Disappearing Ink on Thermal Paper?

dpippenger asks: "A few days ago my rear projection TV made a soft clicking noise and the color balance suddenly went a bit blue. The set was only about 3 months old and I neglected to get the in store warranty. I decided to try and cash in on the 1 year manufacturers warranty which only required an original sales receipt as documentation. I quickly opened up my file cabinet and retrieved the receipt in question. I was fairly upset to find the sales receipt was printed on a slippery thermal paper (pretty common these days) and after only 3 months was noticeably degraded. The paper was discolored slightly and important blocks of text like the model number were just gone. After some conversation at the TV repair shop they finally accepted it as proof of warranty. The problem is this receipt is my only evidence of warranty for an entire year. I have to wonder what the receipt will look like in another 9 months and if it will be unacceptable as proof of purchase next time I need repairs. Have any other readers had a similar experience or have tips on preserving these thermal receipts?"

Comments

Re:duh

[NickDngr]

You seem to be forgetting that a critical part of the laminating process is extreme heat. That would just turn the whole thing solid black.

Re:duh

[itwerx]

Mod parent up as funny!!!

Or maybe troll...

(If you don't get it, think about how thermal paper is printed, and how hot a laminator gets! :)

Photocopy receipts

[FattMattP]

I always photocopy receipts so that I have another copy. I then take the original and staple it to the photocopy and file it away with the manuals and warranry information.

Credit Card Statement

[smoondog]

Your Credit Card Statement may work as a suitable alternative. Especially if you have an extended warrantee though your card.

-Sean

Iron Them...

[Slipped_Disk]

No, seriously... If your old thermal receipts have faded, they can sometimes be fixed by ironing them (no steam, just a hot iron or an incandescent lightbulb).

This only works if the thermal lettering has faded but the paper is still mostly white - The heat-sensitive layer where the original letters were is desensitized and the faded letters will not re-blacken, but the rest of the receipt will, giving you a negative copy of the receipt.

Note that this doesn't work for all thermal printer receipts, it depends on the type of paper used in the machines (the catalina coupons at most supermarkets (they print on thermal paper with red strips on the top/bottom) work, but the register tape at the supermarket I used to work at wouldn't - not sure why.

Re:duh

[jonadab]

> You seem to be forgetting that a critical part of the
> laminating process is extreme heat.

The big, fast, convenient laminators work that way. The cheapo
ones just use two rolls of clear contact paper (one top and one
bottom), rollers, and a hand crank. Should be fine.

Restoring faded thermal receipts

[schwazie]

I've had this problem more than once, and with a bit of luck and some intuition found a method to restore the thermal "image".

By gently heating the receipt at a distance with a hair dryer, I have been able to cause the original images to reappear. Note that too much heat will cause the entire receipt to darken, so you may want to test temperatures/distances on a blank area, such as the corner of the receipt.

Generally, a hair dryer on medium heat at a distance of 12" or so, waved slowly back and forth, can restore the original thermal image in under a minute. Your mileage may vary.

Re:I have that problem a LOT

[hubie]

----->The Income Tax ammendment was never properly ratified by 2/3 of the states, and is not valid because of that. It's still enforced, but it's not valid.

I never understood this argument because it is just blatently false, and it is so easy to check. First off, 3/4 of the states need to ratify an ammendment, which is even more formidable, but that is beside the point for this argument. The 16th ammendment was proposed in July of 1909. At that time by my count there were 46 states (50 minus New Mexico (1/6/1912), Arizona (2/14/1912), Alaska (1/3/1959), and Hawaii (8/21/1959)). The first state to ratify was Alabama (8/10/1909) and the last was New Hampshire (3/7/1913). During that time even New Mexico and Arizona ratified, bringing the state pool to 48 states. Out of those 48 states, 38 ratified the ammendment. That is two more than what was needed for ratification (0.75*48 = 36), so the remaining 10 states didn't even need to vote on it.

One link for ratification times is found here.

Why do people keep saying the ammendment was never ratified?

Sorry my post is days old, but I only saw your comment via the Metamoderation page. If there is a valid argument regarding this ratification issue, please reply as I have been curious for some time as to why the non-ratification statement keeps coming up.