Is fire the future of the printing industry?

Printer image from WePrintQuick.com

Is fire the future of the printing process? This question may sound incredible, but a developer recently created a device dubbed the FireWriter, which uses actual flame in a propane/butane mixture as part of the process of applying ink onto a target material. Currently tested materials have included wood, cloth, plastic, and walls.

While the quality of the FireWriter leaves a lot to be desired, this is often the case for new technologies that haven’t gone through a significant development and refinement process, and fire probably isn’t going to replace inkjet cartridges and laser toner as the material of choice anytime soon…Particularly for printing on paper. The biggest factor in this is, of course, the expense of the materials. Propane and Butane, either separately or in an appropriate mixture, are considerably more expensive than standard printing materials. About the only area that the FireWriter may really become a viable option is when printing on a very large surface that can’t easily go through another printing process…And even then, simply drawing or painting the surface can often produce a better effect.

As we can see from a basic cost-benefit analysis, fire probably isn’t going to be replacing ink in printing any time soon, especially for truly fine detail work. However, there are a variety of situations in which this interesting device could be put to use. The largest one that comes to mind is in art, where efficiency tends to be of minimal importance. The interaction of different materials can create all kinds of visual effects; imagine a hallway, leading into a museum, that begins with cave paintings and scorch marks, then proceeds through a variety of materials to demonstrate how ink and color interact with each one to produce a particular effect. Alternately, the FireWriter could provide the outlines on a store’s wall, creating a unique scorched look over the colors previously applied by an artist.

The possibilities, when creativity is your goal, are almost endless. However, the FireWriter is also a good reminder of the fact that we’ve yet to develop all knowledge and wisdom associated with printing. One of the biggest problems with modern printing has been the need to fit the printed material through the machine; to be sure, this is an incredibly efficient way to print high volumes of paper, but paper isn’t the only thing that people want to have. Imagine the interior of a garden store printed on so delicately and carefully that people wouldn’t even realize there was a wall there until they closely examined it, or a zoo that offered photograph-quality walls in its exhibits to create a look more like the animal’s natural habitat. Printing remains one of the highest-quality methods of coloring things, and as the FireWriter has demonstrated, there’s no need to limit it to paper. Perhaps this device will be the first step in a journey towards a printer that can print on just about anything…And all the benefits that come with cost-effective coloring.If you still print the old fashioned way, take a look at our ink cartridges and subscribe to our email newsletter to get cheeky discounts!