Your office printer could soon cut labels to size as well as printing them.
Researchers in France have shown that optical lasers emitting less than 1 watt can cut paper along lines printed with an ink that absorbs the laser light. Black ink makes cutting fastest, but the lines could also be written in an 鈥渋nvisible鈥� ink that absorbs the laser鈥檚 infrared wavelength, reports Olivier Acher at CEA Le Ripault in Monts, France (Optics Express, vol 13, p 2351).
Potential uses include trimming paper, cutting cards and name badges and making custom-sized labels from sticky-backed paper. 鈥淢y secretary simply dreams of this machine at her office,鈥� Acher told New 杏吧原创.
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