Ceramics elsewhere
If you have to stop at the supermarket on your way home from work or after you pick the children up from school, you may be surprised to learn that ceramics create everyday magic there, too. The laser scanner at the checkout counter is an example. The laser itself is made possible by ceramics. When laser scanners first came out, the transparent “window” through which an item’s bar code is read was made of glass. Glass, however, tended to get scratched by all the cans and other items sliding over its surface. (You’ve probably tapped your foot in a checkout line while the cashier tried several times, without success, to get the scanner to read the price on your item.) For more efficient operation, scanner plates now are fabricated from sheets of synthetic ruby or sapphire, which are much harder than glass and resist scratching.
Ceramics elsewhereIf you have to stop at the supermarket on your way home from work or after you pick the children up from school, you may be surprised to learn that ceramics create everyday magic there, too. The laser scanner at the checkout counter is an example. The laser itself is made possible by ceramics. When laser scanners first came out, the transparent “window” through which an item’s bar code is read was made of glass. Glass, however, tended to get scratched by all the cans and other items sliding over its surface. (You’ve probably tapped your foot in a checkout line while the cashier tried several times, without success, to get the scanner to read the price on your item.) For more efficient operation, scanner plates now are fabricated from sheets of synthetic ruby or sapphire, which are much harder than glass and resist scratching.
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