Fire Printers Seem Like The Best Terrible Idea Ever


Inkjet printers are incredibly annoying, and if this one didn’t print with fire there would be no making over the inkjet’s image. But it does. It’s called the FireWriter.

Built by Lucien Langton at ECAL, the University of Art and Design Lausanne, the FireWriter uses an Arduino Uno programmed with Wiring and Processing to integrate an inkjet printer, a Dremel torch and an optical sensor. Combined, these parts produce a printer that can horizontally print a black and white image pixel for pixel. A user holds the FireWriter up against the surface they want to print on, and then guide the FireWriter line by line using calibrated wheels.

The FireWriter can somehow print on wood, walls, plastic and fabric without setting anything on fire, even though the Dremel torch, burning a mix of butane and propane burns at 1200 degrees Celcius. Langton says that the FireWriter is meant to explore the intersection between modern technology and “humanity’s first technology: fire. The purpose is to propose a dialogue between image reproduction and its destruction.”

Definitely reading the destruction part loud and clear. [Creative Applications]