vendors and researchers have subdivided these principles and will claim that there are 70, 160, or as many as 400 principle, so make sure that when discussing TRIZ inventive principles with someone that you are having an “apples and apples” discussion. For the most part, these additional principles are subdivisions of the higher level 40 principles. They may be of some assistance in stimulating ideas but are not necessary in most cases.
After we review the principles, we will review the TRIZ contradiction table and how the inventive principles relate to it. Later on, we will discuss the priority of use of these principles, again as derived from the study of the global patent literature. This information can also be used to increase the productivity of the use of the 40 principles as part of an alternative process. Again, this is not the recom- mended use of these principles, but my experience has taught me that many peo- ple will make use of only selective portions of the TRIZ algorithm and tool kit and I want to make it as easy as possible for the water to be sampled in the hope that this will increase the thirst for the rest of what is in the reservoir!
The TRIZ 40 inventive principles are listed in Table 9.1.
The numbering of the principles is uniform in any TRIZ publication.
Let’s go through the 40 principles one by one, and with each, provide ten exam- ples to help illustrate the use of the principle in many different areas.
These lists are a composite of lists of my own [1, 2], those of Ellen Domb [3], and those of Darrell Mann [4].