All models share the same rugged DNA: a sunlight-readable projected capacitive display with optical bonding and UV filter, IP6K6/IP6K9K protection according to ISO 20653 (IP6K9K on models without keys), two isolated CAN interfaces, operation between -30°C and +70°C, and a wide 8 to 32 Vdc input range suited to vehicle electrical systems. The 5", 7" and 10" models are also available with an optional membrane keypad with user-programmable keys, combining the immediacy of touch with the reliability of physical controls.
Full details will be presented during the official launch webinar, but the direction is already clear: the XA100 Series has been engineered from the ground up for the realities of off-highway work, not adapted from the factory floor.
As mobile machines become smarter, the cab display becomes the operator's most important tool. With the XA100 Series, machine builders in construction, agriculture, logistics and municipal services can rely on an HMI that is as rugged as their machines, and as dependable as the EXOR brand.
