By Sabine A. Slaughter
Just a few days ago, a diploma project from a Japanese student, Yugi Mamamoto came to our attention: An inkjet printer that instead of transporting paper from one side to the other "eats" itself through a pile of paper, simply being called "stack".
For printing the printer itself is placed on top of a stack of paper. It then moves slowly downward, printing and moving a sheet of paper upwards, then again printing on the one underneath. This goes on until there is no paper left or the destined number of copies is reached. Printed pages are being stacked on top of the printer thus creating a new pile on top of it. Due to its lightweight design it can easily be moved and put on a second or third stack of papers in order to print them.
By eliminating the paper tray and using this innovative paper transport system devised by Mamamoto san, this has probably become one, if not the inkjet printer with the smallest footprint up to now.
The inventor, 25 year old Yugi Mamamoto, an industrial designer from Tokyo recently graduated from École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne in Switzerland with a Bachelor of Arts in Product and Industrial Design with first class honours and the "Prix de la Banque Raiffeisen".
