Xerox Corporation has begun filling more than 20 miles of pipe and stainless steel tanks with billions of micron-sized toner particles with the opening Xerox Corporation has begun filling more than 20 miles of pipe and stainless steel tanks with billions of micron-sized toner particles with the opening of its first US-based emulsion aggregation (EA) toner plant. The new US$ 60 million (Rs 240 crore) facility is needed to support the growth of colour pages in the digital printing market while being environmentally responsible. Last year alone more than 30 billion colour pages were printed on Xerox devices.

Developed by Xerox and protected by more than 300 patents, EA toner produces sharper images using less toner per page, and is already used in more than a dozen Xerox products like the company’s WorkCentre multifunction devices that print, copy, scan and fax, and the Xerox DocuColor series of colour printers.

The five-story 100,000 square-foot plant located near Rochester, New York will be staffed by more than 40 chemical engineers and increases Xerox’s EA process toner capacity by 175 per cent. In addition to producing better quality prints, EA Toner is significantly more environmentally friendly. Unlike traditional toner, which is created by physically grinding composite polymeric materials to micron-sized particles, EA toner is chemically grown enabling the size, shape and structure of the particles to be precisely controlled. This Xerox-developed technology leads to improved print quality, less toner usage, less toner waste and less energy required for manufacturing and for printing.

Until today, EA Toner was developed exclusively at the company’s start up production facility in Mississauga, Ontario (near Toronto) and attached to the Xerox Research Centre Canada, where the toner was first developed. The new EA Toner plant, opened today in Webster, is one of the company’s “smartest” manufacturing facilities and is part of Xerox’s commitment to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions 10 per cent by 2012.