Control panel (engineering)

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A control panel is a flat, often vertical, area where control or monitoring instruments are displayed or it is an enclosed unit that is the part of a system that users can access, such as the control panel of a security system (also called control unit).

They are found in factories to monitor and control machines or production lines and in places such as nuclear power plants, ships, aircraft and mainframe computers. Older control panels are most often equipped with push buttons and analog instruments, whereas nowadays in many cases touchscreens are used for monitoring and control purposes.

Gallery

Flat panels

Control panel of the engines of the Clémenceau aircraft carrier
Control panel with touchscreen for the frigate INS Shivalik
Control panel from two Horizontal Return Tubular boiler
One of the control panels from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Control Center Firing Room during the Apollo era
Some of the control panels of a Severn class lifeboat
HMI of a machine for the sugar industry with pushbuttons