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Smart Materials Solve Contradictions - Systematic Innovation

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solved has allowed the researchers to target a number<br />

of possible applications, the ultimate of which currently<br />

appears to be in things like bullet-proof vests.<br />

Proving that the material is suitable for such a<br />

demanding application, of course, requires time and<br />

significant resources. A very good strategy therefore is<br />

to identify shorter-term niche applications. A good<br />

example here – and perhaps a poster-child<br />

demonstration of just how hard the whole innovation<br />

timing task is – is the application in shin-pads for soccer<br />

players.<br />

Making a few thousand shin-guards doesn’t sound like a<br />

great reason for investing in the productionisation of the<br />

APS material, but what it may well do very admirably is<br />

provide a very high profile advertisement to let others in<br />

other fields know about the material. Plus it provides for<br />

the acquisition of real world data on the durability and<br />

effectiveness of the material – information that will be<br />

vital in supplying the necessary evidence that will be<br />

required by the regulatory bodies for the more<br />

challenging applications of the material.<br />

This author knows nothing of the actual Dow Corning<br />

strategy for APS. We do, however, work with a number<br />

of universities struggling with the issue of successfully<br />

commercialising their smart material platform technology<br />

research. There can never be a simple answer to the<br />

problem. But what can be said with certainty is that the<br />

problem almost always has a contradiction at its heart,<br />

and that, as a consequence, thanks to the TRIZ<br />

research, someone, somewhere will already have<br />

solved the contradiction. Figure 7, finally, highlights one<br />

of the frequently used solutions to the commercialisation<br />

contradiction:<br />

initial platform technology<br />

patent application<br />

initial high value niches…<br />

..support mainstream<br />

applications…<br />

17 years<br />

…and fund research to create<br />

new platform technology patents<br />

(which in turn extend the 17 year window)<br />

Figure 7: <strong>Smart</strong> Material <strong>Innovation</strong> Timing<br />

Everything in this picture stems from the 17 years that<br />

the original patents ‘buy’. (An immediate alternative that<br />

emerges here is for universities to consider not<br />

patenting, but rather keep their smart material<br />

formulations a trade-secret until such times as the first<br />

commercial possibilities are close to fruition.) In simple<br />

terms, if the patent game is going to be played, the aim<br />

is to generate revenues that pay for the research that in<br />

turn permit new and better platform patents to be<br />

constructed, which in turn, then keep moving the 17 year<br />

time window far enough into the future that the<br />

mainstream applications have sufficient time to get to<br />

the market and begin generating the revenues that will<br />

pay for the pensions of all involved.<br />

6.0 Putting It All Together<br />

The paper has discussed the gulf between smart<br />

material solutions and successful commercial<br />

exploitation. The gulf exists because both materials<br />

scientists and designers and engineers frequently come<br />

to the story with the wrong mindset.<br />

Designers and engineers need to begin thinking about<br />

contradiction-solving as a part of their job. They also<br />

need assistance to make it easy to find possible<br />

candidate solutions to the contradictions they find. Table<br />

1 of this paper is intended to act as a first step towards<br />

making a more direct connection between contradiction<br />

type and available solutions.<br />

For materials scientists, the challenge is more about<br />

managing the transition from basic material technology<br />

to successful commercialisation. As ever, all dilemmas<br />

are contradictions, and in turn all contradictions can be<br />

solved. The key to their resolution in the case of smart<br />

materials has a lot to do with finding sufficient high-value<br />

niche applications that will generate sufficient revenues<br />

to enable the research that will in turn open up the<br />

mainstream applications.<br />

7.0 References<br />

1) Graff, G.D., ‘Managing University And Government<br />

IP’, Commercialisation and Technology Transfer<br />

Seminar, ‘Leveraging IP For Wealth Creation’,<br />

Kuala Lumpur, December 2007.<br />

2) Mann, D.L., ‘Evaporating <strong>Contradictions</strong>: Physical<br />

And/Or Technical’, TRIZ Journal, March 2007.<br />

3) <strong>Systematic</strong> <strong>Innovation</strong> E-Zine, ‘Re-Thinking The<br />

Physical Contradiction Solution Strategies’, Issue<br />

76, July 2008.<br />

4) <strong>Systematic</strong> <strong>Innovation</strong> E-Zine, ‘Effective Use Of<br />

Principle 35’, Issue 58, January 2007.<br />

5) Naisbitt, J., ‘Mindset: Reset Your Thinking And See<br />

The Future’, Collins, 2007.<br />

www.systematic-innovation.com

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