Page 330 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

300 Chapter Nine

The zone in which heat
should be applied

The zone in which heat
should be prohibited

9.4.2 Separate the physical contradiction
After the identification of the physical contradiction, TRIZ has the fol-
lowing four approaches for resolving the contradiction. They are: sep-
aration in space, separation in time, separation between components,
and separation between components and a set of components.

Approach 1: Separation in space. Separation in space means: one part
of an object has property P, while another part has an opposite prop-
erty –P. By this separation the physical contradiction can be resolved.
In order to accomplish the separation, we need to study the zones of
conflict requirements. For example, in the “sealing glass ampoule”
case, if we are able to keep the top zone of the ampoule hot and bot-
tom zone of the ampoule cool, thus the physical contradiction can be
resolved.

Example 9.6. Separation in Space
Problem. Metallic surfaces are placed in metal salt solution (nickel, cobalt,
chromium) for chemical coating. During the reduction reaction, metal from
the solution precipitates onto the product surface. The higher the tempera-
ture, the faster the process, but the solution decomposes at a high tempera-
ture. As much as 75 percent of the chemicals settle on the bottom and walls
of the container. Adding stabilizer is not effective, and conducting the
process at a low temperature sharply decreases productivity.
Contradiction. The process must be hot (from fast, effective coating) and
cold (to efficiently utilize the metallic salt solution). Using the separation
principle in space, it is apparent that only the areas around the part must
be hot.
Solution. The product is heated to a high temperature before it is
immersed in a cold solution. In this case, the solution is hot where it is near