Recycled Sheet Traceability Through Material Detection and QR Printing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing recycled sheet generation systems lack traceability of produced sheets, leading to low convenience in managing the history of operations and materials used.

Innovation Solution

A recycled sheet generation system that includes a detection section to identify material types, a fiber separation section to generate fibers, a sheet production section to produce sheets with treatment agents, a printing section to print access destinations, and a management server to register and associate production conditions and material types, enhancing traceability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If history is managed by the management server, then operation analysis is improved, but traceability of produced sheets deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoperation historyVSAvoidtraceability
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a physical copy of the history information by printing the access destination (QR code or similar identifier) directly on the sheet. This allows the sheet itself to carry information about its production history, enabling traceability without requiring complex digital tracking systems. The management server maintains digital records while the physical sheet provides portable access to this information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

2Reliability

If access destination is printed on the sheet, then traceability is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovetraceabilityVSAvoidsystem structure
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the essential access information from the complex digital history system and represents it through a simple visual element (QR code or identifier) printed on the sheet. This separates the complex backend management server from the simple frontend sheet, allowing traceability functionality to be achieved without adding significant complexity to the sheet production process itself.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP4617425A1Recycled sheet generation system, method for generating recycled sheet, and program
Publication Date: 2025.09.17 SEIKO EPSON CORP
  • EP4617425A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4617425A1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP4617425A1 patent drawingFigure 4

AI summary

A recycled sheet generation system includes a detection section that detects a type of material included in a raw material, a fiber separation section that generates fibers by separating the raw material, a sheet production section that produces a sheet by depositing a mixture in which a treatment agent is mixed with the fibers generated by the fiber separation section, a printing section that prints on the sheet, a history acquisition section configured to acquire, as history, a sheet configuration component based on the type of material that is included in the raw material and that was detected by the detection section and a sheet production condition, and a registration section that registers the sheet configuration component and the sheet production condition in association with each other. The printing section prints an access destination for accessing the registered sheet configuration component and the sheet production condition in a predetermined region of the sheet.