MoreInspiration
Newsletter July 2008
Dear CREAX newsreader,
The highlights of this issue are: |
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Innovation Highlights
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| This month we selected the submission of Lieven De
Couvreur from PIH. BMW unveiled their GINA Visionary Model, a fabric-covered vehicle that can change shapes with the push of a button.
BMW says the fabric skin - polyurethane-coated Lycra - is resilient, durable and water resistant. It's stretched over an
aluminium frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape. Want a big spoiler on the back? Wider fenders? No problem. "The drastic reinterpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car," BMW says.
geekologie.com
filed under:
automotive,
materials
Property spectrum: Flexibility
Increasing flexibility is one of the most applied properties. Many products evolve from rigid to completely flexible. The main benefits that can be gained from making a similar evolution are better damage protection, more compact folding and the ability to make variations in size and shape.
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Wheel size is the limiting constraint on the design of folding or portable bicycles and wheelchairs.
Vehicles with larger wheels have superior performance but cannot fold up smaller than the size of their wheels. Folding bikes with smaller wheels can fold up very well but are slower, less stable and less comfortable than a full size bike. The same problems apply to the design of practical wheelchairs.
The crossbreed folding wheel enables a full sized adult bicycle or wheelchair to be folded into a compact and convenient package for transportation and storage.
duncfitz.co.uk
filed under:
leisure,
travel
Property spectrum: Flexibility
The flexibility trend is certainly one
of the most popular ones. Many products evolve from immobile, over jointed to complete flexibility. You can measure with a ruler, a folding ruler or a tape ruler. You can cut with a knife, use scissors or apply wire cutting. Even buses added a joint to have larger, still manoeuvrable city buses.
A foldable bicycle wheel allows for even more compactibility.
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The gecko-inspired adhesive uses hard plastic microfibers. The plastic is not itself sticky, but the millions of microscopic contacts work together to adhere. The number of contacts automatically increases to handle higher loads. A feature of the hard plastic gecko-inspired adhesive is that no residue is left on surfaces as is left by conventional adhesive tapes.
robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu
filed under:
biomimetics,
biotechnology,
materials
Property spectrum: Activity
Materials increasingly evolve from passive to full adaptive
materials. E.g. shape memory alloys and thermo chromic
materials. The microfibres create an adhesive which is not
sticky and can easily be removed.
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The Peltor "Uvicator", is a small red disk of treated plastic that when incorporated in a new safety helmet, is initially red all over, but bleaches in sectors under the effects of ultra violet light. When it is white all over, it is time to replace the helmet.
Aearo told us that safety helmets, especially those used in sunny climates, are often still being used when their plastic has deteriorated to the point that they provide little real protection.
eurekamagazine.co.uk
filed under:
building & construction,
safety
Property spectrum: Colour
Why wouldn’t you make a product use different or even the
full spectrum of colours? Increasing use of colours has many
advantages. For example: the ability to make a simple
measurement, it can be a warning indicator or it can simply
improve the overall aesthetic appearance of your product.
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Called the Ergoskin, the device detects bad posture through sensors along the torso and prompts the wearer to correct it.
Someone who has been hunched over a computer for several minutes would begin to feel tiny pistons that "tap on the surface of the skin," says the Ergoskin's inventor, Talia Elena Radford Cryns, a graduate student of industrial design at Austria's University of Applied Arts Vienna. The biofeedback doesn't hurt and is imperceptible to others, according to Cryns. The device can be calibrated to a wearer's ideal posture as determined by a physiotherapist.
washingtonpost.com
filed under:
personal care,
technologies,
textile & clothing
Property spectrum: Information
Systems and subsystems tend to evolve from requiring
external input to becoming self-controlling through the use
of feedback mechanisms. This shirt has tiny sensors that
read your posture and help you correct it.
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There are few things as boring as cleaning roller paint trays. Unless one use disposable liners, we suspect that many people discard the whole thing rather than cleaning them. That's not too smart environmentally or economically. This new roller tray might help solve this problem. It has a teflon coating that lets you peel off dried paint without much effort. The big question is why it took so long before someone came up with it. The paint tray is made of metal with a non-stick teflon surface.
washingtonpost.com
filed under:
materials,
packaging,
tools
Property spectrum: Different components
Increasing the number of dissimilar elements in a system can bring additional functionality, improved operability, and convenience. The addition of a
teflon layer makes it easier to remove dried paint.
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| Please do not hesitate to
send
us a great innovation you have spotted. We might include it in our
next month issue. |
CREAX company news
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MoreInspiration course
 If you enjoy
CREAX newsletters, you will enjoy our hands-on MoreInspiration course. Our next 2-day
course is scheduled for the
24th &
25th
of September 2008 and the following course for the 29th & 30th of
September 2008. The next French course will be given on
17th & 18th
of September 2008.
CREAX also offers exclusive company specific courses. Participants
learn how to apply the CREAX Methodology in their day-to-day job.
(more info)
See the other dates for the 2008
courses.
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More than 2000 innovation examples
MoreInspiration, our online
database of innovative examples,
reached the 2000 mark this month.
MoreInspiration is a
collection of innovations in products and technologies, classified by
Property, Function and Industry. These are classified according to the
CREAX
Innovation Methodology and will inspire to innovate your product or technology.
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European Research and Innovation Exhibition
CREAX hosted a booth at the
European Research and Innovation Exhibition at
the Paris-Expo exhibition centre from the 5th to the 7th of June.
It was a meeting place for people, ideas and ambitions, encompassing the whole
scientific spectrum from major government institutes to the smallest private company.
The exhibition was the opportunity to present the CREAX innovation methodology and our services to major French players in the field of innovation. We also presented the CREAX food pairing project.
We would like to thank the people who visited the CREAX stand for their interest and great proposition of collaboration. |
2008 ISPIM Conference
CREAX took part in the conference organized by
ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management) and supported by ESCEM School of Business and Management in Tours, France.
The theme was: ‘Open Innovation: Creating Products and Services through Collaboration’. Mathieu Mottrie, CREAX Operations Director, presented
CREAX Open Innovation Projects and methodology during a parallel session.
We would like to thank the many participants for their enthusiastic remarks and appreciations. |
New Product Development Strategies conference
On June 12&13, CREAX was present at the
2nd Annual New Product Development Strategies conference in Amsterdam. The subject of this conference was on ensuring market success and ROI through innovative strategies and technologies. Amongst others, very interesting presentations were given by Nokia, Adidas, Fujifilm, Electrolux, 3M, Sony Ericsson, Ecover.
CREAX participated with its innovation gallery and presented the effectiveness of the
CREAX Innovation Methodology for sustainable new product development and innovation.
CREAX would like to thank all attendees for their participation and interest in CREAX. |
CREAX and Alícia collaboration
Bernard Lahousse, director at CREAX Food, recently visited
Alícia, in Sant Fruitós de Bages, in Spain.
The visit was directed at a collaboration between Alícia and CREAX
for research projects in kitchen science.
Alícia is a research centre focusing on technological innovation in kitchen science and the dissemination of agronourishment and gastronomic heritage.
It is a foundation with a Board of Trustees headed by chef Ferran Adrià (from El Bulli, selected the best restaurant in the world 2008)
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CREAX featured on the Nokia blog
Petra Söderling, Director of Product Management at Nokia, recently
credited CREAX on her
blog.
She was greatly impressed with the way CREAX works in solving
companies problems by borrowing solutions from other industries. |
CREAX and Puratos collaboration
“With a no-nonsense approach, great internal knowledge and tangible solutions, CREAX brought real added value during the project”
CREAX was active for
Puratos around
the sustainability of bread.
CREAX used its unique methodology to scan 15 different domains. The idea generation session resulted in 50 solutions. 8 were selected to be the grounds for further development of new products at Puratos. |
Miscellaneous
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CREAX
n.v. Mlk.Plumerlaan 113 8900 Ieper Belgium
info@creax.com
www.creax.com
Tel +32 57 229480 Fax +32 57 229481
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