h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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Recently, I came across a type of paper-like material
which, when heated, puffs up. It is used, in specialist
printers, to make tactile graphics for the blind: the
special
printer applies heat in the pattern to be printed, which
then becomes raised.
However, these specialist printers are
very expensive, as
is
the heat-sensitive "paper".
So, how about an intumescent ink? The ink could be
used
in a standard inkjet printer with regular paper. After the
page is heated (using a hot-air gun, for instance) it
would
puff up to make the printed matter tactile. This would
be
far cheaper, I think.
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Annotation:
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although, I don't see your point. |
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Doesn't an inkjet print head work by boiling some of the ink
to force each drop of the ink out of the nozzle? I'm not
sure if that would be a problem resulting in clogged nozzles
or if you can take advantage of that so that the ink
expands automatically without using a heat gun. |
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I think most inkjet heads these days are
piezoelectric. |
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I stand corrected - it seems that most current
inkject printheads do indeed use thermal
vaporization to eject the droplets. |
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A two part explosive, like in Die Hard, could be the solution. Store them in separate colour compartments, where they can safely be boiled for ejection from the print head. Then, later, your message is exploded into the paper. Tactile. |
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There are a number of primary explosives that are quite safe when moist, but become extremely sensitive when dry. If the design were printed with ink made from such a compound, the text would literally explode out of the paper. |
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It might be wise to check that the printhead return isn't too ... energetic. |
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Thermographic ink (we used to call it) |
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I had not heard of thermographic ink. However, it
doesn't seem ideal. Thermography (according to
Wikipedia) involves using a slow-drying ink to capture
polymer particles which are then melted - so it's a bit
like writing in glue and then adding glitter. |
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So, not explosive, then ? |
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I suppose blind readers wouldn't notice the category choice. |
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