PrePeat is a rewritable printer that requires neither ink, nor toner to print. This device can print and erase images and text using a specific thermal process combines with special plastic paper. So, one sheet of papers can be used several times to print inrofmation on it, just like a rewritable CD or DVD.

However, if you think this printer is perfect, you are wrong. The major drawback is its price tag — the device costs over $5,000. And the paper is not cheap either — $3,300 per a 1,000-sheet pack. No need to say, this printer will never pay off in home use; small offices, too, are not the target audience. But the technology enthusiasts will defenitely appreciate PrePeat.

The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.

The idea is that the printer jets out thousands of cells per second instead of ink droplets, and builds them up into a three-dimensional organ. Nakamura compares the process to building a huge skyscraper on a micro level using different kinds of cells and other materials instead of steel beams, concrete and glass.

The ultimate goal the Japanese scientist is to make a heart. In case of success this would give hope for many patients waiting for heart transplants, as a heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.

The very technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface. If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for many layers, it creates a 3D organ.

Much like a printer chooses different colors, the machine can position different types of cells to drop. The printer can adjust where to drop cells in the order of one-thousandth of a millimeter and produce a tube at a speed of three centimeters per two minutes.

Nakamura dismisses the idea of printing brains or trying to create new life. He says he’s thinking about making superhuman cyborgs. There are simply lives that could be saved if there are organs.

In the future, Nakamura also said the technology could pave the way for bioprinting with stem cells — which could go into building healthy new organs.

A lab-on-a-chip device can now be made at home on a piece of paper. All it takes is the right paper, ink, and sunlight to create a microfluidic device that can not only test water quality but also identify deceases.

George Whitesides and his colleagues at Harvard developed this new method to help developing countries access the latest lab techniques.

They have found that paper naturally contains pores that can be used to carry liquids just like in standard chips.

In order to make “walls” leak-proof and confine the fluids into narrow channels, the researchers used so called photoresist, a polymer liquid that hardens if subjected to UV radiation.

To make a paper chip, the researchers saturated a piece of regular printer paper with photoresist.

Next, they covered one side of the paper with transparency, and then used a pen to draw the desired pattern of channels on top.

The saturated with photoresist paper hardens under UV light except for the area that was masked beneath the inked-on pattern.

Once the paper dried, the researchers got a leak-proof sheet with a tiny network of embedded permeable channels within. In other words, they got a microfluidic device.

While drawing onto the transparency by hand is not very precise, but Whitesides claimed that the designs could simply be printed onto the transparency using an inkjet printer.

Via NewScientist.com

Newtech SRL has announced KeraMagic, the first digital color printer to produce images on ceramic tiles.

The new printer is based on inkjet technology, incorporates grayscale Xaar 1001 inkjet printheads to carry out drop-on-demand jobs in a single pass

The KeraMagic is available is two configurations – the 350 mm width model and a 700 mm width model. It can print at up to 25m per minute at resolutions up to 360 dpi and with eight levels of grayscale.

The company says the KeraMagic can output a variety of fluids to produce tiles effectively in short-run volumes.

Newtech SRL will launch KeraMagic at Tecnargilla, which takes place in Rimini on 30 September to 4 October.

Via www.printweek.com