Toshiba’s New Erasable Printer Goes on Sale Today For $7000

[Anonymous]

Toshibas New Erasable Printer Goes on Sale Today For $7000
 By Fairfax NZ News

An erasable printer will go on sale tomorrow that outputs printed pages that can later be wiped clean and reused.

Japanese manufacturer Toshiba is promoting the $7000 multifunction printer, scanner and copier as a halfway step for large organisations that can’t quite make the jump to a paperless office.

It has a few quirks. The printer only outputs pages in a special heat-sensitive blue ink. If office workers scribble on the pages they print out, they won’t be able to wipe their annotations clean, unless they use a special pen with thermo-sensitive ink that Toshiba sells as an accessory.

The model e-Studio306LP printer combines two machines; one that prints and copies and another that uses heat to erase previously-printed pages by turning the blue toner transparent.

Toshiba said paper could typically be reused up to five times before it deteriorated too far and was rejected by the eraser, but regional manager Jim Nolan said the company had successfully reused paper 20 times in tests. The printer puts a permanent small dot on each sheet of paper each time it is used, so office workers can keep count.

Despite the use of heat to blank pages, Nolan said the environment would come out ahead overall as it took a ton of carbon dioxide emissions to create a ton of paper. He believed sales of the machines overseas had been in the thousands.  

IDC Research estimated nearly three billion pieces of paper were printed each day in Europe, the Middle East and Africa alone.  

Toshibas New Erasable Printer Goes on Sale Today For $7000
 By Fairfax NZ News

An erasable printer will go on sale tomorrow that outputs printed pages that can later be wiped clean and reused.

Japanese manufacturer Toshiba is promoting the $7000 multifunction printer, scanner and copier as a halfway step for large organisations that can’t quite make the jump to a paperless office.

It has a few quirks. The printer only outputs pages in a special heat-sensitive blue ink. If office workers scribble on the pages they print out, they won’t be able to wipe their annotations clean, unless they use a special pen with thermo-sensitive ink that Toshiba sells as an accessory.

The model e-Studio306LP printer combines two machines; one that prints and copies and another that uses heat to erase previously-printed pages by turning the blue toner transparent.

Toshiba said paper could typically be reused up to five times before it deteriorated too far and was rejected by the eraser, but regional manager Jim Nolan said the company had successfully reused paper 20 times in tests. The printer puts a permanent small dot on each sheet of paper each time it is used, so office workers can keep count.

Despite the use of heat to blank pages, Nolan said the environment would come out ahead overall as it took a ton of carbon dioxide emissions to create a ton of paper. He believed sales of the machines overseas had been in the thousands.  

IDC Research estimated nearly three billion pieces of paper were printed each day in Europe, the Middle East and Africa alone.  

[Author]

March 18, 2014 at 11:11 AM