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Waterproof Books

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the break-out-the-bubble-bath dept.

Ant sent in a bit about new Water proof books. From the article "The new dunkable books are made not from trees, but from plastic resins and inorganic fibers. Melcher Media, a New York-based publisher, is promoting books that are manufactured using a technology it calls "Durabooks." The books' pages don't absorb water, and they stretch instead of tearing. Other companies make waterproof books with standard wood-based paper that is heavily laminated in the printing process."

7 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Environment? by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cutting down trees is bad for the environment and all, but trees can be replanted. Wouldn't plastic resins and inorganic fibers be worse?

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
    1. Re:Environment? by Charcharodon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You are right for the pulp fiction type of stuff, but I work on aircraft outside, around oil, hydro fluid, jet fuel, and the wind. Our job guides get destroyed very quickly. Our TO guy that maintains them all, replaces nearly 2000 pages a month. If we had what the above article mentioned our books would last a hell of a lot longer. I don't think they intended to replace all books with this process. Besides the ultra-conservative and the nazi types would be upset if you couldn't have a good ol' fashon book burning.

  2. Polymers... by da5idnetlimit.com · · Score: 5, Interesting

    - can be produced from cheap (although toxic), non oil-related chemicals
    - can (sometimes) be utterly destroyed to basic molecules by a simple (again) chemical spray
    - can, often, be reusable.

    Crude Oil...

    - should have been digged for the start in profit for electricity based motor, and hydrogen cells
    - pollutes (No ? Really?)
    - Is a boon on some VERY lucrative business that thinks nothing of bribes, destruction or political instabilities to achieve their goals (no direct attacks, they ALL do it), while electricity can be produced almost anywhere on the planet today using green sources.

    Plastics, as you know them today, are mostly polymers.

    --
    It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
  3. Farmers Almanac by Cyno01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thats why the farmers almanac has a hole in the corner, to put it on a string in the outhouse.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  4. my first thought was... by zogger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    .. my first thought was for "field guides" for the natural sciences. I have had a life long interest in wildcrafting and survival/preparedness issues, and durable waterproof books would be a *really good thing* for those subjects. Paper based books are too wussy and delicate for field use, and the semi-waterproof alternatives are very $pendy right now.

  5. How does printing work? by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you print on this stuff? Printing on a core sheet and then laminating or coating it has been used for decades, and that's no problem. Printing on the surface of plastic is hard. Most plastic containers have paper labels. Come up with a high-speed, good-quality process for printing on plastics and the packaging industry will rush to your door.

  6. Re:The Point by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Big deal, so a book can only make it through once or twice, as a book. However, it can be burned and the carbon released, it will eventually find its way back into trees, and be made into books again.

    It's not like we cut down old growth to make paper, at this point paper is all (or almost all) made from trees grown for the purpose. Then you do get into the issues of soil depletion and erosion, and they are real issues, but you didn't even raise them. Actually, a great deal of low-quality paper (such as that found in paperback books) is actually a "wood byproduct", meaning it's made out of sawdust.

    Plastic is cool stuff, it's good for a lot of things, but I think the actual point here is to make a more versatile book. There have been relatively few advances in book technology in the last hundred years, I think that's a fairly safe statement. Printing has come a long way, and book binding I am sure is cheaper and more efficient but what we have is basically a bunch of paper glued together, and the e-book which doesn't even do all the things a paper book does yet, a totally different approach to the same basic problem which nonetheless has plenty of shortcomings.

    The primary point is (I hope) to make a waterproof book. Any benefits from the fact that it happens to be made out of plastic are, I think, incidental. If not, it's a solution looking for a problem, and not quite finding one.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"