Branksome Hall Asia Student’s Innovation Makes Printer-Paper End-User Recyclable

Seonwoo Lee’s work won the World Invention Creativity Olympic 2020 grand prize. Here she explains her creative process and the innovation’s benefits.

Recently, I read articles about environmental pollution and climate change which led me to think about ways to prevent or reduce environmental pollution in our daily lives. I considered recycling copy paper as a way to protect our nature and was inspired by the erasable pen. 

In the Piezo Printer you can use irreversible thermochromic ink. Using this invention, when copy paper is printed and put into the paper cartridge again, the ink changes color while passing through the heating roller, and when the set temperature is reached, the ink does not return to its original color even after cooling. Therefore, the process is irreversible. The result of the process is printed paper which can be used over and over - first to add ink and then to eliminate it from the paper. 

The benefit of this invention is that it can be used in various ways in daily life. In particular, it could be used to help save on paper use and related expenses.  Saving paper can help our environment!

Presentation Link: https://youtu.be/QYlMBDXI8ZE

Seonwoo Lee(G11)