Dec 04 2006
Xerox’s erasable paper
Xerox has developed a solution which can erase the text or images on a paper within a span of one day. This new breakthrough will help to reuse the same paper again resulting in less cutting of trees.
This revolutionary printing technology was developed by both Xerox and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and it is hoped that it will replace printed pages that are used for just a short while only. Xerox estimates that 40% of the printed pages in office were used for just a single viewing before being discarded. Patents have already been filed for what is called the “erasable paper”.
To develop erasable paper, researchers needed to identify ways to create temporary images. The “a-ha” moment came from developing compounds that change color when they absorb a certain wavelength of light but then will gradually disappear. In its present version, the paper self-erases in about 16-24 hours and can be used multiple times.