Comfort food can do more than just make a person feel good after a rough day. It can also be used, believe it or not, to help someone better understand a complex assembly technology. A s’more, for example, is not only the comfort food of choice around campfires—it’s also the perfect prop for illustrating how laser plastic welding (LPW) works.

“The s’more is a perfect analogy for LPW,” claims Jim Liddle, director of sales at LPKF Laser & Electronics. “The marshmallow and the chocolate are the two surfaces to be welded, and the heat that warms the marshmallow is the laser. As the marshmallow softens, its heat passes though and melts the chocolate, and the two become intermixed. The graham crackers are the upper fixture and bottom nest, so to speak, that apply pressure to completely fuse the two surfaces.”