THE NEWS IN PRINT

We have seen plenty of concepts that have given a new meaning to printers. There are printers that print designs on toast, edible menu cards to microchips and the list doesn't seem to end. Good for me, I have lots to write about.

Last week I stumbled upon a printer which acts as a photo frame. Quite weird huh! It's a wall hanging wireless printer operated by battery and the above image can give a better idea about this printer. The paper is fed from the top and the final printed output gets collected in the bottom open section that displays the printout just like your photo frame. I guess the brain behind this concept is to have a new photo on the wall whenever desired.

This printer will remain a concept as it looks and sounds to be highly impractical and improbable for any sane person to purchase it.

via Engadget

Few months back, I had written about a graduate student who had created printed circuit boards using a DeskJet printer. That merely remained a PhD project but here is a company that actually implements the idea on a commercial basis for all their semiconductor needs; that too at an intricate level.

NANOIDENT Technologies based in Austria produces organic semi-conductor chips using a printer that uses a conductive ink printed on layers of polymer foils. The special printer has a 128 nozzle cartridge that sprays on the foil in a certain pattern as designed by engineers. Different parts of the microchip are printed on different foils and pressed together to form the needed microchip.

Here's a news clip - NANOIDENT was able to manufacture a large-area photo detector array"”a device that converts light into electrical signals"”by depositing thin layers of conducting and semi-conducting "inks"ť onto a plastic foil substrate using state-of-the-art printing techniques. By using printed semiconductor based technology"”which enables
unique mechanical, electro-optical and structural properties"”the company was able to deliver an array 18x12cm in size, and could easily produce detectors up to 50x50cm or larger. With large-area, ultra-thin, flexible devices that incorporate application specific spectral properties, customers are able to eliminate expensive optical filters and develop an entirely new class of application types. Sample applications for large-area photo detector arrays include industrial measurement and test, medical imaging and security screening.

Organic semiconductors are not preferred in devices such as computers and cell phones as the clock speed is relatively slower than inorganic semiconductors and more importantly they degrade faster too. They find applications in devices that don't depend upon the clock speed and probably have use for it for a brief period.

When an artist creates a painting, it is usually sold exclusively to a single person. It's quite uncommon to hear artists making copies of paintings to be sold to multiple people. Usually paintings get reproduced in printing factories using large format printing machines and screen printers. But, Phyllis Seltzer has been reproducing her paintings at her studio using a colour laser printer. She follows a process called Electrostatic and Heat Transfer Printing Method which was devised by Masaki Yoshino of Japan.

Here's a rundown of the reproduction process: Once the painting is complete, several grids are drawn depending on the size of the painting. The final byproduct could be made up by a number of pieces fitted together as a collage. The painting is laid flat on the flat bed copier and the printer is fed with heat transfer paper coated with an emulsion which absorbs and holds the colours via an electrically-charged field. After the images are transferred, they are trimmed and conjoined with the other parts of the painting thus reproducing the image.

After securing the heat transfer sheets to the paper with a tacking iron, they are placed in a heated press at approximately 325 degrees Farenheit. It takes about ten minutes for the emulsion to transfer onto the paper. When the process is complete, the heat transfer sheets are carefully peeled back.

This process of reproducing paintings is found to be stable over a long run. Moreover, the reproduction can take place at the comfort of a home or a studio.

If you are an ardent follower of CSI, you would have probably seen CSI agents trying to put the shredded pieces of paper together manually in search of clues. It seemed as an arduous task with the different permutations and combinations that were needed to reverse the process of paper shredding. German scientists have developed a computer program that will undo the process of paper shredding. These researchers are trying to piece together 45 million pages of secret police files ripped into 600 million pieces. These files were torn up by hand by the agents of East Germany's Secret Service (Stasi) 18 years ago.

The pieces of torn documents are scanned on both sides, and the digital images are then analysed by a cluster of 16 computers for 25 features, including colour, shape, texture, handwriting and typeface.

The technology seems uncomplicated with mixing and matching of different patterns. But, who will undertake the task of scanning a billion pieces of paper? Maybe they are missing out on the contusions caused on the edges while being torn apart. Torn paper edges will have a specific pattern when shredded manually which could be exploited while bringing them together.

If this paper unshredder becomes successful, the industry should start looking for better choices of disposing confidential documents like burning or crushing.

via Crunch Gear

When you teach your kids about the prehistoric world, you will probably show them a picture of a dinosaur from a book or internet. As always, things change rapidly. Those pictures in a book present you a two dimensional format where as some specialized printers can actually print 3D models of the same dinosaur for better illustration for your kids.

Three dimensional printing is a method of printing a virtual 3D model from a CAD program or any other 3D program into a physical object. There are different technologies that could realise 3D printing.

3D printing technology has existed for some years now but until now it has never been in reach of common man. Idealab is planning the release of the Desktop Factory, an affordable 3D printer meant for homes. This printer uses an inexpensive halogen light source and drum printing technology to build robust parts layer by layer from composite plastic powder. The technology involves deposition of molten polymer by a nozzle onto a support structure, layer by layer.

It is priced at £2500-£3500 depending on the capacity desired. This is still expensive for homes but affordable for schools and other small offices. The cost of the build material is expected to be about £0.25 per cubic inch.