What are coffee printers?
Coffee printers are manually run computer printers that convert used coffee grounds into environmentally friendly and cost effective ink. This printer is not for sale yet, but it may soon be in your home office.
The RITI coffee printer is a concept that was introduced by its inventor, Jeon Hwan Ju, at the 2009 Greener Gadgets Competition. Not much specific information has been released about the unit since it’s unveiling. However, the prototype pictures indicate that single sheets of paper are fed from the back of the unit, much like a single sheet fed scanner. On the top of the printer, a special cartridge that holds used coffee grounds or tea leaves is manually moved by the user in a side to side motion, and the coffee/tea based ink prints onto the paper.
The advantages of the coffee printer are clear. Ink cartridges are expensive, and recycling old coffee grounds is an attractive option for home printing. In addition, coffee grounds are biodegradable and do not require additional manufacturing or packaging.
The coffee printer is still a prototype, which means that it still has problems which need to be worked out before the printer can be marketed. For example, the prototype documentation isn’t clear about how the printer will be powered. If the printer relies completely on man power, moving the ink cartridge line by line could take an hour or more to print a page. However, running the machine by hand would save a great deal of energy, making a drastic decrease in the printer’s carbon footprint. Another problem is that since coffee grounds are brown, the ink would also be brown. This could be a disadvantage for legal documents or if the user required colored ink.
When the coffee printer design is finally finished and ready for your office, it will represent a significant move toward greener printing. For more information or to see prototype pictures, visit howstuffworks.com.