Howard Winter wrote:
> Martin,
> 
> On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:47:43 -0500, Martin Klingensmith wrote:
> 
>> On the subject of printing circuit boards: is conductive toner possible?
>> Imagine if you could print semi-conductive traces on a piece of mylar
>> and then electroplate the traces, creating your own very rapidly
>> prototyped circuit board? I don't know if a laser printer would choke on
>> conductive toner though. There are issues with electroplating it too,
>> I'm sure.
> 
> Given that laser printers use electrostatic attraction to produce the toner pattern on the drum, I think having conductive toner is a non-starter - it 
> would almost certainly "short out" the pattern of static, ruining the image.  Even if it didn't migrate between areas of "print", you'd probably find the 
> charge would flow to the outer edge of every area (due to like charges repelling), so the toner in the middle would drop off again and you'd end up 
> with just an outline of each object.

The toner melts at a pretty low temperature, right?  What about using a 
second pass with a hot roller coated with something else conductive, 
that would stick to the momentarily-melted toner?  Just a random thought.
-- 
Timothy J. Weber
http://timothyweber.org
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