Air-Ink, made from air pollution

[Sbrem]

So I get a call a little while ago, wanting to know if we could print with these inks. I did a google search and came up with their kickstarter page, and there were great explanations of what it is, but not so  much in it's usage. They use the carbon produced from cars as opposed to producing carbon by burning fossil fuels. It's a water base, but I have no idea on it's viscosity, washability or anything else. Has anyone else heard of this yet?

Steve

[jsheridan]

Is this the one where they put a canister on the exhaust and collect the carbon.  We looked at it but got about as far as you have with questions.

[TheInkJedi]

According to their home page http://www.graviky.com/air-inktrade.html it is not yet for sale due to purification/certification processes. You can get 150ml and some markers through their Kickstarter for $279. This confuses me just a bit. Is it safe to sell or not? I would steer clear of this for the now. Visions of giving a customer heavy metal poisoning due to toxic ink go dancing through my head. Deathklock's approval not withstanding, given time they may prove it's safe to use, then they'll have my attention.  Great idea, and worth pursuing, but just gotta tweek that science a bit more first.

[Sbrem]

We had a short conversation, as I told him of the usual problems of water base inks, that are overcome with proper techniques, but that their inks would need to address it. Plainly, they are not screenprinters. The call was from a major school in Boston, so it seems legit, as they want to do some testing, and may come out and speak to us. We are a humble little shop, so we'll see what happens. I'll gladly share what info I'm allowed to. It's applications? I'm thinking single color black, or maybe depending on it's density, some duo-tone or more for added depth, if we're moving our own art. As for customers who want the who eco/recycle deal, perhaps on PET shirts? So many questions...

Steve