Tuesday, 27 June 2006 - 5:20 PM
Federal Room A (Capital Hilton)
59

Decolorable toner e-blue

Sano Kenji, Satoshi Takayama, Takeshi Gotanda, and Yumiko Sekiguchi. Toshiba Corporation, Kawasaki, Japan

The decolorable ink and toner e-blue consists of resin, dye colored by developer and eraser-reagent. The leuco dye is originally colorless dye usually used in thermal paper. In the decolorable toner and ink, colored leuco dye is used as well as the usual pigment of imaging material. The difference is the presence of eraser-reagent that traps developer in an erasing process. We can use decolorable toner e-blue as an ordinary toner and ballpoint pen of the decolorable ink for our office-work. After the use of the printed and hand-written manuscript, we can erase it in large volume like 500 sheets of paper at once by the heat eraser. Then, we can use the paper again and again. Our experiment shows that the paper consumption can be reduced by at least 60%. This means that we can save more than one half of wood resources, as compared to the usual toner. After the repeated use of the same paper with e-blue, handling damages the paper and the paper must be recycled in paper reclaiming plant. In addition to the office system, e-blueTM contributes to the reduction of resources like energy, detergent and water for the de-inking process, 60-70% resources in the plant. E-blue loses its color in alkali solution at the first process of the paper reclaiming plant. Therefore, e-blue can simplify the paper reclaiming plant. The technology, which we have achieved in toner, can be applicable to general ink for newspaper and other image forming materials.


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