Now in its 11th year, Japan’s Eco Products Exhibition continues to go from strength to strength, with over 700 companies and organizations of all sizes gathering from December 10 to 12 at Tokyo Big Sight in the city’s futuristic Odaiba district to show why Japan is considered to be the frontrunner in environmental technologies.
Amongst achievements that were highlighted by Epson was an average 10% reduction in the life cycle CO2 emissions across the inkjet printer products range since FY2006, a 15% reduction in direct emissions from cleanrooms through consolidation and raised efficiency, and a long list of biodiversity and forestry-related projects the company has promoted in Japan, Asia and Europe.
Cartridge-free printer
Also, one new model that has come out of this drive for comprehensive change is the EC-01 inkjet printer, currently being test-marketed in Europe and China. Recycler reported on the cartridge-free printer a year ago, in the February 2009 issue of Recycler Trade Magazine. The EC-01 represents a quiet revolution in the printer business model. Epson is pre-filling the EC-01 with enough ink to yield approximately 8,000 pages—the equivalent of about 80 standard Epson ink cartridges. Furthermore, the printer can be returned and reconditioned for reuse two more times, for a total of 24,000 pages.
Epson says “The EC-01 relieves customers of the bother of replacing cartridges while also making a big dent in the environmental impacts associated with used ink cartridges, and is made possible through the durability of the Micro Piezo technology used in the print heads”.
The hopes the company has for this inherently efficient Micro Piezo inkjet technology was illustrated in one corner of the booth. Quite apart from standard printing applications, the technology is already being employed to reduce resource usage when producing colour filters for LCD televisions, fabricating circuit boards, and printing textiles.
Epson takes a life cycle approach to measure its goals because, as with most consumer goods, the vast majority of the environmental impact takes place before the consumer purchases the products, at the design and manufacturing stage, and the company’s booth at the exhibition is also designed to highlight this product life cycle, demonstrating the improvements made at the six stages—Think, Choose, Create, Deliver, Use, and Recycle & Reuse—for a wide range of its personal, professional, and commercial use products.
Rethink of the ink supply system
The environmental impact of a product is largely decided at the design stage, and one of the main focuses for designers is size and weight reduction. This policy was evident across the product range, from business projectors to Epson-made MoDT (mobile on desktop) PCs and this year’s EP-802, in which a complete rethink of the ink supply system along with countless other modifications have resulted in a printer with 50% less volume and which is 10% lighter than the corresponding 2004 model.
The glossy finish seen on many of Epson’s models are not just for appearance. The finish eliminates the need for painting processes, allowing the company to have reduced its paint usage by 2,600 tons, or over 80%, in just two years. Epson is the only maker to have achieved this high-class look without paint for the entire casing.
The secret to Epson’s glossy finish technology lies in moulds that are painstakingly polished by master craftsmen. Extremely accurate moulds are essential for obtaining plastic components that are glossy after just the injection moulding process. These skilled masters who can control accuracy to 1/1000th of a millimetre underpin this advanced technology and help mitigate environmental impacts.
Joint distribution with Canon
Creating smaller, lighter products