Art of assembling self service kiosk terminal

One of the issues we always receive from our clients who have used other vendors when ordering self service kiosks is that they overlook many simple but yet highly important tasks in overall final assembly,  when as a client may purchase 100 terminals to assemble 100 machines requires both due diligence beforehand in ensuring that assembly team is qualified and has an understanding on how to best approach this.

An example on how to layout your terminals before beginning assembly

Importance must be placed in arranging them systematically and with enough space to allow staff to easily be able to move around the machines to be able to quickly efficiently do the work required.

Mapping the inside of space you have available already takes place right at start of job when engineering department will map out the area within enclosure so that their is a space provided for each components and required space for mounting parts to affix inside.

An example on how to map out your internal space equally and proportionally

The ability to be able for the companies service technicians to easily service the terminals in the field is paramount,  most customers work on either outsourcing or paying by hour for technicians to service a terminal and having easy to access service doors to reach the machines internal components can literally save thousands of dollars.

An example on how to design your terminal for ease of access

Furthermore certain main components require also special attention when your for example installing in the field kiosks that are designed for payment,  in this instance the kiosks should be able to easily accessed the printer for changing the receipt paper,   as well as ease of removal of cash in this case our team always mount these on sliding drawers and we use only cash accepters with built in cash boxes that store physically bill cash notes so as in the field those responsible are not physically having to scoop out the notes but can easily methodically unclip small cash safe box mounted either on front or rear.

An example of how to design your terminal for easy printer and cash note accepting service

In some instances we are also requested to install wheels so that units can be easily moved around in case for example they maybe located up against a wall and the technician has to access rear.  The oversight many do not see is that wheels require wheel lock brakes so that units do not move once in site

Example of Base Wheel with Lock Brake

Several important factors are crucial for a successful cable installation to ensure that terminals are guarded against cable failure,  cable damage and electrical shock damage.  Some short examples of correctly installing these are given below.

Example of Mains AC power cable extruding from rear with rubber groment to protect the power cable plastic sheath.

Example of primary data cable protected by plastic cable guard

Example of using correctly plastic groments to afix to power dc connections

Example of labelling cables to easily trace cable and parts

Light Boxes for advertising or information purposes tend to be popular as more cost effective means than additional secondary monitors the oversight that several vendors do is use of dual LED lighting rods instead of single rods,  the effect is that with single rods the light will be strongest were it is mounted and weakest from its furthest edges whereas with dual rods the light emitted will be uniformed.

An example of LED Lightbox with dual LED rods installed

Finally we raise the issue of PVC lettering,  this should be mounted in a clear contrasting color so it can be easily read afar,  naturally all languages checked they are spelt and translated correctly and lettering stands linearly.

An example of PVC lettering

These suggestions are obviously not all of the points but it does provide a glance as to what we see to often overlooked by others.

KT Group 10th Anniversay a decade of success in custom design Part 2

Our companies has gathered and built our success in past 10 years on the acumen we have learned how design can assist our clients to attain more success and achievement and in one recent project which initially started 3 years ago with a client approaching us that they were starting to launch a new business concept that require kioskterminals that were able to accept coins and cash.

Initially the unit the client showed interest in was one of our standardized models,  the C8 a robust curved model which has proven popular with customers certainly has attractive design as well as incorporating easy serviceability so important when in reference to having ability to collect cash inside that it can be done quickly and without having to spend time which could increase cost that is combined in managing a network of terminals that accept old fashioned cash.

Concept of initial unit pictured below

The client proceed with a purchase of 5 pilot terminals,  and with any new venture a pilot is critical to the investor to demonstrate a proof of concept and in this case our client had to be able to demonstrate to its investors that this solution would pay off.    Luckily it did!

After the initial pilot the customer who had regularly visited the terminals in their place of installation to gain better understanding of users and their use of these machines,  the concept was so new in marketplace this tracking took best part of 4 months before the accumulated reserach was studied and the client then returned to us with their findings.  He initiated a further order and expanded it to 25 terminals a so called first mass production run and he had understood he required a more ad space to proliferate and inform the users who were within a large building to gain their attention to the kiosk and what offerings it provided them.

Concept of secondary design we prepared.

Once the initial 25 units placed the client then began his study on performance and noticed that adding an additional larger monitor and top did in increase awareness,   the client who was positioned in locations which in times required potentially to increase turnover to accept other foreign currency expanded two having dual coin slots so that each different coin validator was able to accept two different kinds of foreign currency which also expanded the turnover of these terminals.   Their was a healthy 6 months of research undertaken and data collated and then the client returned a third time,  he had found that he had voluminous increased his turnover but he felt that with the amount of people traffic occuring in this international location their was more that could be achieved which at KT we initially were quizzical that this could be true but during a in-depth Q&A meeting the customer explained to us why there firm of specialists came to this conclusion.  The design was once again re-engineered to the customers wishes and on this occasion we also called in our designer as it required more thought and hence our version 3 was borne.

Concept of third design prepared

Now radically redesign the unit achieved what our specialist client had seen through his in-depth marketing research,  the corridors of which there are many and extremely long in which people traffic went from left - right or viceversa were seeing the terminals from the side and thus when walking past them the majority being the busy men and women they are would walk past these terminals without giving them much attention what our client proposed was to add both digital large sized monitors and traditional poster print advertising to each side of the terminal and therefore these units ended up being labelled internally at KT Group as Christmas trees.

Cinema Ticketing Kiosks

As several of our customers are already aware KT distinguishes itself with its unique designs that we develop in cohesion with our customers wishes and demands,  one such project we worked on back in 2010 was for Nordisk Film who are largest chain of cinemas in the Scandinavian countries.

The enclosure that the client preferred to establish a base for design was based on our model Simplicity Kiosk that was originally designed by an award winning designer Jerry Schweikart, the units came equipped with full cashless card payment solution and ticket dispensing printer and in all 65 of the cinema ticketing machines we ordered by the customer.

Original design by Jerry Schweikart

What happens with allot of our kiosk machines once we ship them from our production facility in Shenzhen is that they go out in the field and then we no longer here about those machines ever again unless of course their is a fault which requires KT Group to assist in warranty RMA procedure.

In this case our partner House Of IT who are sadly no longer a business in operation as they went into liquidation in 2015 had in fact received so much commendation from their customer that they sent us a letter of recommendation.

Now lets fast forward to April 2015 so five years have passed and i am out on a family vacation back visiting my country of origin Denmark,  my family and I decided we wanted to go and see a movie we ended up at one of the cinemas owned by Nordisk Film near Copenhgaen and as I walk into the cinema I noticed immediately the shiny looking units that my company manufactured back then. I literally turned around to the family and pointed out that it was those that our company manufactured 5 years ago and hey as we had not heard anything in that time i gathered that the units we still active and proof was shown yesterday evening as i gladly purchased 3 tickets with my creditcard on one of the units and walked away with tickets and a receipt.  Just goes to show that KT kiosks are well manufactured terminals that are designed for longevity and components hand picked for their excellent craftmanship.

kioskterminals.eu new site

The last few months has been a tremendously busy period for KT with new projects underway as we started into 2015 we have quietly been working on wanting to relaunch the companies website simply because the old site was not representative of the growth and product development the company has focused on in self service kiosk terminal design.
The old site in fact dates back to 2009 and thus it had to be refreshed so much has changed in KT Group,   we have expanded in human resources with 10 compared to 4 back in 09,  we have moved into new offices in 2012 in Shenzhen China and most importantly the company has steered its path into focus of custom kiosk terminal manufacturing with a heavy emphasis on self service kiosk payments.
The site now has a full up to date listing of the latest designs,  we have produced a full new range of betting terminals or also known as FOBT (Fixed Offline Betting Terminals) which include models like Beast, Whizz, Evoque and Apollo a selection that offers basic functionality with additional expertise to customize that KT are specialists in.  The success in past 24 months working on projects for likes of NCR and Betfirst were important milestones as we were able to demonstrate not only by what the company already knew itself but physically as well that we could muster enough know how and knowledgeable expertise in our staff to be able to effectively manufacturer large production volume manufacturing for first time in 2014 we undertook single production runs of 250, 351 unit orders which we could deliver on timely manner to international corporate clients that expect such service. Some of these we have updated into our newest section of Case Studies page,  we are proud to be associated to partners and customers that extended us their trust that they showed us when orders were physically confirmed.
We are still currently working on some additional new features for the site,  one feature launched today was our kioskterminals blogger site having been integrated into corporate site the blog will focus on KT Group in news, product launches, new custom designs and also newsworthy stories from world medias relating to self service kiosk markets.   We recommend for visitors to return regularly to the site to keep up to date and check out the latest updates to the site over next few months.