Flush with excitement I just spent a week at a resort in Orlando. One thing I had never encountered before was a pressure assisted toilet. The thing flushed so forcefully I had to take a look in the tank, where I found a pressure vessel. This video explains how it works, and explores how a…
Why do I want to fit Principles into SCAMPER approaches? In a recent post (check it here first) I explore how SCAMPER can embrace the 40 Principles of Inventive Problem Solving. The goal is to wrap the complexity of the Principles in the approachability of SCAMPER. Modify defined in Applied Imagination Under the category of…
Silverado frame rails General Motors uses hydroforming to produce frame rails for its vehicles including the Silverado pickup and the aluminum pieces found in the Corvette. This process makes stronger, lighter and to more accurate dimensions than typical welded multi-piece components. In tube hydroforming, pressure is applied with hydraulic fluid inside a tube that is…
The problem As I described in an earlier post, some elementary students in Ontario were suspended for incomplete immunization records. This series of posts is an effort to come up with ideas using each of the 40 Principles. Remember the cardinal rule: there are no stupid ideas, only ideas that may serve to inspire the…
Ups and downs Elevators typically move in one of two ways; electric motors or hydraulics. Traction elevators Tall buildings typically use an electric drive motor to move a cable attached to the elevator car at one end and a counterweight at the other. The cable is suspended over a pulley which attaches to the motor…
A dish best served cold SpaceX uses supercooled, “deep cryogenic” liquid oxygen, or LOX, to propel its Falcon 9 rockets. This is colder than more commonly used liquid oxygen which is chilled only to its condensation temperature. Principle 35 – Parameter Change The advantage is that the oxidizer is more dense, allowing SpaceX to cram more onto their rocket.…
Tweel nice Conventional pneumatic tires use air pressure to maintain their shape and resistance to weight and driving forces yet also cushion the vehicle from road imperfections. Principle 29 – Pneumatics and Hydraulics Michelin has developed an airless tire called the Tweel. This is a merging of tire and wheel into an integrated unit. Principle 5…
Electric fuel pump New Zealand’s company Rocket Lab has an Electron rocket that uses a similar layout to SpaceX’s Falcon rocket. Both have a nine engine first stage and a single engine second stage. Both use liquid oxygen and RP-1, a refined form of kerosene. The most notable difference is scale – the Falcon is…
In Bill Hammack’s Youtube video, the ingenious design of the aluminum beverage can is revealed. It’s amazing how many Inventive Principles are applied in such a humble, everyday object. The can The aluminum can begins life as a round disc which is repeatedly pressed into a successively narrower cylindrical cup shape. This cup is deliberately made…
In one of his Practical Engineering YouTube videos, Grady Hillhouse describes the phenomenon of water hammer. When the inertia of moving water is dissipated as the flow of water is interrupted suddenly, it can cause a severe shock. In some homes this manifests itself as banging pipes when water flow is stopped quickly by closing…