Solar power has been a feasible alternative energy source for a while now, but it seems that a cost is one of the problems with this energy source. Well Nanosolar have developed a printing process that is far faster than high-vacuum deposition that is conventionally used to create solar panels, and effectively have reduced the cost and improved the effectiveness of manufacturing solar panels. Here is a video of their printing proccess in action:
Posts Tagged ‘Recycling’
Nanosolar: Printing Solar Cells
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Ink cartridge lamp
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
This handmade epson ink cartridge lamp is made from just that, and it looks wierdly cool. Its fairly expensive if you want one at $200, but so are the cartridges that its made from. Its the second best thing you can do with your empty ink cartridges, the first being sending them in to us to recycle.
Yet Another Printer
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Here’s another cool printer, this time it’s made by Planon and it’s not just a concept.
Planon, who also brought us other cool devices like the Docupen (a fully portable scanner in the shape of a pen), have released the PrintStik. The PrintStik is the worlds smallest portable Bluetooth printer, allowing you to print documents either via USB or Bluetooth. The paper is self-contained within the device meaning that you wouldn’t have to carry a wad of paper around with you.
It is roughly 1”x2”x11”, it can store 20 pieces of paper at a time and it uses thermal technology so doesn’t use ink or toner. The device doesn’t need to be plugged in but instead has a rechargeable battery pack. So this thing is about as portable as it can get unless you could make some weird foldy up printer. Prices start at $199.99 (£130) for the non-Bluetooth version, up to $349.99 (£230) for the top of the range version.
Yet Another Eco Printer Concept
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Here’s another eco-friendly printer, and like the pencil printer it doesn’t use a conventional ink. Instead it uses used ground coffee to print its documents, you just pour used coffee grounds into the printers’ cartridge and then move the cartridge from side to side till your document has printed. So basically your doing quite a lot of the printing work for it, but this whole concept has no need for a power source or ink cartridges, so it really is eco-friendly.
Printer vs Bin Video
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Another great “printer vs” video, made by www.dontbinitbringit.org. It’s a fun video but still has a meaningful message.
Pencil Lead Printer Concept
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010There are alot of eco-printer concepts about lately and the Pencil Printer is one of the most innotive ones I’ve seen so far.
The Pencil Printer by Hoyoung Lee may only be a concept but it’s a great idea. It grounds down pencil stubs to create a fine lead powder similar to the powder used in toner cartridges. Aswell as printing it can also erase in the proccess if you have made any mistakes within the documen. It’s a great concept for anyone who wants to print of documents that would need to be edited alot but is also eco-friendly.
If only the big companies would sponser some of these eco-friendly concepts.
3D Printer: Continued
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
If you’ve read the previous post on the HP 3D printer then you should have a rough idea of what these things are capable of. Well hyundai have sponsored the royal college of art in London and the results show just how useful 3D printers could be if they ever reached mainstream. Students of the Vehicle Design programme at the Royal art of college used Mcors’ Matrix 300 3D printer to create vehicle concept models.
The Mcor Matrix 300 builds the models in a different way to HPs’ upcoming model and also can print color and texture. It builds the models using A4 sheets of paper, adhesive and a blade that’s built into the printer, and claims to be more eco-friendly than alternative 3D printers aswell as being “inexpensive”. The printer is currently on sale in Ireland and the UK, but as the price indicates (€29,950 including software) it’s still not something everyone will have in their home.
PrePeat: Eco-Friendly Printer
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Lets face it, the current printer technology we all use on a daily basis is old. Printer ink and toner cartridges have been around for ages, surely something new and more eco-friendly must be on the way. Well printer technology has still been advancing even though the advances don’t seem to be effecting the mainstream for example ink-less and toner-less printers do exist, but are either to expensive or just not available to the public. Most of these “advances” seem to be aimed towards making a more eco-friendly printer, such as the PrePeat printer.
The PrePeat printer doesn’t use ink or toner, instead it uses a special thermal head to print. The thing that makes this printer even more eco-friendly is that it can recycle paper. You can put in a piece of paper that already has something printed on it, and the printer erases it using the thermal head and prints straight back on to the paper.
This all sounds great, looks like we might be out of business selling ink and toner cartridges…
Or maybe not, the printer isn’t really as perfect as it may seem. The main downfall is that the printer only uses a special type of plastic paper, this paper only comes in reams of 1000 sheets and costing around £2.12 a sheet it’s not the cheapest way to save the planet. The printer itself costs over £3500 and although you can use a sheet of the plastic paper up to 1000 times, I still don’t think it’s the answer to our eco-printing problems… yet.
Less Paper and Less Ink in 2010 US Census
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009When it comes to saving the environment, we all have to do our part. Only by acting together can we hope to reduce, stop and maybe even reverse the damage we are doing to our planet. It’s all too easy to pass on the blame to other people; the government, the big business – even our neighbors (it doesn’t matter how much the people next door throw away, it doesn’t make it alright for you to do the same!)
I can’t be denied, however, that our governments do have to start pulling their weight when it comes to making genuine changes to help the environment. It’s all very well them making our wheelie bins smaller, but what use is that when they still produce tons of waste at every party conference? For once, however, the USA has made a change for the better – by cutting down the size of the US Census for 2010! Apparently the new one will printed on recycled paper and only be 10 questions long, taking only 10 minutes to complete! When you consider how many tens of millions of these documents they are going to have to produce, that’s a massive saving of paper from last time; not to mention the thousands of ink cartridges that will be spared! In fact, compared to the census 10 years ago, the Census Bureau will use 30% less ink for this one!
Finally, a world-leading government is practicing what it preaches!
Refilling Ink Cartridges
Friday, October 9th, 2009In an effort to do more to save money and the environment, there is a growing trend in people refilling old ink cartridges. It makes sense; it is far cheaper to buy a refilled ink cartridge, or get yours refilled than it is to buy brand new ones every time you run out of ink. When it comes to considering the environment; millions of cartridges are sold every year – all of which take valuable resource to make, yet end up in the ground.
If you decide to save some money and invest in refilled ink cartridges, however, there are a couple of things you should look out for. For starters, make sure you use a reputable company; dodgy back street shops do, unsurprisingly, offer cheap refills, but are well known to use ink of a far inferior standard to that which you can expect from a reputable vendor. This cheap ink can stick to jets, blocking them and destroying the cartridges – sometimes even ruining the entire printer as well! Buying refilled ink cartridges to save money is a wise move, but it’s definitely not clever to try to do it on the super-cheap!
When you’ve found your trustworthy shop or website (try us!), you may want to see if they can refill your own printer cartridge for you. If you decide to do this, however, be aware that your cartridge might not be up to the job. As they get older, the circuitry on the outside of printer cartridges gets worn and tired, until eventually the printer can’t read from the cartridge. If this is the case, no amount of refilling is going to help – it’s time to buy a new one! Luckily the same shops and websites that refill your cartridges often sell refilled cartridges far cheaper than brand new ones too! So you won’t have to look far.
