Self-translucent printing paper, new energy-saving way

A restaurant prints its day events on a piece of paper, attached to the guest menu. After that, they recorded the plain white paper the next day to reprint it.

This scenario is no stranger, when recently Palo Alto Research Center of Xerox invented a new type of paper and printer that could make the paper print content faded after 16 to 24 hours.

In principle, the paper is coated with photosensitive substances, which can turn black when exposed to ultraviolet rays. When reprinting, users do not need to wait for the paper to turn white. A special type of printer designed specifically for this type of paper will remove old content before printing a new one.

Only in the next few years will this special paper and printer be marketed.

"Tests show that the paper can be reprinted hundreds of times, while plain paper cannot be reused to print when they are damaged or simply creased," Eric Shrader, from his lab. Xerox, said.

Xerox's new idea will help reduce energy consumption in paper and printing production, which is because reusing a product costs far less energy than producing a new one or even is recycled.

Specifically, in order to create a new sheet of paper, it is necessary to use the 204,000 Jun (electricity measurement unit). This amount is equivalent to lighting a 60 watt light bulb in an hour. Recycling that sheet only costs about 114,000 Jun.

To print an A4 paper, it usually takes about 2,000 Jun. Reusable paper will cost much less. It only takes 1,000 Jun to print on recycled paper (which is a content eraser), and only takes 100 Jun if printed on paper, the old content on it fades naturally.

Therefore, according to experts, although creating this special paper costs energy, but when used will save a lot. Using paper again is an extremely efficient energy saving solution.

Not all documents are suitable to use re-printed paper. Contract documents, for example, must be printed on long-term papers. However, the lunch menu, daily to-do summary, meeting memos etc. can all use this new technology.

Xerox estimates 44.5% of printed materials are used only once and 25% of printed materials are recycled during the day.