With the rise of green movements across all industries this concept is actually a great. Scientists have developed an ink which can vaporize off a piece of paper. Text messages and emails might hold more weight than an actual document in the future. Hit the jump for the full story on “un-printing”.
+TatWZA
X
Shotta Dru on Google+
A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge have determined that as long as you are using the right type of laser, it is possible to remove toner from paper.
“Previous work on the subject has explored the applicability of ultraviolet, visible and infared lasers under nanosecond pulses for toner removal,” the researchers write in an abstract of the study published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society journal.
They go on to explain that they have expanded on that method and found that “with the right laser, it is possible to remove toner from paper to enable its reuse”.
Some may be surprised that there has been previous work on this subject.
But, as lead author David Leal-Ayala points out to the BBC, the ability to re-use the same piece of paper time and time again may prove to be a greener way to recycle than our current system.
“You use electricity, water and chemicals, and to be honest when you print something the only reason that you don’t re-use the paper is because there is print on it,” he said.
“The paper is still in good condition and there is no point going through all the heavy industrial process if the paper is still perfectly fine.”
To remove ink from paper the un-printer way, scientists hit the paper with short laser pulses that vaporise the printed images, but don’t damage – or even discolour – the paper.
The tricky part was figuring out what the right length of laser blast should be, and what colour laser would work best. (The answer is four billionths of a second, and green).
Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait to get your hands on an un-printer of your own – the scientists are still perfecting their laser length/colour formula.
