Abstract
In this paper, we present a part of our work in progress of testing
the validity of Polovinkin's heuristics for systems transformations
- which were originally compiled from solutions available in the
former USSR - in the international design knowledge base recorded
in the US patent fund.
Introduction: Research Goals
Creative problem solving is a key issue throughout the engineering
design process. There are many approaches to finding creative
solutions to design problems. One of those approaches is the use
of heuristics, i.e. rules of thumb intended to guide the designer
to the most promising solutions. Altshuller_s 40 Inventive Principles
(Altshuller, 1969) are examples of heuristics. Although the usefulness
of these principles has been proven in numerous cases, the inventive
principles do not cover all possible inventive technical problems.
Based on numerous designs created by highly experienced engineers,
A. I. Polovinkin (1988, 1991) has identified more than a hundred
heuristics for systems transformations that allow resolve technical
problems. We refer to the most promising Polovinkin_s heuristics
as the 129H in this paper. Some of Polovinkin_s heuristics are
directly related to Altshuller_s Inventive Principles, others
are not.
It is recognized that technical design is a part of culture. Hence,
engineers from different countries usually follow dissimilar design
rules and traditions. A. I. Polovinkin (1988, 1991) has restricted
the knowledge base of his research to technology created mostly
in the former USSR. Nevertheless, it seems that the heuristics
for systems transformations are culture-independent.
The goals of our research are:
* to test our hypothesis that the 129H are culture-independent (Wei, de Carvalho, Savransky, 2000);
* to find examples of patents representative of solutions that confirm or conflict with 129H in order to create 129H+trust and 129H-pool (Savransky, 1999) - high-level examples of 129H;
* to compare Polovinkin's heuristics with Altshuller's Inventive Principles for pair (technical) contradictions (Altshuller, 1969; Savransky, 2000);
* to incorporate 129H into Matrix and Tensor for contradictions resolution (see, e.g., Savransky 2000);
* to figure out conditions when "Inversion of expedient"
that are common for many of 129H are preferable to the "direct"
heuristic suggestion.
In this paper we present a part of our work in progress of testing
the validity of Polovinkin's heuristics - originally compiled
from mainly ex-USSR engineers - in the international design knowledge
base recorded in US patents fund.
Search Overview
We selected the patent fund of United States of America as the primary sourse of examples, because:
* inventors from many countries register their inventions in USA, hence we could easily check our hypothesis that the 129H are culture-independent;
* descriptions of US patents are well-represented at the Internet (e.g., http://www.uspto.gov/ and http://www.delphion.com), hence we can conduct the research from our workplaces in Taiwan, Brazil, and USA;
* this fund with more than 6 million patents represent almost
all engineering fields.
Our patents search is based on practical experience, trial-and-error,
boolean search and software-assisted semantic search. The efficiency
of these approaches for patents research is to be estimated in
our fortcoming publication (Savransky, Wei, de Carvalho, 2001).
Due to the electronic patent fund limitation, we have searched
only relatively new patents issued in last three decades.
Examples for Three Heuristics
Our research for 129H validation currently consists of about 700
examples. These examples represent the 129H+trust. The overview
of our current results is shown in the table 1. It is impossible
to present all founded examples in a conference paper. The full
report is available in electronic format now and will be published
soon (Savransky, Wei, de Carvalho, 2001).
Table 1. Summary of current search results (January 2001)
| # of examples | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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We selected three heuristics for this presentation:
3.7. To proceed from contact in a point to contact on a line;
from contact on a line to contact on a surface; from contact on
a surface to volumetric (spatial). Inversion of expedient.
6.3. To divide (sub)system on parts so that each of these could
be made from the most suitable material.
7.7. To divide a (sub)system on parts, then to produce, to
process, to load etc. each part separately, and then to carry
out assembly.
These heuristics illustrate two different search strategies used
in our work. The heuristic 3.7 has the inversion of expedient,
while the heuristics 7.7 and 6.3 are complimentary to each other.
The examples found are outlined in the Tables 2 - 4. The abstracts
of patents chosen to illustrate these heuristics are given in
the Appendix.
Table 2. Examples for the heuristic 3.7
| Gas turbine engines | |||
| Crimping tool | |||
| Confining ring set | |||
| Percussion boring tools | |||
| Fuel injector | |||
| Rotary actuators |
Table 3. Examples for the heuristic 6.3
| Gear systems | |||
| High speed dynamo-electric machines | |||
| Injection of gases into molten metal | |||
| Optical cable | |||
| Magneto-electric claw rotor |
Table 4. Examples for the heuristic 7.7
| Interfacial surface generators | |||
| Power amplifier for a mobile communication system | |||
| Production of sheet-like thermo-plastically shapes | |||
| Processing of image data | |||
| Reproduction of image on a recording material | |||
| Structures for didactic game |
It is interesting to note that the average time between filing
date by an inventor and issue date by US Patent Office is about
2 years for selected heuristics. Such relatively small waiting
period perhaps could indicate high novelty and creativity of solutions
which could have been obtained with application of these heuristics.
Although we did not purposefully tried to expand our search geographically,
collected examples present inventors from about 30 countries from
all continents, particularly Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain,
Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway,
Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, USSR. Therefore, 129H are
culture-independent. In our opinion this feature of "hard"
or technical TRIZ cannot be, unfortunately, be expanded into "soft"
TRIZ for management, marketing or other sides of non-engineering
business where cultural and social traditions play important roles.
Examples shown on Tables 2 - 4 illustrate that the 129H can be
used in diverse fields of invention proposed by inventors from
various countries.
Conclusion
Our search shows that almost all Polovinkin's heuristics work
for several various engineering field in technique created in
different countries. Both the 129H and examples can be used for
technical problem solving.
References
Altshuller, G. S. Innovation Algorithm. Worcester: Technical
Innovation Center, 1999 (1st Russian edition, 1969).
Doncean, G., Salamatov, Yu.P., Savransky, S. D. Guide for Inventors,
Volume 1, RO-INI, 2000 (in Romanian).
Polovinkin, A. I. Theory of New Technique Design: Laws
of Technical Systems and their Applications. Informelektro: Moscow,
1991 (in Russian).
Polovinkin, A. I. The ABC of Engineering Creativity. Mashinostroenie:
Moscow, 1988 (in Russian).
Salamatov, Yu.P. System of Laws for Technique Evolution. Krasnoyarsk,
1996 (in Russian). Posted at http://www.triz.minsk.by
Savransky, S. D. How to study patents in the framework of TRIZ.
In: Proceedings of TRIZCON99. Novi: Altshuller Institute, 1999.
Savransky, S. D. Engineering of Creativity: Introduction
to TRIZ Methodology of Inventive Problem Solving. CRC Press,
2000.
Savransky, S. D., Wei, T. C., de Carvalho, M. A. 100+ Heuristics
for Systems Transformations. In Guide for Inventors, Volume
2 (Belousov, V., Doncean, G., Plahteanu, B., Salamatov, Yu.P.,
Savransky, S. D., Wei, T. C., de Carvalho, M. A.) RO-INI, 2001
(in press).
Wei, T. C., de Carvalho, M. A., Savransky, S. D. 100+ Heuristics
for Systems Transformations: A brief report of US Patent Fund
Study. WWW.TRIZ-JOURNAL.COM September, 2000.
Appendix: Examples for Heuristics
Heurstic 3.7.
Example 1
US Patent No. 4169694 Ceramic rotor blade having root with double curvature
Abstract
A turbine blade having a root provided with a curvature in its
transverse and longitudinal cross sections. The root is receivable
within the groove in the outer periphery of an attachment piece
and the surface portions defining the groove have curvatures slightly
greater than those of the root. A compliant pad can be inserted
in the groove between each side of the root, respectively, and
the corresponding surface portion of the attachment piece. Initially,
the root will have a single point of contact with the adjacent
surface portion or the compliant pad; but as the blade rotates,
this point of contact becomes a line or surface contact to cause
loads to be more uniformly distributed between the root and adjacent
surface portions.
Example 2
US Patent No. 5611236 Crimping tool with means to keep jaws parallel
Abstract
A tool for crimping a compression sleeve onto a pipe includes support arms that rotate about fixed pivots, and which each carry a slidably mounted crimping jaw that is supported by the associated arm for rotational movement of the jaw about the longitudinal axis thereof, movement of the respective jaws being guided by ramp cams and camming surfaces which are operative to maintain the end faces of the jaws in true parallelism with one another, despite the movement of the jaws about an arcuate path, and, the rotation of those jaws relative to the support arms, movement of the jaws being under the influence of sliding surface contact of the camming members in the absence of line contact, while at the same time a greater sliding area between the respective jaws and their associated support arms is provided, thus enhancing the durability of the crimping tool.
(*) The camming action of the ramp cams and their associated camming
surfaces proceeds in face-to-face surface engagement after initial
line engagement, thus providing a maximized bearing surface area
that is devoid of line contact.
Example 3
US Patent No. 5899506 Confining ring set suiting wider range of diameter of pipes
Abstract
A confining ring set suiting wider range of diameters of pipes,
wherein a "C" shaped confining ring is provided at three
locations thereon with three screw holes equidistantly spaced
with one another, each screw hole is provided with a screw therein
pointing at the center of a chamber of the confining ring, the
chamber is fitted therein with an external annulus which in turn
is fitted therein with an inner annulus; the external and inner
annuli have "C" shaped openings, an internally extended
annular rib is provided on the top of the inner annulus, and an
externally extended annular rib is provided on the top of the
external annulus, the annular ribs are both provided with notches
thereon to scatter stress, the confining ring set having the external
and inner annuli can be used to confine pipes of a wider range
of diameters, for the smaller pipes, three screws on ring set
and effect of confining can thus be increased. The confining ring
can further contract the external and inner annuli to transform
the confining force in point contact mode into surface contact
mode through the annuli, thus can effectively contract the smaller
pipes, the range of diameter of pipes available for the confining.
Example 4
US Patent No. 4621698 Percussion boring tool
Abstract
A percussion boring tool is disclosed for boring in the earth
at an angle or in a generally horizontal direction. The tool has
a steering mechanism substantially as shown in a copending patent
application and a cylindrical body with overgage sleeves located
over a portion of the outer body affixed so that they can rotate
but cannot slide axially. The overgage areas at the front and
back of the tool, or alternately, an undergage section in the
center of the tool body permits a 2-point contact (front and rear)
of the outer housing with the soil wall as opposed to the line
contact which occurs without the undercut. The 2-point contact
allows the tool to deviate in an arc without distorting the round
cross-sectional profile of the pierced hole. Thus, for a given
steering force at the front and/or back of the tool, a higher
rate of turning is possible since a smaller volume of soil needs
to be displaced.
Example 5
US Patent No. 5163623 Fuel injector
Abstract
A fuel injector for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine
in which a single fuel injector meters fuel to a plurality of
injection nozzles which discharge fuel adjacent to the engine
inlet ports having a distributor with an outlet passage and a
valve seat surrounding the passage, a single valve engaging the
valve seat to control fuel delivery through the passage and a
valve actuator adapted to pivotally displace the valve from the
seat to contact a valve stop to allow fuel delivery through the
passages. The stop surface comprises the lower surface of the
valve body which houses the actuator and the center pole of the
actuator. The center pole of the actuator extends beyond the lower
surface of the body to provide a non-plannar valve stop surface
which makes point contact therewith and avoids surface-to-surface
contact between the members which may result in incidental adhesion
there between.
Example 6
US Patent No. 5369538 Rotary disk drive actuator
Abstract
An actuator assembly for a disk drive is presented which includes
a voice coil motor having a top return plate which is held in
place substantially only by the magnetic field of the voice coil
motor magnet, and no extra screws or other fasteners are needed.
Non-magnetic spacers position the top return plate above the voice
coil motor magnet. Consequently, there are no magnetic portions
to interfere with the desired return path of the magnetic field.
The actuator assembly includes a preloaded crash stop which provides
an elastic as well as a dampening resistive force in stopping
a positioner arm assembly upon a crash. Additionally, the crash
stop is comprised substantially of non-magnetic material so as
to avoid interfering with desired magnetic return paths required
for the operation of the actuator. Furthermore, the crash stop
comprises an integral magnetic latch which holds the positioner
arm assembly in a fixed location when the disk drive is not operating.
The magnetic latch provides "line contact," rather than
"surface contact," between the positioner arm and the
magnetic poles of the latch, thus allowing for greater margin
of error in positioning and assembling the components of the latch
and positioner arm.
Heuristic 6.3.
Example 1
US Patent No. 4944196 Conjugate gear system
Abstract
A conjugate gear system including a pair of meshingly engageable
toothed gears, at least one member of the gear pair having at
least one three-component tooth. Each three-component tooth is
comprised of a central core, at least one face disposed thereon,
and a means for displaceably attaching the face section to the
core such that the face section is displaceable with respect to
the core in the direction of the sliding component of motion created
by meshing engagement of the gear pair. By separating out the
sliding component in this fashion, relatively pure rolling contact
is maintained between the engaged surfaces of the gear pair at
all times, thus reducing sliding friction, thermal expansion,
and noise levels created by the engagement of the gears.
Example 2
US Patent No. 4893040 Dynamo-electric machines
Abstract
A rotating part for a high speed synchronous generator comprises
a core of magnetic material, side walls of nonmagnetic material,
and an outer circumferential portion. The outer circumferential
portion is provided on its outside with an inner layer, an inner
retaining ring, an outer layer and an outer retaining ring. The
inner and outer layers are made up of magnetic and nonmagnetic
portions. The retaining rings are of magnetic material. The greater
strength and lighten weight of the nonmagnetic portions reduces
the centrifugal forces on the magnetic portions. In an alternative
embodiment, the outer circumferential portion comprises a number
of layers comprising alternate portions of magnetic and nonmagnetic
material, retained by rings of magnetic material. The nonmagnetic
portions support the magnetic material, and prevent it from damage
through centrifugal force. Another alternative embodiment includes
recesses in the outer retaining ring and a nommagnetic material
disposed in said recesses for securing the retaining ring. Another
alternative embodiment comprises a magnetic core, a nomagnetic
side wall of high strength, a magnetic portion, and a retaining
ring divided into magnetic parts and nonmagnetic parts.
Example 3
US Patent No. 4669709 Device for the injection of gases into molten metals and minerals
Abstract
A device for injecting gas into a hot melt, particularly molten metal, is suitable for being installed in the wall, particularly the bottom wall, of the container holding the melt. The device has three main sections including a front section of refractory material which is resistant to the melt in question, and which has a number of perforations (10) for introduction of gas into the melt, a middle section which at least partly consists of heat conductive material and possesses a number of perforations communicating with the perforations of the front section, and a rear section at least the outer (peripheral) part of which is of heat conducting material, which rear section in or close to its peripheral part has a helical duct communicating with the perforations of the middle section and adapted to pass the gas from an external gas source.
The middle section is preferably divided into two part sections
of which at least one, preferably the foremost part section, is
made of a material of high heat conductivity, preferably copper
or a copper alloy, whereas the rear part section preferably is
of steel.
Example 4
US Patent No. 4802722 Light-pen
Abstract
An optical cable is provided which is especially adapted for use
in reading optical information from an optical information carrier.
The cable includes a light conductor adapted for transmitting
light from the information carrier to a light-sensitive receiver.
The light conductor includes a major portion of an easily bendable
material such as a plastic. It also includes an end portion extending
beyond the major portion of the light conductor which faces away
from the light-sensitive receiver. The end portion constitutes
a separate light conductor, the reception angle of which is less
than the corresponding angle of the major portion. The end portion
is preferably fabricated of glass or quartz. The arrangement may
be such that there is a plurality of further conductors positioned
about the first said conductor and also manufactured of an easily
bendable material.
Example 5
US Patent No. 5726517 Magnetoelectric claw rotor, and a method of manufacturing such a rotor
Abstract
The invention relates to a magnetoelectric claw rotor of the type
comprising parts made of magnetic material forming the poles of
the rotor, and parts made of non-magnetic material for separating
poles of opposite polarity, all confined in a common hollow cylindrical
case of non-magnetic material. The rotor comprises two single-pole
end parts of magnetic material and of opposite polarity, at least
one intermediate part of magnetic material, and parts of non-magnetic
material, each single-pole end part has a chamfered pole, and
two plane lateral faces disposed symmetrically about the plane
of symmetry of the chamfered pole, the, or each, intermediate
part has two poles of opposite polarity, having the same shape
as the pole of the end parts, with each pole being separated from
the facing pole by a non-magnetic part of shape complementary
to the two poles, the cylindrical case having as many through
windows as there are poles, each window being occupied by a distal
tube element of magnetic material having the same polarity as
the pole with which it is associated.
Heuristic 7.7.
Example 1
US Patent No. 5094793 Methods and apparatus for generating interfacial surfaces
Abstract
Method and apparatus for generating interfacial surfaces in a fluid mass which:
(a) divide a first stream of the fluid mass into a plurality of branch streams, redirect or reposition the branch streams, expand and contract the branch streams in a symmetrical fashion, and recombine the branch streams to form a second stream of the fluid mass; or
(b) divide a first stream of the fluid mass into a plurality of
branch streams, redirect or reposition the branch streams, recombine
the branch streams to form a second stream of the fluid mass,
and expand and contract the second stream in a symmetrical fashion.
Example 2
US Patent No. 6104247 Power amplifier for mobile communication system
Abstract
A power amplifier for a radio communication system is provided
which includes a divider for equally dividing a received signal
into two signals, an amplifier for separately amplifying the divided
signals with a same gain, and a combiner for combining the separately
amplified signals into one output signal. The divider includes
a first FET for equally dividing a signal received at a gate thereof
into a signal being output at a drain thereof and a signal being
output at a source thereof, a first inductor for coupling the
drain of the first FET to a ground, a second inductor for coupling
the source of the first FET to the ground, a first capacitor for
coupling the drain of the first FET to an input of the first amplifier,
and a second capacitor for coupling the source of the first FET
to an input of the second amplifier. The amplifier includes at
least one first amplifier for amplifying a signal output from
the first capacitor, and at least one second amplifier for amplifying
a signal output from the second capacitor. The combiner includes
a second FET for combining a signal received at a drain thereof
from the first amplifier and a signal received at a source thereof
from the second amplifier, and outputting the combined signal
at a gate thereof, a third inductor for coupling the drain of
the second FET to the ground, a fourth inductor for coupling a
source of the second FET to the ground, a third capacitor for
coupling the drain of the second FET to an output of the first
amplifier, and a fourth capacitor for coupling the source of the
second FET to an output of the second amplifier.
Example 3
US Patent No. 4960552 Production of sheet-like pre-shapes
Abstract
A sheet-like, thermoplastically moldable pre-shape is produced
by extruding a liquid-crystalline polymer by dividing the melt
into two or more separate streams, then conferring different directions
of orientation on the polymer in these separate streams, recombining
the separate streams and extruding the recombined melt stream.
Example 4
US Patent No. 5392071 Apparatus and method for processing image data
Abstract
Image processing apparatus is described in which a source stream
of data captured by a particular source is passed through a data
splitter where it is split using one splitting technique into
a plurality of split streams of data. These split streams of data
each contain only part of the information within the source stream
of data. The split streams of data are separately manipulated
by a post production unit prior to being passed through a data
combiner where they are recombined to form an output stream of
data. The source stream of data and the output stream of data
are of a higher resolution than the individual split streams of
data. The post production unit includes at least one reformatter
for reformatting the data stream to use a different splitting
technique matched to the manipulation being performed in the post
production unit.
Example 5
US Patent No. 4947269 Image reproduction apparatus capable of dividing an image into parts for reproduction on respective sheets
Abstract
An image reproduction apparatus capable of dividing the image
of a designated area into plural areas and reproducing thus divided
image on plural recording sheets, thereby allowing one to obtain
a large copy when these sheets are pasted together.
Example 6
US Patent No. 4522404 Subdivided block components reassemblable into three dimensional figures
Abstract
The invention is concerned with the technical field of structures
adapted to provide entertainment of a didactic character, and
in particular with a block subdivided into suitable portions to
compose three-dimensional figures. The technical problem to be
solved was that of providing a simple structure whereby a very
high number of three-dimensional configurations could be obtained,
the elements which make up the game being in such mutual relationship
as to favor the attainment of such three-dimensional configurations.
The problem is solved by a didactic game defined by a cubic block
subdivided into portions which comprise two first prismatic bodies
defined by right prisms having isosceles right triangle bases
and a combined volume equal to one half that of said block, a
parallelepiped on-like inner body with square bases, and second
prismatic bodies defined by eight prisms with isosceles right
triangle bases and being separated into complementary bodies,
defining together with said inner body the form of said first
prismatic body, and auxiliary bodies which are identical to one
another and together define the form of a further first prismatic
body.