Development of Technical Creativity Featuring Modified TRIZ-AM Inventive Principle to Support Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

The design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) processing was introduced to fully utilize the design freedom provided by additive manufacturing (AM). Consequently, appropriate design methodologies have become essential for this technology. Recently, many studies have identified the importance of DFAM method utilization to produce AM parts, and theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ) is a strategy used to formalize design methodologies. TRIZ is a problem-solving tool developed to assist designers to find innovative and creative solutions. However, the pathway for synergizing TRIZ and DFAM is not clearly explained with respect to AM capabilities and complexities. This is mainly because most methods continue to involve use of the classical TRIZ principle, which was developed early in 1946, 40 years before AM technologies were introduced in the mid-1980s. Therefore, to tackle this issue, this study aims to enhance the 40 principles of classical TRIZ to accommodate AM design principles. A modified TRIZ-AM principle has been developed to define the pathway to AM solutions. TRIZ-AM cards are tools that assist designers to select inventive principles in the early phases of product design and development. The case study illustrates that even inexperienced AM users can creatively design innovative AM parts.