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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

First fully recyclable electronic paper technology

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan has developed the world's first electronic paper that can be fully recycled.
i2R e-Paper provides a re-writable, re-usable and environmentally friendly recyclable print medium that can be manufactured in a variety of sizes for a 300dpi screen that uses a thermal printer to store and transmit images.
This will limit waste on short-lived business initiatives such as advertising banners, corporate visitor ID badges, transit passes, and museum or parking lot tickets. In the future, the technology may be used for producing digital books and pictorials without restriction on length, wall banners, large size electronic bulletin boards and other innovative applications. It is highly flexible and bendable. Water solvent-based marker pens can be used to note, mark or draw on the flexible e-paper as it is typically done on paper computer printouts. The markers can then be washed off easily.
The e-paper's special green energy conserving display technology -- a flexible cholesteric liquid crystal panel -- is completely recyclable and requires only heat to store and transmit images, without using expensive inks. i2R e-Paper delivers a 300 dpi high-resolution image that remains crisp until users decide to re-use the e-paper. It is both eco-friendly and re-writable up to 260 times.
i2R e-Paper, whether note card or banner roll size, does not consume electricity to maintain an image. To print and change content, users simply need a thermal printer fitted with a thermal head. Heat generated from the thermal head uses minimal power consumption and interacts with the environmentally friendly composition of the e-Paper to capture an image. Re-using the i2R e-Paper is as easy as putting it back into any thermal printer device. The old image is removed and replaced with a new one -- no ink, no toner and no paper are consumed.
Green breakthrough: first fully recyclable electronic paper technology:

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

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