Friday, July 16, 2010

Not so cool paper.

It was so hot today I saw two trees fighting over a dog!   No really, it was so hot Chicago Cubs fans took the bags off their heads.   If you've ever heard that silly saying from people who live in Arizona,  where it never gets humid, they say "yeah it's hot, but it's a dry heat"  Here near Chicago it is humid hot today!   As my friend Dave says..."it's the differance between a baked potato and a boiled potato".   Both are cooked!

Being a printer, I get to work in rather comfortable temp's the year 'round.   Do you know why?   It's your lucky day...I'll tell you why.

Paper is a very sensitive material.   When it gets hot it spreads out and grows larger.   Kinda like your Brother in law drinking iced tea all day by the pool.   For printers though, this is a bad thing.   If you print one side of a sheet of paper, and let it sit all weekend in a hot shop, by monday morning nothing will line up on side two!   The opposite happens in the winter.   When paper gets cold it shrinks.   So next time your printer makes a mess of your job, just remember, they are fighting the weather as well as the designer! 

Where I work, we keep the shop around seventy degrees year 'round.   If the weather is great (about once per year) we open the doors and enjoy the fresh air.   If you've ever walked into a busy print shop, usually the first thing you notice is the smell.   That is not the salesperson...it is the chemicals used to clean ink off of the presses.   Inside most print shops you will find a variety of chemicals used to make paper "behave".   There is even a nasty sounding spray we use on ink cans called "anti-skin spray".   Don't ever try to take this with you in your carry-on bags.

Paper can survive extreme cold (Ahhhhh) and temperatures as high as 450 degrees F.   A funny thing happens to paper once it reaches 451 degrees - it ignites with a whoosh sound and burns to ashes!   I guess this is why frozen (Ahhhh) pizzas cook at 400 degrees.   The little cardboard tray they cook on, is.... guess what?  BINGO!, you are right.   Recycled paper.   This is what happens to old cereal boxes and other things nearing the end of recyclable life.  

I need to stop for some ice cream.   One of my next blogs is going to be about our lovely Post Office, and the fun little games we play with them over .001 of and ounce.  

Keep up the comments everyone.   I don't post them all, but it makes me feel important to get them.

5 comments:

Alanna :D said...

Good job on the post :) I love the first sentence: it was so hot today I saw two trees fighting over a dog!!
Hahahaha :) :)
~Alanna

rehab-bingo said...

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rehab-bingo said...

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Anonymous said...

lol one of the best posts I've seen! :) keep it up

Unknown said...

I love print shop smells. I use to walk through one every hour for fire check and loved it. One other fascinating thing I found with print shops was how much paper dust there was. Almost reminds me of my office now.