Continuous stationery

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Continuous paper sheet

Continuous stationery (UK) or tractor-Feed paper (USA) is paper, which is designed for use with dot-matrix printers and line printers. Other names for continuous stationery include fan-fold paper, sprocket feed paper, and pin feed paper. It can be uncoated woodfree paper (single ply) or carbonless copy paper (multi ply)

1 Shape and Form
2 Common types
3 Separation and Binding
4 History
5 See also
6 Sources
7 External links

[edit] Shape and Form

Preprinted continuous form paper

Continuous paper is perforated transversely at regular intervals with a line of small slits which form a tear edge that defines the top and bottom of each page. When unfolded into a flat continuous sheet, this slit perforation closes up to allow the printer to print across the perforated edge without stopping or jamming.

The paper is fed vertically through the printer, with the edges of the continuous paper forming the left and right edges of the page.

The paper is also perforated longitudinally along both side edges with 3/16-inch diameter engagement holes at a regular 1/2-inch spacing. These holes engage with sprocket wheels, which push or pull the paper through the printer.

Better quality continuous paper also includes additional longitudinal slit perforations alongside the engagement holes, allowing the large holes to be torn off the printed page, allowing a general approximation to cut-sheet paper typically used in a press, typewriter, or other sheet-fed printer.

[edit] Common types

The highest grade of continuous paper uses a heavy bond weight similar to typing paper. It uses a very fine perforation of tiny pinholes, and is pre-scored along the perforations. After printing, it is folded along the scored edge to weaken the paper, and then torn off. The fine row of perforations tear off as a very smooth edge that simulates the edge quality of normal cut-sheet typing paper, without the jagged appearance of cheaper long-slit perforations.

The cheapest grade of continuous paper is commonly referred to as green bar or music paper. It is a very lightweight bond, and the engagement holes cannot be removed. On one side are regularly-spaced horizontal stripes of light green ink, used to help guide the eye of a person reading across many columns of printed data.

[edit] Separation and Binding

Continuous perforated paper

A burster is a machine that separates the continuous paper into separate, individual sheets along the perforations. A burster is typically used when the printed pages are to be used in mass-mail advertising. Bursting is done by firmly gripping the second-to-last sheet, and feed rollers grip the last sheet firmly and pulls it away to burst the perforation. The continuous forms then advance into the feed rollers to burst the next sheet. Bursting is often a high-speed process that allows the continuous sheets to feed in at a steady rate, with burst pages either stacked or fed into a single-sheet conveyance to the next paper processing stage. Paper manufacturers need to make sure their paper will break evenly across the perforation seam under the force of pulling the sheets apart and not tear down into the printed part of the sheet.

When used to print large continuous documents for a business, the continuous paper might not be torn apart into separate sheets. Two sheets back-to-back roughly approximate double sided printing. By binding together a stack of continuous-feed paper along one edge, it is possible to flip through the stack like a book of double-sided pages.

[edit] History

This paper type was first used with large mainframe computer systems in the 1960s, but became widely popular and well-known to the general public in the 1980s due to the development of microcomputers and inexpensive dot-matrix consumer printers.

It began to disappear from the consumer market in the 1990s as inkjet printers, desktop publishing, and WYSIWYG document printing became more popular and widespread. Consumers were willing to pay more to get a professional-grade printing system that could directly accept standard sheets of typing paper rather than lower quality continuous-feed paper.

By 2000, continuous feed paper had disappeared from the consumer market, but, because of the low cost and durability of dot matrix printers, continues to be used in specialty commercial and industrial markets and as of 2008 is available from large office suppliers such as Staples.