Smart Materials Solve Contradictions - Systematic Innovation
Smart Materials Solve Contradictions - Systematic Innovation
Smart Materials Solve Contradictions - Systematic Innovation
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
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