Home
Approach
40 Inventive Principles
The 40 Inventive Principles contain recommendations for changes of technical systems: they help to strengthen useful characteristics and to eliminate the objectionable ones.

  1. Segmentation

  2. Extraction

  3. Local Quality

  4. Asymmetry

  5. Combining

  6. Universality

  7. Nesting (Integration)

  8. Anti-weight

  9. Prior Counteraction

  10. Prior Action

  11. Cushion in Advance (Preventative Measure)

  12. Equipotentiality

  13. Inversion (Other Way Round)

  14. Spheroidality

  15. Dynamism

  16. Partial or Excessive Action

  17. Shift to Another Dimension

  18. Mechanical Vibration

  19. Periodic Action

  20. Continuity of Useful Action

  1. Skipping (Rushing through)

  2. Converting Harm into Benefit

  3. Feedback

  4. Mediator

  5. Self-service

  6. Copying

  7. Disposability (Cheap Short-living Objects)

  8. Replacement of a Mechanical System

  9. Pneumatic and Hydraulic Constructions

  10. Flexible Shells and Thin Films

  11. Porous Materials

  12. Changing Colour

  13. Homogeneity

  14. Rejecting and Regenerating Parts

  15. Transformation of the physical and chemical properties

  16. Phase Transitions

  17. Thermal Expansion

  18. Strong Oxidants

  19. Inert Environment

  20. Composite Materials
HINT:

The use of 40 Inventive Principles consists of three system levels:

- System or objekt itself (e.g. office phone)
- Sub-System (e.g. phone receiver)
- Super-System and environment (e.g. telephone system and telephone network).


To work with the 40 Inventive Principles the best way to start are the Principles for Brainstorming or the  15 Principles for Construction and Design. If you cannot find a satisfying solution continue with all the 40 principles.

The 40 Inventive Principles are the most common TRIZ-instrument for solving techical problems. But they can also deliver interesting ideas for non-technical problems.