Zeist, Monday, August 15, 2011
Wim Poelman
Material Design by Technomimicry
Introduction to the topic and related problems
In the title, “Material design” refers to the design of materials as one of many design disciplines like
architectural design, graphic design, fashion design, mechanical design, etcetera.
Material design is not recognized so much as a design discipline, although the design of new
materials plays an important role in industrial innovation in general. New materials are not regarded
as a result of a design process but rather as a result of research. Nevertheless, the amount of new
materials grows exponentially, which can be noticed in the also growing amount of material
databases like Materia, Material Connection, Materio, etcetera. There is only little literature on
methodology for material design. It is clear that general methodology in the field of design is
applicable on materials, but still material design implies specific design problems for which there is
no support.
In the context of material innovation, distinction can be made between material inventions, material
development and material design. Material inventions are related mainly to chemical and physical
properties of materials. Examples are plastics, technical ceramics and graphene. Material
development is mainly refers on processing techniques leading to added value of the materials.
Examples are foamed materials, pressure moldable wood and surface treatments. Material design, in
the context of this paper , is not focused on the physical chemical properties or processing
techniques but on the creation of material functions. Examples are esthetic materials, smart
materials and materials with new structural, mechanical or constructive functions.
Examples can be found in the area of composites, sandwich panels, textiles, etcetera.
Because of the fact that concrete is a composite it is not surprising that the term “mixture design” is
frequently used.
In this paper one strategy for material design is introduced, for which we introduced the term
“Technomimicry”, referring to the term biomimicry introduced by Janine Benyus (1997) referring to
inspiration from nature.
Figuur 1 Janine Benyus
This strategy is based on the fact that several categories of materials have developed in different
directions. Examples are ceramics, concrete, glass, metal and plastics.
In each industry functions are realized by new material configurations and processing techniques.
This paper is based on the proposition that many of those technologies could be translated from one
domain to another. A beautiful example is the application of foaming techniques in glass and
ceramics.
Importance of the work and the related state of the art
In the eighties much attention was paid to material innovation. In that period the emphasis was on
materials technology and not so much on the “soft” aspects (e.g. esthetics, ergonomics and
sustainability) and on the integration in semi final products (e.g. sandwich panels, standard profiles
and foils). Also responsive materials based on polymers where not a point of attention except shape
memory metals. As more contingences for building dedicated materials become available, it is import
that also methodology to apply these contingences are developed. Important steps in this
development is a publication by the National Materials Advisory Board (NMAB) of the USA in the
field of Materials Science and Engineering: Forging Stronger Links to Users (1999).
Also important is the work of the Centre for Technology Management, Cambridge in the field of
“Innovation and adoption of new materials” (Ashby, Maine et all).
The attention however is focused on the adoption process of new materials in general and not on the
design process.
Approach and methods used in problem solving
In this paper we focus on one approach which can be described as “exploring the potential of
existing material technology by experimenting with manufacturing technologies from other
domains. The approach is based on the thoughts of Michael Schrage (1999) in the book “Serious
Play”, in which the experiment and the prototype plays an important role in the innovation process.
Figuur 2 Michael Schrage
As practical case the authors have chosen for the application of manufacturing techniques from the
plastics industry for manufacturing of concrete components. The main reason to choose this material
category is that hardly any manufacturing technique can be mentioned which is applied in both
material categories. That’s why it would be an interesting case to study the potential of technology
transfer between two domains from a material designers point of view.
Several techniques were systematically evaluated and experiments were carried out to test the
estimated possibilities.
The specific details of the research and development work
Three technologies which were explored are:
- Integral foam
- Extrusion/pressure molding
- Rotomolding
Specific about the research is that it is carried out by a designer/ PhD student and not by a material
scientist. The PhD student is supported by a series of master students who not only carry out
experiments, but additionally have a specific assignment for the design of a product.
Starting point of the experiments was the question: “ What kind of forms and functions could we
realize with this technology? Several companies with different product/market combinations were
involved in the project.
Integral foam is a widely applied technology in the plastics industry. The disadvantages of foam such
as vulnerability and water attraction are compensated by a solid skin of the same material. In the 30
years of existence of foamed concrete the step to integral foam technology was not undertaken.
Explorative research has resulted in four strategies to realize integral foamed concrete of which three
were tried out in practice. They are under patent application now.
Figuur 3 Integral foamed concrete
For extrusion and pressure molding it was necessary to develop an extruder which was able to inject
a concrete slurry in/through a mold. Explorative research has resulted in a foam pumping device
which complied with the specific properties of concrete. Together with concrete specialists from our
civil engineering department, functional fillers were chosen to optimize the process as well as the
results.
Especially for rotomolding the viscosity and thixotropy of the mixture was important. It turned out
that mixtures for high strength concrete brought us part of the solution.
A special appliance for Rotomolding was designed. Several prototypes of simple forms like cilincerd
and cubes were produced.
The achievements and verification/validation of the results
The only proposition proved by this project is that there is a potential for material innovation by
purposively translating material technologies from one domain to another, at least for the domains
plastics and concrete.
As a result of the project several concrete product ideas were proposed by industry, based upon the
combination of the intensive (chemical and physical) properties of foamed as well as massive
concrete and the extensive (form) properties, realized by the introduction of the “new”
manufacturing techniques.
An extra innovation came out of the Expanded Poly Styrene direction, which was chosen as one of
the possibilities for disposable molds. Disposable molds were important because of the long
hardening periods of concrete.
Figuur 4 Expanded polysyrene mould for concrete window frame
With a complete different goal (for food packaging industry) a technology was developed to obtain a
glossy surface. The same technology turned out to be useful for obtain a high quality surface for
concrete products.
Concrete conclusions and future work
A conclusion from this research project is that the transfer of technology between domains in the
field of materials can be useful. However this project can only offer a qualitative prove. For a
quantative prove a lot of experiments would be necessary, but the question is if that would be
necessary. Future work should better be directed at optimizing the methodology for the transfer
process. Knowledge is needed for several aspects of this transfer process such as:
- Identification of transfer possibilities on the material and manufacturing level
- Carrying out a SWOT analysis for these materials
- Planning experiments
- Involvement of industries and research institutes
- Business planning of new “inventions”.
An interesting thought which came up during the project is the relation with Biomimicry as a source
for innovation. In biomimicry nature offers the inspiration for solutions. In the approach of this
paper other domains offer the inspiration for new solutions. Why not introduce a new name:
“technomimicry”.
Benyus, Janine, 1997 Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, book, HarperCollins, United
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