DAYTON, Ohio — NCR Corporation, one of the leading manufacturers of ATMs, has developed an innovation in printing which the company said will be attractive to credit unions as they begin to move forward with imaging checks at the ATM. The innovation is a two-sided thermal printing process, which the company said would cut down on servicing costs for ATMs and supplies such as paper even as it would require some additional costs to put it into place. The process reduces overall business consumables' costs by allowing for simultaneous printing on both sides of a receipt or document, the company said. In addition to saving paper the process, which the company described as "environmentally friendly," can also eliminate the need for expensive preprinting of receipts or provide a customized message. Applications for the financial services industry include consumer transaction receipts, "No Envelope" Deposit acknowledgements, bank statements, automated teller machine (ATM) coupons and customer surveys, the company added. Ron Larry, a business manager with the company, explained that since the process will require another printer in ATMs there will be an additional cost, but he added that studies have shown that the printer will have paid for itself within five years. So far, the process has not been deployed in any financial institution or ATM, the company said, but it has been used in retail situations as a receipt printer. Peter Dorsman, vice president of NCR's Systemedia Division, a leading provider of printer consumables, said, "We anticipate two-sided thermal printing will have a broad and significant impact on banking and other industries. Users can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency due to fewer roll changes, minimize environmental impact and enhance one-to-one marketing capabilities." The company foresees licensing the two-sided thermal printing technology to printer and paper manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers and ATM deployers around the world. In addition to the banking industry, targeted markets include point-of-sale retail, airlines, convenience stores, gas station pumps, event, lottery, slot and ticketing machines and more. NCR spokesman Lorraine Russell said that one company that prints marketing messages on gasoline receipts had already seen a good deal of success with the process. She added that the company believed the process shows particular promise with the advent of check imaging at the ATM, where the receipts from deposited checks will contain images of those checks. "Consider if someone deposits five checks in an imaging ATM," Russell said. "That would make for a very long receipt or a series of receipts. Thermal, two sided printing would cut the paper in half." –[email protected]