Seiko Full-Frame Touch Plate

From Libre Aquatics Wiki, the free aquatics reference

The full-frame touch plate is a swimming touch panel made by Seiko Time Creation Inc. of Tokyo, sold as the 1,900 mm full-frame type. It senses a swimmer’s finish and turn at the lane end and converts the touch into an electrical signal that reaches the printing timer through that lane’s lane box, the same role the company’s larger AQUA touch plate fills.¹² It is the narrower and much shallower of the two, and Seiko certifies it for Japanese domestic competition only: it carries a Japan Swimming Federation Class A listing with no World Aquatics compliance line.¹²

Role in the timing system¶

The touchpads overview covers the history of automatic touchpad timing and the World Aquatics requirements that apply to every touch panel. This plate reports to a lane box, one per lane, which sorts that lane’s signals and passes them to the PT-9000 printing timer at the head of Seiko’s competitive swimming system.²³⁴

Its certification sets it apart from the rest of that system. Seiko lists the starting block, the backstroke ledge, the lane box, the AQUA touch plate, the printing timer and the PS-1400 start sound generator as conforming to World Aquatics rules and as Japan Swimming Federation Class AA and Class A. This plate is listed as Class A alone.²¹ The company does not say why. World Aquatics facilities rules set a minimum touch panel width of 2.4 m, and this panel is 1,900 mm.⁵¹

Naming and model numbers¶

Seiko publishes no model number for this plate in Japanese. The product page and the swimming catalogue both call it タッチプレート（1,900mmフルフレームタイプ）, “touch plate (1,900 mm full-frame type)”, and give a four-row specification table with no part number on it.¹² The name distinguishes it from the AQUA type, but Seiko does not explain what the frame consists of.

Seiko’s English swimming pages do carry model numbers, TP-3000 and TP-3019, for a pair of framed touch pads with an aluminium and stainless-steel frame and a PVC front panel finished in a yellow resin fine-particle coating, rated in accordance with FINA rules. The TP-3019 is the narrower of that pair at 1980 W × 917 H × 68 D mm and about 20 kg, with a TF-40 storage cart.⁶ That framed construction is closer to this plate than to the AQUA type, but none of the figures match the current Japanese ones: this plate is given as 1,900 W × 900 H × 15 D mm and about 15 kg, on a high-impact resin panel.¹²

Seiko’s English swimming section has been only partly updated, so its pages cannot be read as a single generation. The PS-1400 starter page there is current and cites World Aquatics rules, while the touch pad, lane box and printing timer pages still cite FINA rules, still name a PT-8000X timer where the Japanese pages name the PT-9000, and still power the lane box from a PT-8000.⁶⁷⁸⁹⁴ This article treats the Japanese product page and the December 2025 catalogue as current and does not apply the TP-3019 number to this plate, because Seiko publishes no statement connecting the two.

Design and construction¶

Seiko gives the surface panel material as a high-impact resin board, the same material as the AQUA plate, the plate’s overall dimensions as 1,900 W × 900 H × 15 D mm, and its weight as about 15 kg.¹² The sensing area is 10 mm thick. That figure comes from the catalogue alone: the product page’s table runs to three rows, and its sensing-surface row carries the weight where the catalogue gives a thickness.²¹ The 900 mm height and the 10 mm sensing thickness match the figures the World Aquatics facilities rules give for a touch panel; the width does not.⁵

Seiko labels that row 感動面 in the catalogue and on both product pages, where the expected term is 感応面, “sensing surface”. The spelling is consistent across its material, so a search on the correct term will not find these specifications.¹¹⁰² Catalogue photographs show it finished in yellow with a dark cross marking at the centre.²

The 15 mm overall depth leaves only 5 mm beyond the sensing area, so this plate is close to a flat panel, where the AQUA type’s 77.5 mm maximum depth implies a substantial frame or bracket behind the face.¹¹⁰ Seiko does not publish the number of switches or sensing zones behind the face, the activation force, or an operating temperature range.¹²

Sensing and wave rejection¶

Seiko uses the same sentence for this plate as for the AQUA type, describing it as detecting only the swimmer’s touch, without responding to water pressure or splashes, and converting that touch instantly into an electrical signal sent to the printing timer.¹² The company publishes no sensing principle for either plate. The AQUA touch plate article discusses a 1995 Seiko Instruments patent that addresses the same discrimination problem, and the touchpads overview sets that approach alongside the air-filled and conductive-plate designs other manufacturers use.

Mounting¶

Seiko does not publish the plate’s mounting method, its fixing hardware, or whether it hangs from the gutter or fixes to a flat wall, and no installation document exists: the company’s manual download index lists no touch plate, and its swimming category holds only the SB-5010 and SB-5020 scoreboards.¹²¹¹

Handling off the wall is documented. A steel storage cart takes ten full-frame plates, measures 2,100 W × 1,548 H × 849 D mm including its wheels and excluding protrusions, and weighs about 130 kg empty.²¹² It is the heavier of Seiko’s two touch plate carts, holding ten plates where the AQUA cart holds six. Portability is consistent with the facilities rules, which allow a touch panel to be removable so it can be taken out when no race is being held.⁵

Connection to the timer¶

The plate wires to its lane box rather than to the timer. The lane box takes the signals from that lane’s starting block and touch plate, sorts them by lane, and passes them to the printing timer; it is an ABS case in dark grey measuring 170 W × 50 H × 100 D mm excluding protrusions, weighing 450 g with a 230 g cable of 3.7 m, and it uses waterproof connectors.³ Timekeepers’ grip switches feed the same box as a manual backup.¹³ Seiko does not publish the connector type on the plate itself, the plate’s own cable length, or a pin assignment.

Compared with the AQUA touch plate¶

The two plates share their stated function and their panel material; the description of what they do is word for word the same on both product pages.¹¹⁰ They differ in size, depth, weight, certification and storage.

	Full-frame type	AQUA type
Width	1,900 mm	2,400 mm
Height	900 mm	900 mm
Depth	15 mm	77.5 mm (maximum)
Sensing surface	10 mm thick	10 mm thick
Weight	Approx. 15 kg	Approx. 22 kg
Panel material	High-impact resin board	High-impact resin board
Certifications	Japan Swimming Federation Class A	World Aquatics rules; Japan Swimming Federation Class AA and Class A
Storage cart	10 plates, approx. 130 kg	6 plates, approx. 40 kg

The practical distinction is where each may be used. Only the AQUA plate meets the World Aquatics minimum panel width, and only the AQUA plate carries the company’s World Aquatics compliance line and the Class AA listing.⁵¹¹⁰ Against that, this plate is about 7 kg lighter and far shallower, at 15 mm against 77.5 mm, and its cart carries ten panels rather than six.¹¹⁰²

Specifications¶

Touch plate:


Surface panel material	High-impact resin board
Dimensions	1,900 W × 900 H × 15 D mm
Sensing surface	10 mm thick
Weight	Approx. 15 kg
Certifications	Japan Swimming Federation Class A

Storage cart:


Capacity	10 plates
Material	Steel plate
Dimensions	2,100 W × 1,548 H × 849 D mm (including wheels, excluding protrusions)
Weight	Approx. 130 kg (cart alone)

Seiko does not publish a part number, cable length, connector type, activation force, switch or zone count, operating temperature range or installation method for this plate. Those rows are omitted here rather than estimated.

Part numbers and accessories¶

Touch plate (1,900 mm full-frame type), sold without a published part number in Seiko’s Japanese material.
Touch plate storage cart for the full-frame type, ten plates, also unnumbered.
Lane box, one per lane, carrying the plate’s signal and the starting block’s to the printing timer.
TP-3019, the model number Seiko’s older English pages give for a 1980 mm framed touch pad, with a TF-40 storage cart. Seiko does not state how it relates to this plate.

References¶

Seiko Time Creation, タッチプレート（1,900mmフルフレームタイプ） (Japanese product page; its three-row table omits the sensing-surface thickness the catalogue gives). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶
Seiko Time Creation, Swimming Systems Catalogue (December 2025), pp. 5, 6 and 7. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵
Seiko Time Creation, レーンボックス (waterproof connectors, one box per lane). ↩ ↩²
Seiko Time Creation, 競泳用自動審判計時装置 PT-9000. ↩ ↩²
World Aquatics, Facilities Rules 2021–2025, FR 2.3 Automatic Officiating Equipment for Swimming (touch panels: FR 2.3.4). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Seiko Time Creation, Touch Pads TP-3000 / TP-3019 (English product page; frame and PVC panel construction, and the TF-40 storage cart). ↩ ↩²
Seiko Time Creation, Electronic Starting System PS-1400 (the English page that is current, citing World Aquatics rules). ↩
Seiko Time Creation, swimming products (English index listing the PT-8000X and the current PS-1400 side by side). ↩
Seiko Time Creation, Lane Box LB-90～99, LB-9S, LB-9M (English page; powered from the PT-8000). ↩
Seiko Time Creation, タッチプレート（AQUAタイプ） (Japanese product page for the wider plate). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Seiko Time Creation, manual index (the data behind the 取扱説明書 download page; its swimming category holds only SB-5010 and SB-5020). ↩
Seiko Time Creation, タッチプレート収納台車 (both storage carts). ↩
Seiko Time Creation, バックアップ用グリップスイッチシステム (three grip switches per lane through the lane box). ↩

Last updated July 27, 2026.