▼This page was part of an MTU course MSE4777 OA and MSE4777 OB/MSE5777/EE4777/EE5777: Open-source 3-D printing
Please leave comments using the talk page. The course runs in the Fall semester. It is not open edit.

TRIZ a Russian acronym, literally: "theory of the resolution of invention-related tasks") is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". TRIZ relies on 40 inventive principles.

Exercise

Online students please just do the exercise for any two principles on your own. To give this a try as an engineering student please do the following:

  1. Form groups of 2
  2. Each group of 2 will be quasi-randomly assigned 2 principles and attempt to apply it to forecasting obvious inventions for future and (possibly) existing 3-D printer technologies. For more information on your principle click here Each member take 1 principle to start.
  3. Go to your principle page using the link below put in a dividing line using 4 - signs, and have both partners sign with 4 tildes. List at least twenty-five ways to make a novel 3-D printer for each of your principles. If ideas are already on the page - list 25 NEW ideas. Do not read the old ones first.
  4. Switch with your partner then repeat.
  5. TRIZ uses this technical contradiction matrix, you can use these technical problems to find problems for your solutions:
    1. improve resolution (atomic)
    2. improve print speed (instantaneous)
    3. enhance material availability (all)
    4. reduce parts of the printer (1?)
    5. reduce costs of printer (free)
    6. reduce costs of materials (free)
    7. make it easier to use (McDonald's screen)
    8. make it easier to assemble (self)
    9. make it easier to maintain (none, unbreakable, self healing)
    10. make fully assembled products (anything - computer, car, smartphone, dinner)
    11. use functional printing materials (e.g. electronics)
    12. reduce waste (zero)
    13. use less energy (zero or ambient)
    14. quieter printing (soundless)
    15. ubiquitous printing (everywhere)
    16. print smaller (nanoscale)
    17. print bigger (apartment complex, Great Wall of China, planet?)
    18. enable auto calibration
    19. enable auto leveling
    20. enable auto monitoring
    21. enable quality control
    22. enable real-time feedback
    23. make it safer (infant approved)
    24. make is smell good (designer imposters?)
    25. make it from current waste products (CO2, flyash, spent fuel rods?)
Broad and/or obvious patent claims for 3-D printing technology may hamper the open-source 3-D printing community's ability to innovate. Previous work on an algorithm protected 3-D printing materials. This page is part of a MTU Open Source 3-D Printing class project to investigate 3-D printing concepts using TRIZ and is presented here as a defensive publication of prior art to help identify obvious 'inventions' for 3-D printing.
Examiners: The ideas on this page dated Dec 3, 2015 and Nov 29, 2016 were developed by university students with less than a semester of formal 3-D printing experience (or by an instructor in class) and thus should be considered unpatentable because of obviousness to any person skilled in the art of additive manufacturing.
Appropedians: This page is open edit. Please fee free to add ideas and sign them below with ~~~~ or to use any of the ideas to built better open-source 3-D printers.

Obvious ideas

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Created April 11, 2023 by Pedro Kracht
Last edit April 11, 2023 by Pedro Kracht
Cite as "4777 TRIZ 3D printers". Appropedia. 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
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