Eraser-Friendly Paper

The paper industry has changed dramatically in recent years, in some cases shutting down manufacturing capacity, but are people really using less paper? While many commodity and production printing grades are experiencing declining demand, more cut-sheet bonds-office papers-are being consumed than

Consumers continue to want to see information on paper, even if that means printing it themselves on their desktops. Xerox Corp. has created hundreds of products to make this change possible. However, Xerox also has a stake in preserving the use of paper, and one way to do this is to make paper consumption more environmentally friendly and economical.

This is the reasoning behind one project at Xerox's PARC research facility in PaIo Alto, Calif. The company recently revealed development of what it calls erasable paper, not the conventional, slickly coated typewriter bond that easily allows erasures, but paper that looks and feels like ordinary bond, though it can be entirely erased and re-used.

"There are so many business processes that would like to migrate to the Web, but they can't because people like paper so much," said Eric Shrader, PARC researcher and area manager of industrial InkJet systems. "If you've ever watched the mortgage application process or the insurance claims process, those are very paper based. There are lots of office tasks where people are hesitant to migrate to the Web. I think it's not just that we're old-fashioned. You see young people printing out as much paper as older people."

While many of the things people print out may need to take the form of hard copy for one or another reason, many other documents have a limited shelflife. These can include e-mails, office memos, or event/meeting announcements. In fact, announcements of almost all kinds are short-lived by their nature. A product or activity announcement, or one explaining a change in procedures, is new only once and becomes part of the probably electronic archive. Yet people like paper. In some ways, printed documents seem more permanent, more official.

Erasable paper, Mr. Shrader said, "feels very much like regular paper. That's one of the advantages of it. Instead of starting with an expensive display technology and trying to make it cheaper, we're starting at the other end and adding a little bit of functionality to paper to make it more useful."

Erasable paper is a standard paper with a special coating. "The coating has the magic in it, and changes color when you write on it," he noted. "We're actually writing on it with light. We have an accessory that's sort of an add-on to a multifunctional device."

The paper is colored yellow to differentiate it from non-erasable paper, and the printed image is dark blue. The print can be erased deliberately by running it through the special printer again, or it will disappear by itself after a while.

"We're working on the lifetime," said Mr. Shrader. "Right now it's about a day. You can capture the things that you know you're going to use today. But, for example, people will say, 'Well, what if my boss postpones the meeting?' So we'd like the printing to last at least a week or a month."

Erasable paper will probably cost three times more than regular paper, however it can be used as many as 50 times, as long as it isn't crumpled, torn, folded, or mutilated. PARC also considered developing a pen for handwriting on the paper, but doesn't believe it will be a large application. Currently, both erasable paper and the printer are a couple of years away from the marketplace.

"Erasable paper enables you to have those things you love about paper and not feel guilty about it," he adds.