Application of shape changing smart materials in household appliances: A fragmented and inconsistent uptake

Application of shape changing smart materials in household appliances: A fragmented and inconsistent uptake

Bin Kassim, A.
Horvath, I.
Gerritsen, B.H.M.

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Engineering

2014-05-23

Shape changing smart materials (SCSM) have a wide range of applications, supporting product functions through material features. Surprisingly, their application in consumer durables such as household appliances is not as expected. This phenomenon could be related to a possible SCSM knowledge gap among designers, or unidentified design constraints; literature does not provide a convincing explanation. Our objective is to describe this phenomenon more accurately as a first step towards future analysis and improvement. We studied literature on SCSM applications in dissected consumer durable categories; consumer electronics, medical & healthcare devices, household appliances, wearable apparel and automotive. Through comparative research we tried to identify differences in design context considerations that could help to understand the phenomenon. From a product design perspective, using qualified reasoning, we investigated how SCSM have been considered (or scorned) to fit different design needs in terms of material behavior, applications, aesthetics, economic, manufacturing, and environment. Results shows that, (1) SCSM uptake in household appliances is lagging behind compared to other consumer durable categories, (2) with literature readily available, this is not just a knowledge gap, and (3) no compelling design reasons could be found rendering the observed phenomenon inevitable. Based on these results, we point out possible research directions for follow up analysis and possible improvements.

shape changing smart materials
consumer durables
household appliances
product design
smart materials uptake

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7fc50632-ba23-4aca-ad52-17231a3827c8

Delft University of Technology

978-94-6186-177-1

Tools and methods of competitive engineering: Digital proceedings of the tenth international symposium on tools and methods of competitive engineering, TMCE 2014, 1541-1552, Budapest, Hungary, 19 - 23 May 2014

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2014 Bin Kassim, A.
Horvath, I.
Gerritsen, B.H.M.