The secret story of ‘Frixion Ink’

More than 40 years ago whilst watching Autumn leaves turning red, a researcher thought ‘I want to create this magic in my lab.’ This is the beginning of the well known erasable Frixion Ink. However, the path to achieve this researcher’s dream was longer than anybody could have thought, taking almost 30 years until it finally shaped into an actual product. Having had so many mistakes and errors, Frixion was finally created in 2005.

To begin with, the ink ‘that changes its colour’ was not invented for the purpose of creating a new ball point pen. In 1975, the researchers successfully invented Metamo ink which changes colour under different temperatures. A year after obtaining a patent, they created a paper cup ‘Magic Cup’ using this technology for the design element. In 1984, this technology was utilised in printing tickets for the Los Angeles Olympics, in order to prevent fake ticket production. In 2002, the ‘magic pen that changes colour by rubbing' was created. After some improvement, the well-known Frixion finally launched its series in 2005.