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Big photocopy machines always hold at least a ream of paper. (500 sheets) Some of them have the ability to hold up to ten reams. This makes sense because the paper comes in pre-packaged reams.
Imagine if the photocopy machine had the ability to store all of the paper, already in the prewrapped
reams, and unwrap them and use them when necessary. This would eliminate the need for a separate storage facility for the yet-to-be-used paper, and eliminate a tedious step in the use of the machine.
This could be done with a well-designed paper handler that could slit the paper wrapping, and place it in the machine tray from the storage area. And that's it.
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i kind of like unwrapping paper. it's like christmas. why give that joy away to a machine, while allowing it to suck more electricity from power plants, thereby polluting the earth?
but it would be pretty neat if it took a laser and burned off the paper wrapping, leaving the sheets intact. and it did this in a see-thru container.that way you'd know how much paper was left too! |
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I had to unwrap that paper for a living for three months, feeding the giant printers at a hospital billing center. (I was eventually replaced by a gas mask--the regular guy claimed he was getting black lung from the toner.) While you get pretty good at it (the correct method actually involves breaking it over your knee first, before tearing into it) the wonder wears off PDQ. Bun for you. |
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The one down the hallway, at this job, holds 10 reams. Refilling it is tedious. |
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By the way, 500 sheets is not actually a ream. A ream is really 480 sheets, or 20 quires. |
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the machine would need to slightly fan the paper too, to prevent misfeeds. |
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The best finished surface, usually. |
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Or unfinished, as the case may be. |
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oops, back to eggy's flippin' thing again? |
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Maybe we could just feed trees into the chipper at one end, and have the amchine make the paper to boot? |
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[Rods] - I never understood the arrow, because I don't know if the copy machine inverts the paper before printing on it. I'd have to literally test it out by marking a piece and then copying, to see whether it prints on the bottom side or the top side. And, this would be different for each copier/printer. So I just ignore the arrow. |
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This idea sounds like a WIBNI and in actual fact would become hellacious. New reams of paper must be a) fanned as [po] said, b) have bent sheets thrown out, and c) removed when a jam occurs. Lots and lots of quality time with the machine coming your way. |
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Also, two rooms of my office building are dedicated to the storage of printing paper. That's a damn big machine you've invented. |
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I think a more practical scheme would be to have paper come in a giant roll, perhaps two or three meters* in diameter and 11 inches wide. The roll is mounted on a spindle and the free end is fed into the copier, which has a knife that cuts off 8.5 inches at a time. |
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*[k] How high are the ceilings in the paper storage rooms? |
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AO, that roll could feed my fax machine as well. |
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<fumbles with ruler, geometry> |
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So you could fit a 2-meter roll in there, which I figure is equivalent to about 300 reams. Not as much as I was hoping, but I guess that would last a while. |
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(Who’s sending you all those faxes, po?) |
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talk about spam. the office floor is awash with unwanted faxes every morning..(and yes, I do try to switch it off, someone very helpfully switches it back on) |
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[po] I beleive older fax machines used carbon paper on a wide roll. They weren't two or three meters though, more like two or three inches. |
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Seems odd to me that paper comes in little reams even at the large-scale copier level. Don't they sell paper in large boxes? Seems easier to take the lid off a box and load paper than to unwrap reams. |
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The problem is that paper is hygroscopic. The plastic backing on the wrapper prevents the paper absorbing too much moisture before it's used. |
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[AO], not everyone on the planet uses 8x11. Standard office paper in much of the world is A4 (210mm x 297mm), which is 8.27 x 11.69 in. |
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I forgot to mention that there are also knives to trim the edges, so the machine would be able to cut out any size paper you want. (If I had been thinking clearly I would have made the giant roll a little wider. Too late now.) |
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So, [AO], a giant wheel o' paper is rolled into the office (through a magic portal, not the door) and set in a giant paper dispenser next to the copier. Then over the next three months this (unprotected) paper is cut, fed through and xeroxed for office use? I'm not buying the efficacy of this plan. |
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You only have to reload the paper every three months, so that must save time, and you don’t have to unwrap all those individual reams, or do that mysterious fanning thing. |
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Also, if the office door isn’t big enough to fit the roll through, you can have a truck with an even bigger roll back up to the door, and then you take the end of the paper, drag it down the hall, attach it to the empty spool in the copy room, turn on a motor and wind on as much paper as you need. |
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I'm thinking the paper is kept in boxes and wrapping for the same reason graham crackers have several internal wrappers: freshness. A huge roll of paper is more likely to absorb accidental spills, attract dust and generally become unusable than individual reams. |
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sign in paper room: Please don't eat lunch on giant roll. |
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Bad time to post the Giant Graham Cracker idea, huh? |
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A tightly-wrapped ream of fresh A4 makes a lovely ringing sound if you rap it with your knuckles. |
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