Industrial + Specialty Printing

The first stages of tool usage didn’t just mark early human intelligence, but intelligence in any living thing.

By Gail Flower

Learning to use tools comes at a very early age. For example, I remember how my grandchild first learned to walk by pulling herself up and leaning on an empty Huggies box. She travelled all over any flat surface by pushing her simple tool, looking very much like her great-great grandmother, who pushed a similar square metal object in front of her to aid in walking.

I’ve seen birds use simple tools to poke into trees and force worms to crawl out, and other animals use sticks to collect termites out of their nests for a tidy snack. The first stages of tool usage didn’t just mark early human intelligence, but intelligence in any living thing.

The contest in this issue of The Insider reaches out to readers of Industrial + Specialty Printing magazine and those of you reading this newsletter. If you or if your printing group can think of an application that is interesting and fairly easy to build, why not submit your ideas at www.industrial-printing.net/bluespark?

Don’t be shy. First, you have to think of the size of the battery, what it’s made of, and how it could connect to another object. The UT Series battery looks like a Band-Aid. It’s a carbon-zinc, primary-cell, non-rechargeable battery. The paste is made from Zn/MnO2 with no added mercury or cadmium. It’s a 1.5-v battery that operates from -30˚ C to 65˚ C, and is encased in and printed on polymer laminate. It’s 500 µm thick.

If you need a physical sample, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

I know, it’s more complicated than a box or a stick, but printing is your specialty and making things work right is right up your alley.