Paper printing options

The definition of printing is to generate a trace or indentation. The word "Print" comes from the Latin root, meaning "press," so the printing press is often used to represent the press. It turns out to be redundant.

Obviously, in order to correct redundancy, one of the terms must be removed. Unless a school refuses to teach students how to read and write on the podium, writing is inexorably an important part of human civilization. Therefore, it is easy to choose: printing must be preserved, and press is the word that has to be removed. Is it possible today's bulky press made of steel may be as old as steam locomotives that were once loved by people? Yes, it may disappear after 100 years together with the paper made of wood fibers.

Making paper from wood pulp is a 19th-century technology. Today, taking into account the need to protect forests, people are making great efforts to find a plant material that can replace wood pulp for papermaking. Developers are working on some fast-growing, high-fibre plants such as bamboo, hemp, and kenaf; crop waste products such as grains, corn, bananas, and cane stalks. However, all these materials only replaced wood pulp, but none of them can produce high-quality paper.

On the other hand, synthetic paper made of rayon fibers improves some properties of the paper such as toughness, tear resistance and water resistance as well as high opacity. At present, paper made from synthetic fibers is mostly used for banknotes and Tyvek tear-resistant envelopes.

Synthetic paper made from polyolefin fibers is porous and absorbs ink as easily as paper made from wood pulp. Paper made of polypropylene fibers has a perforated layer, while other layers are non-porous surfaces and therefore can only be printed with solid, low-solubility inks, such as hot wax inks.

Non-porous surfaces offer unique benefits. Because the ink cannot penetrate into the fiber, the ink on the paper can be wiped off and used multiple times. Initially, reusable paper attracted computer users who used the paper to print some pages that were temporarily used, especially some colored pages. Synthetic papers are comparable in nature to the best coated wood pulp paper, they can be made into matte or polished surfaces, and they can also be made tear resistant and water resistant. Even though the cost of producing synthetic paper is 5-10 times that of wood pulp paper, due to their durability and reusability, synthetic paper in general is more economical and practical.

Some companies are using known technologies to develop a recyclable material for printing presses. According to rumors, one of the arguments is to remove the toner from the paper. At the MIT Media Lab, Professor Joseph Jacobson has built a desktop printer prototype that can erase and recreate images on paper coated with a special layer of electronic ink. This paper can be erased and rewritten many times without using any consumable materials such as toner or chemicals.

Recently, Professor Jacobson has won some honors for announcing the birth of electronic ink. The ink is composed of microparticle-loaded granules with one side white and the other black. "This incredible material can be coated on the surface of any material," Professor Jacobson said. “Unlike ordinary inks, it can be imaged with electronic instruments. It can be changed, erased and re-imaged at any time. The ink itself is a kind of polymer material, very cheap, and does not require electricity to maintain the image.”

A thin layer of electronic ink is applied to the surface of paper or synthetic paper, and a transparent layer containing microcircuit technology is used to flip the particles so that the black side is facing upwards, or the white side is facing upwards. Radio transmitted data signals form images on the page. Electronic paper requires some tiny currents to reposition the particles but does not require any current to maintain the image. Very cheap, extremely thin solar cells, such as those used in calculators, can provide all the energy needed for a page of electronic paper.

Professor Jacobson nailed a page of electronic paper to the wall of the media lab. This kind of paper can be rolled or bent, but it cannot be folded because folding can damage the microcircuit. Professor Jacobson believes that wireless transmission of printed information to lightweight, portable readers will revolutionize books, magazines and newspapers. However, his perspective did not stop with printable products. His R&D team has begun to study the potential of color layers and the use of electronic ink for flat panel displays on computers, as well as applications on high-resolution, full-color information boards, whiteboards, wallpapers, and canvases.

Professor Jacobson pointed out that liquid crystal displays, LEDs, and plasma flat panel displays are very expensive and require a lot of power. "Electronic inks make it possible to combine the publication of traditional paper with the display of electronic information," he said.

In the printing industry, since there is nothing to replace the convenience printed on paper pages, printing will still exist for a long period of time. This is a well-known saying. But although printing will continue, will it still be printed on paper?

Source: Guangzhou Printing Network