Your everyday permanent markers, glue sticks, and packing tape may offer a surprisingly low-tech solution to a long-standing nuisance in the manufacturing industry: Making soft and ductile, or so-called “gummy” metals easier to cut.

What makes inks and adhesives effective isn’t their chemical content, but their stickiness to the surface of any gummy metal such as nickel, aluminum, stainless steels, or copper, researchers at Purdue University and the University of West Florida find in a study recently published in Physical Review Applied.

These adhesives help achieve a smoother, cleaner, and faster cut than current machining processes, which affects applications ranging from the manufacturing of orthopedic implants and surgical instruments to aerospace components.

Purdue researchers have discovered a simple solution for cutting soft gummy metals (left) just as cleanly and easily as hard metals (right). (Purdue University image/Anirudh Udupa)

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