Archive for the ‘Paper’ Category
The History of the Blueprint
A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical based drawing. These technical based drawings are usually documenting an architectural or engineering design. Blueprints help the design turn into an actual building or machine.
In most recent years, the term “blueprint” has come to refer to any detailed plan. However, in its history, a blueprint was actually a blue! The process of making a blueprint was called a cyanotype chemical process. It was developed in 1842 by and astronomer named John Herschel. However, Anna Atkins brought this process to life with her series of cyanotype books that documented plant life. This same process was used for producing proofs in photography and offset printing for years to come.
Once discovered, this process was a low cost and effective solution for making copies of technical drawings. Since there was not any technical education involved in making blueprints, it was widespread and was immediately put to use in shipbuilding and the manufacture of railway locomotives.
Typically, a person wanting to make a blueprint would have a wooden frame with a spring-loaded back. This was much like a picture frame with a glass front. The drawing would be traced in India ink on tracing paper or cloth, depending on what the person wanted the final blueprint printed on. The coated paper and tracing would be loaded into the frame inside. It was then brought out to sunlight. Exposure time varied from less than a minute to about an hour, depending on the amount of sunlight that day. The operator could see the blue image appear through the tracing to determine when it was done. Then, the frame was brought indoors. The material was washed in running water to remove the unexposed coating and then dried thoroughly. It gave a clearly legible copy of the drawing with a white line on dark blue background. This copy possessed unlimited resistance to light and resistance to water that was as good as the original medium.
While blueprints were printed on a variety of substrates, they were most commonly printed on paper. However, more durable prints were done on linen until it was found that over time the linen would shrink and produce an out of scale drawing. After the invention of Mylar, it was used to print blueprints that needed to be more durable for long term use.
These traditional blueprints have been replaced by more modern printing methods and even digital displays of drawings. Presently, most prints are printed on oversized bond paper with a printer using a regular toner. These printers, toners and papers are designed and sold exclusively for blueprints and technical drawings. Most engineers and architects now have the ability to send a computer aided design directly to a printer or plotter and have a “blueprint” design in a matter of minutes. As print and display technology has advanced, the traditional term “blueprint” has continued to be used informally to refer to each type of image, even though these images are no longer produced chemically forming the print on a blue background.
Business Papers
Regardless of the type of business you have or the industry you operate in, there is one thing that you share with practically all other businesses- the need for paper. While the concept of the “paperless society” sounds great, it is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. In fact, business use of paper has grown immensely in the past decade. Businesses keep paper copies of everything and issue mountains of paper to their customers, suppliers and employees in the form of invoices, receipts, pay stubs, and purchase orders.
A common type of paper found in many businesses is thermal paper. Thermal paper works through heat causing a chemical reaction in the paper which has been impregnated with certain chemicals. Thermal paper is found in ATM machines, portable receipt printers, and self-serve gas pumps and grocery check-outs.
The benefit of thermal paper is that thermal printers have fewer parts and are easier to maintain and last longer. There are no ink or laser cartridges to replace and the print heads receive less wear and tear. Using thermal paper can also save a business money as it tears off at exactly the length needed for the printing so no paper is wasted.
Finding the right thermal paper for your business can be a frustrating experience. Digging through piles of thermal paper rolls in the local office supply store takes time. Local stores also only offer the most popular paper so if your machine is specialized or a few years old, you may have a difficult time finding the right size thermal paper to fit it. Some stores can special order it for you but there is usually a premium charge for that.
Buyrolls.com specializes in thermal paper rolls. This online retailer carries many brands, sizes and styles of paper for all machine types. Their selection is more in-depth than bricks-and-mortar stores because they do not have to maintain display shelves in a high-rent commercial building. Buyrolls carries many unusual sizes of paper as well.
If you are not sure exactly which paper your machine needs, simply call or email Buyrolls and give them the manufacturer and model number of your machine and they will be able to advise you on which of their thermal papers is meant for your machine. Their thermal papers are approved by many major business machine manufacturers such as Verifone, Epson, and Citizen which means that those manufacturers believe that the quality of Buyrolls’ paper is high enough to work well with their machines. Using a cheaper paper can damage a thermal printer over time, but Buyrolls only stocks quality paper rolls.
The best part for busy business owners or purchasing managers is that the thermal paper can be ordered on the Buyrolls website or over the telephone and it will be shipped right to the office door. No more wasting time at the office supply store.
While thermal paper might not be on your list of the major business issues that you have to deal with on a daily basis, it is good to know that you can buy the paper you need inexpensively and conveniently.