* Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> [Feb 03. 2013 19:48]:
Why not simply skip the blade & use the laser for cutting?
(I was involved in one of the first tests of using lasers for cutting wool in the clothing industry. Yes, everything smelled like burnt hair!)
That was infrared, right? Because ...
I would imagine that the ideal laser would be at a wavelength/frequency/color such that the photons would have just the right amount of energy to disrupt the chemical bonds of the material being cut. If there are multiple types of bonds, then perhaps the laser would have to have multiple "colors".
Ultraviolet does what you want, just better. I once visited a company called "Lambda Physics" (IIRC), they had exactly that. They showed a video of writing put on the head on a match. It did not ignite! Could write on glass without any remnant stress caused by heating (chemical disintegration cause the frosting). Had a 50W (pulsed "continuous" operation) UV laser plus a set of lenses, all you could see was that elongated pulsating (noisy!) blue flash about 40 centimeters from the laser, 5cm long. Boy's toys at its very best (OK, explosives aside). (Sadly the 800W equivalent was out of operation when I was there ...)
At 08:13 AM 2/3/2013, Simon Plouffe wrote:
nowaday, there are very powerful lasers that can cut through just about anything, I was thinking
Suppose we have an apparatus of many lasers or maybe one reflected laser in such a way to produce an envelope of a curve, for example a caustic,
the question being : can we arrange some lasers this way to actualy sharpen a knife 'perfectly' ?
Put them into the required angle and happyly burn away?
the thing is : what would be the perfect geometrical shape of a steel blade for example that would be perfect for cutting let's say vegetables or meat ? Is there a known geometry for what would be the perfect blade ?
I'd need a definition of "perfect" here (this will depend on material of knife and material to be cut, optimality conditions for the cut, cutting techniques actually used (there are a *lot*), and probably much more, so I suggest to not even try). Best, jj