Toshiba launches waste paper for instant regeneration of printable ink

Japan’s Toshiba Corp. officially launched a “removable printable ink that can eliminate printed traces by heating” and a special device this week in Japan. The paper printed with this ink can be re-instated after a special color-removal device eliminates ink. Use, not only conducive to limited maintenance of the Earth's resources, but also conducive to reducing costs.

This kind of "thermal deinking agent" includes a special "decomposing agent" in addition to the "coloring agent" and "coloring agent" that produce ink. Printing is the use of pigment and chromogenic molecules combined to produce color, but printing this text color is heated to 120 degrees Celsius or more, or add a special solvent will be due to the original molecular bond was cut off and disappear. The separated color-developer molecules, which are bound to the decomposing agent and no longer recombine with the color-forming agent, allow the paper to be retained and reused in a colorless state.

The Toshiba-developed "thermal deinking agent" product is a "e-blue" product brand, which can be used in ordinary monochrome laser marking machines, but conventional printers use such printing agents. The ink cartridge and photoconductor elements must be replaced.

Toshiba e-blue cartridges are priced at 20,000 yen (about NT$6,000), and photoreceptor components are priced at 70,000 yen (TWD 20,000), which can eliminate 400 to 500 A4 sheets or 200 to 250 sheets at the same time. A3 paper's defusing equipment is 200,000 yen (Taiwanese 60,000 yuan). To print the text on e-blue, only the heat of the equipment can be used to remove the traces on the paper.

To make it easier for users to differentiate between traditional printing paper and e-blue printing paper, Toshiba has specifically set the ink color of e-blue to blue so that users can easily distinguish which is “immediately reusable” and which are You must regenerate printed paper that can be reused.

About 40% of the Japanese office's waste is paper, and about 60% of it is remanufactured and recycled on recycled paper. Toshiba's e-blue can be reused for printing files that do not need to be saved, and can be used for high quality paper or recycled paper.

Toshiba claims that they switched from e-blue to one of the three tabulators in a 50-employee office. During the six-month trial period, the newly purchased paper was significantly reduced by 60%. Toshiba said that it will launch e-blue photocopiers in the future.