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The 'natural branding' process marks the outermost layer of peel without using ink or affecting taste and shelf life.
Plastic produce stickers might be a thing of the past if Swedish supermarket ICA has its way. The chain, with more than 1,300 stores across Sweden, began experimenting last December with 'natural branding,' a process that imprints a fruit or vegetable peel with its name, country of origin, and code number using a laser. The low-energy, carbon dioxide laser burns away the first layer of pigment to a clearly legible result that uses no ink or additional products. It is a superficial, contact-free method that does not affect taste or shelf life.
This innovation is welcome news for shoppers familiar with the irritation of having to pick stickers off while washing produce prior to eating. Especially for those striving to reduce plastic waste, it's highly annoying to have to pick off stickers in the produce aisle and placate grumpy cashiers who don't like looking up produce codes.
No more annoying plastic stickers.
(Score: 2) by lx on Saturday May 06 2017, @12:52PM (8 children)
I vaguely remember this being shown on television as a new invention. That was back in the late '70s or early '80s.
I guess the rule of fist that it takes roughly thirty years between an innovation being first demonstrated and that innovation being commonplace still applies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by toph on Saturday May 06 2017, @01:31PM (7 children)
The idea was probably patented back then and we've had to wait for the patents to expire.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lx on Saturday May 06 2017, @01:36PM (6 children)
That's a good point. Come to think of it, they showed the first 3D printers around the same time.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 06 2017, @03:13PM (5 children)
I wonder why it took so long for 3D printers to take of. It's not like the technology hasn't been available for a long time. Mechanics, PMMA and electronics since the 1970s, stepper motors since the 1980s, computers since 1990s.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:24PM (4 children)
3D printers remain far too fiddly. A common claim with 3D printing is that broken switches and buttons can be replaced. I thought I'd test that claim when a microwave oven button in a makerspace was broken and binned. I thought that I'd start with some traditional subtractive manufacturing (idiot with wood and saw) before measuring the result and designing a replacement in a CAD program. Well, after about two hours over successive visits, I had something which looked like the Stonehenge prop from Spinal Tap and I was *almost* ready to install and learn to use some 3D CAD software before the microwave oven was replaced. This stuff probably works if you're the military and you have all supplier parts on file but it certainly isn't useful if you or I try to replace a missing button.
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:39PM (3 children)
The right tool for that job is a 3D-scanner I think. And 3D printing is more worthwhile when you need to say replace a custom made cog in some apparatus where you can't wait for any order to show up.
Besides it doesn't give any clue as to why there hasn't been any real experimentation on 3D printing before.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Saturday May 06 2017, @10:55PM (2 children)
Ignore the fact that I didn't have a button to scan or a scanner, I find it disappointing that my failure occurred prior to printing. And prior to using a computer. From what I've seen, the steps that I didn't reach (design and print) seem equally prone to failure.
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(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday May 06 2017, @11:30PM (1 child)
You could scan the socket where the button were supposed to fit? (and invert, CAD..)
Still don't get why 3D waited until the 2010s to take off.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Sunday May 07 2017, @12:17AM
I didn't think of that but it wouldn't have worked. In some jurisdictions, there are regulations that require microwave ovens to have a safety latch. Manufacturers have responded by making a sort of latchless latch in which the door can be pulled open anyhow. For that particular model, it was implemented with two or three pieces of plastic which translate a horizontal motion into a levered release. For anyone brave enough to stick their fingers about two inches in and about 30 degrees up (hopefully not too close to the solid state rectifier), the next piece of plastic could be nudged into action. My attempt at subtractive manufacturing looked like Stonehenge because I was trying to make something which would be flush at the front while nudging the next piece squarely and safely. Unfortunately, I didn't even get that far.
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