Epson unveils world’s first in-office paper recycling system

Epson, is a Japanese electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers, and information and imaging related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, the company has numerous subsidiaries worldwide and manufactures inkjet, dot matrix and laser printers, scanners, desktop computers, business, multimedia and home theatre projectors, large home theatre televisions, robots and industrial automation equipment, point of sale docket printers and cash registers, laptops, integrated circuits, LCD components and other associated electronic components. It is one of three core companies of the Seiko Group, a name traditionally known for manufacturing Seiko timepieces since its founding.
Printer giant Epson has developed an in-office paper recycling machine. Called the PaperLab, you put waste paper in, and then new, bright white printer paper comes out. Epson says this process is more efficient than sending paper to an off-site recycling plant, and it's also much more secure: the PaperLab, which breaks paper down into its constituent fibres before building them back up into new sheets, is one of the most secure paper shredders that money can buy.

The specs of the machine are truly impressive. Within three minutes of adding waste paper to the PaperLab, it starts pumping out perfectly white sheets of new paper. The system can produce around 14 A4 sheets of paper per minute, or 6,720 sheets in an eight-hour workday. The PaperLab can also produce A3 paper, and you can tweak the thickness and density of the paper as well: if you want really thin white paper, that's cool; if you want thicker paper for business cards, it can do that too.


Epson says that the PaperLab is the world's first paper production system to use a "dry process." Paper-making processes usually require a lot of water, but the PaperLab requires only a tiny amount of water to "maintain a certain level of humidity inside the system," so it doesn't need to be plumbed into the mains. Presumably there's a small tank of water that needs to be filled up occasionally—hopefully with normal tap water, not £50-per-litre Epson Purified PrintXL Water.

As for how the PaperLab actually works, Epson (unsurprisingly) doesn't provide a whole lot of details. The key seems to be two processes: fiberising and binding. The fiberisation—the process of turning the waste paper back into its constituent long, thin cottony fibres—uses an "original mechanism," which presumably means it's patented and rather novel. How this is done without water, and in just a few seconds, we're not sure. There could be some kind of reusable solvent? In any case, this first step completely destroys any data that may have been stored on the paper.


Too many waste papers?? convert into new at home office

Epson unveils world’s first in-office paper recycling system

Epson, is a Japanese electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers, and information and imaging related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, the company has numerous subsidiaries worldwide and manufactures inkjet, dot matrix and laser printers, scanners, desktop computers, business, multimedia and home theatre projectors, large home theatre televisions, robots and industrial automation equipment, point of sale docket printers and cash registers, laptops, integrated circuits, LCD components and other associated electronic components. It is one of three core companies of the Seiko Group, a name traditionally known for manufacturing Seiko timepieces since its founding.
Printer giant Epson has developed an in-office paper recycling machine. Called the PaperLab, you put waste paper in, and then new, bright white printer paper comes out. Epson says this process is more efficient than sending paper to an off-site recycling plant, and it's also much more secure: the PaperLab, which breaks paper down into its constituent fibres before building them back up into new sheets, is one of the most secure paper shredders that money can buy.

The specs of the machine are truly impressive. Within three minutes of adding waste paper to the PaperLab, it starts pumping out perfectly white sheets of new paper. The system can produce around 14 A4 sheets of paper per minute, or 6,720 sheets in an eight-hour workday. The PaperLab can also produce A3 paper, and you can tweak the thickness and density of the paper as well: if you want really thin white paper, that's cool; if you want thicker paper for business cards, it can do that too.


Epson says that the PaperLab is the world's first paper production system to use a "dry process." Paper-making processes usually require a lot of water, but the PaperLab requires only a tiny amount of water to "maintain a certain level of humidity inside the system," so it doesn't need to be plumbed into the mains. Presumably there's a small tank of water that needs to be filled up occasionally—hopefully with normal tap water, not £50-per-litre Epson Purified PrintXL Water.

As for how the PaperLab actually works, Epson (unsurprisingly) doesn't provide a whole lot of details. The key seems to be two processes: fiberising and binding. The fiberisation—the process of turning the waste paper back into its constituent long, thin cottony fibres—uses an "original mechanism," which presumably means it's patented and rather novel. How this is done without water, and in just a few seconds, we're not sure. There could be some kind of reusable solvent? In any case, this first step completely destroys any data that may have been stored on the paper.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)