Patients with venous ulcer of lower limbs are lucky, because such challenges have aroused the curiosity of 3M scientists and inspired their creative inspiration to solve problems. In this case, a 3M product developer in Germany recalled that he had read that giraffes would not get venous ulcers. He wants to know why, because giraffe's legs are so long, and the distance from the legs to the heart is twice that of human beings, it needs higher venous blood pressure to maintain blood circulation, so the pressure on blood vessels is greater.
He believes that the giraffe's rough and inelastic skin has played a similar role in compressing bandages, maximizing the effect of every muscle movement to optimize blood return and prevent swelling and ulcers. Realizing this, the 3M team began to look for a material with giraffe skin function. The curiosity culture of 3M stimulates opportunities, while the cooperation culture promotes the introduction of solutions. In 3M, the link between people and technology makes the combination and application of different majors emerge in an endless stream, multiplying creativity and expanding solutions. After investigating a series of materials, a member of the 3M team suggested trying 3M? Keban? The material used for the self-adhesive bandage-an elastic material used to wrap the sprain and fix the bandage. This kind of bandage is a non-woven fabric based on one of the core technologies of 3M Company, which came out in1960s. Its material was originally developed by 3M Company and used for gift packaging ribbons. Today, this technology is applied to thousands of products, from surgical masks to floor scrubbing, to thermal insulation materials for warm clothes.
The team returned to the research and development work and put the class? The material of the brand has been improved, a 3M? Keban? Two-layer compression system, including a foam layer to solve the comfort problem and a tight compression layer. After the two layers are coated together, they will lock each other to form thin and inelastic "trouser legs". Compared with the traditional four-layer system or zinc paste bandage, it is more convenient for doctors to apply and achieves an ideal balance between comfort and compression. At 3M, the instinct to find a better way to solve problems has become second nature. This time, the story begins with the giraffe-proving that nothing is unattainable in the innovative world. A flash of light in the laboratory
It is the most common thing that the whimsy in the laboratory becomes the final invention. Similarly, for 3M, the laboratory is also an important incubator for 3M's innovative technology.
One winter more than twenty years ago, in a basement in Quebec, Canada, a researcher of 3M Company was doing an experiment. Because he is located in the high latitude of the northern hemisphere, the sun hangs low on the horizon all day in winter, so he invented a glass conduit with a prism. After the oblique sunlight enters one end of the conduit, it will spread along the conduit wall, and the whole conduit will glow like a lamp tube, making the basement much brighter.
After that, 3M Company produced this kind of light tube by thin film technology, but for many years, the application of this kind of prism tube has been limited to the lighting or decoration of buildings, with only a small sales volume every year. In 1990s, with the popularity of notebook computers, liquid crystal display technology began to develop rapidly. Due to the unique characteristics and structure of liquid crystal panel, the utilization rate of light is very low. How to improve the brightness of LCD has always been a difficult problem for researchers.
An accidental whimsy made 3M scientists try to cut the prism tube and lay it flat on the LCD backlight. Something unexpected happened. Due to the condensing effect of the prism, this novel attempt method greatly improves the forward brightness of the LCD screen.
Previously, 3M scientists were inspired by the imagination that butterfly wings produce different spots due to the refraction and reflection of light by the physical structure of scales, and successfully invented 3M by using the most advanced computer simulation control system in polymer industry. Multilayer optical thin film technology can control light emission by changing the structure of the thin film. This multilayer film is composed of hundreds of nano-scale films, and the material properties of each layer are different. Through the optical interaction between the films, the function of reflecting light is finally achieved.
Therefore, scientists from 3M Company thought of combining these two unique discoveries into one. After a period of research and development, 3M combined with micro-replication technology and thin film technology to further optimize the condensing function of prism tube, thus making its brightness enhancement effect more remarkable, and named it BEF (Brightening Film).
In order to make customers accept this product better, 3M engineers bought two best laptops on the market at that time, and added two perpendicular brightness enhancement films on one of them. Under the action of this humble film, the brightness of the computer screen has more than doubled! When two computers were put in front of the manufacturers, they were quickly persuaded. From this day on, brightness enhancement film began its magical journey and was widely used in various LCD products, such as mobile phones, PDA, computer monitors, LCD TVs and so on. The manufacturers of these products are no longer troubled by the problem of how to save electricity and increase screen brightness. Pay attention to life and be meticulous.
Compared with the monotony of the laboratory, life is more like a magnificent and magical book. Inadvertent moments may also open the skylight of innovation and reflect the light of wisdom. The key is whether you are careful enough.
From 65438 to 0930, the scotch tape produced by 3M Company was widely used in thousands of homes and offices, becoming the first product directly related to the consumer market. However, it is very troublesome to peel off the thin transparent tape from the thick paper ring. Sometimes the front end of the tape is rolled up or stuck on the paper ring and can't be torn off, which is difficult to handle. The clerk who fixed the wrapping paper with scotch tape all day long had cramps in his hands because he tore the tape all day. A business manager of 3M noticed this problem, so he began to study the simple method of peeling the tape from the thick paper ring to make the use of transparent tape more convenient.
After repeated experiments, he finally invented a desktop tape cutter with a knife. Using this tape cutter, not only can the tape be cut to the required length, but also because it has a knife, you don't have to bother to find scissors or blades when using it.
With the invention of the tape cutter with serrated knife, the number of customers who love to use transparent tape is increasing day by day, bringing more customers to 3M. Imagine, without this combination, the market of scotch tape may be far from today's development momentum. More importantly, it is not the person in charge of R&D or product planning who thinks of and solves this problem, but the business manager who can play a creative role in facing the problem and try his best to solve it.
The invention and development of modern mobile communication devices have greatly facilitated people's work and life, and the desire to communicate anytime and anywhere is within reach, but behind these conveniences, there are hidden dangers of privacy leakage.
By chance, a careful 3M researcher found that blinds can present different scenes from different angles. Looking straight at the past, you can clearly see the scene outside the window. If you turn to an angle slightly, the scenery will be completely covered. He was very inspired and immediately began to develop ultra-fine shutter structure. Through the unremitting efforts and exploration of many scientific researchers in 3M Company, we have finally successfully developed an anti-peeping film for displays, which enables users to read the screen materials exclusively from the front 60-degree perspective, and anyone can only see the dark pictures on both sides, thus protecting business secrets and personal privacy and making the use of computers or mobile phones more free.
More importantly, this attitude of always paying attention to life and life is the source of 3M's unlimited creativity. For a century, it is this attitude of always looking at life with innovative eyes that has pushed 3M to innovate constantly and provide better products for consumers. Creativity comes from the needs of customers.
Not all 3M ideas come from the laboratory and careful observation of daily life. Sometimes, customers' complaints and demands are the beginning of another innovation journey.
In the early 1930s, two-color cars were very popular in America. At that time, the workers' practice was to cover a part of the car body with super adhesive tape and kraft paper before painting, and then tear off the adhesive tape when the paint was dry. However, this operation method has many disadvantages: when the adhesive tape is torn off, some new paint of the car body is often taken away, which not only increases the workload of workers, but also leads to the cost overrun of production. Dick Drew, a researcher at 3M Company, learned of the above situation by accident from a worker's complaint in an auto body repair shop in Sao Paulo. At that time, 3M only produced grinding products, but sensitive Dick found the strong demand of customers (garage) for a special adhesive tape. Therefore, he used his spare time to conduct in-depth and detailed research. After numerous attempts, he finally combined the manufacturing process of sandpaper backing with the gluing process, and developed a masking tape with moderate viscosity, simple operation and easy peeling.
After years of continuous improvement and perfection, 3M masking tape has formed a series of high-quality and all-round products, and has been successfully applied to automobile original manufacturers and parts suppliers, aircraft and other vehicle manufacturers, automobile maintenance masking paper factories, ships and other water transport manufacturers, printing and paper industry and various electronic and electrical appliance manufacturers. And this kind of masking tape has become one of the most important products of 3M in the next 60 years.
In the 1920s, Dick Drew became one of the most creative inventors in the history of 3M Company, but he was not satisfied with the status quo, nor did he ignore the ever-changing customer needs. When Dick Drew learned that a thermal insulation material factory in Sao Paulo needed 3 million pounds to help develop a waterproof material for thermal insulation cotton of railway refrigerated trucks, he began to work again. ...
Some researchers of 3M Company began to consider wrapping a waterproof glass cloth invented by DuPont outside the 3M masking tape, so Drew thought: Why not directly coat a layer of glue on the glass cloth as the waterproof seal of insulating cotton? 1929 In July, Drew tested the electrical conductivity of the glass cloth with a code of 100. He quickly developed a tape sample and sent it to the insulation company in Sao Paulo. Unfortunately, his new product can't fully meet the requirements of this special customer, but this sample clearly shows the superior performance of insulating packaging for other types of products. Drew continued to work hard. It took him more than a year to solve many material problems, and the last production process problem was in front of him: it was difficult to apply glue evenly on the glass cloth, and the glass cloth was easy to break when sugar was applied by machine. After repeated attempts, Drew found that if the primer was coated on the glass cloth, the adhesive could be coated evenly, and the problem of breakage was solved by using a special machine. Finally, Drew developed a colorless and odorless adhesive to improve the tape.
1September 8, 930, the first volume of Scotch(TM) glass cloth tape was delivered to the customer, and the customer gave a good feedback of 3M. "You don't hesitate to make yourself as perfect as possible. I believe that if this product is put on the market, there will be enough sales to prove the rationality of this R&D expenditure. " Practice has proved that customers' words are obviously conservative. Scotch(TM) glass cloth tape has become one of the most famous and widely used products in the history of 3M Company. Commercial enterprises are used for packaging; Farmers found that it can be used to repair the damage of turkey eggs; Home users use it to repair toys and shredded paper ... new uses are constantly being discovered, and sales have been increasing so far.
Satisfying customers' needs with excellent quality, value and service, and then exceeding their expectations, is one of the core values of 3M, which enables 3M to constantly break through itself and establish a solid customer relationship, thus making itself one of the most respected enterprises in the world [] 1. The wrong soil breeds the fruits of innovation.
The birth of a new product is often not achieved overnight. Many products are full of twists and turns from conception to birth. Is one of them. 1978, Spence Silver, a scientist from 3M, discovered a very unusual glue, which was not sticky enough to last for a long time and remained sticky after repeated use, but he didn't know how to use it in the product. Like many other new technologies, it is not a good technology if it cannot be used. Silver has been promoting this technology within the company, and 3M technicians have not given up hope for new product development.
1973 Art Fry, a researcher in charge of product development, heard about Silver's technology and was very interested. When he was in church, he saw that the choir would put a piece of paper as a bookmark in the Bible, but that piece of paper often slipped out of the book. This inspired Fry: Isn't this reusable non-stick water coated on paper suitable for this purpose? So, report the post? (Post-it notes? ) the idea of singing poetry in church came into being.
But many people are skeptical about the market of newspaper stickers. What kind of attraction can such a small piece of yellow paper have? Who would want to spend extra money to buy such a piece of paper glued together instead of the original bookmark? After the continuous efforts of the market and technical personnel, what was posted in the newspaper? Officially put into the market on 1980. Unexpectedly, this little yellow paper was a great success. Nowadays, products of various colors and shapes are constantly emerging. Every day, millions of people in Qian Qian use the newspaper stickers of 3M Company? And this small piece of paper, which was originally unremarkable, even became an office culture, from which all kinds of wonderful ideas were born.
Endless, unlimited creativity, over the past century, 3M's innovative technologies and products have touched people's hearts with details and decorated people's lives. Looking forward to the future, the inheritance of 3M's innovative culture will lead a group of 3M employees to make unremitting efforts to refresh history and light up their lives with a steady stream of innovative technologies and products. Cross-departmental communication promotes the birth of new markets.
1September, 1993, another technical exchange meeting of 3M Sao Paulo R&D Center began. Researchers privately call it the "Olympics". Because every scientist will make a display board on this day, give a speech on the stage and introduce his new research ideas and implementation methods. In 3M, only by attracting the attention of scientists from other fields can we turn a simple technology into the possibility of multi-field application, and only in this way can we have corresponding internal funds to sponsor this innovative project.
At the press conference, 3M scientist A told everyone that he found a material with a very high refractive index, which can adjust the reflectivity so that the ratio of light reflected by the material is 100% or below 80%. But he is not clear about the purpose of this invention, but experience tells him that it may bring about an innovation in the material industry. A from laser research department of process research department. This unexpected discovery has nothing to do with the project of his department. A's idea was echoed by Dr. B from the film development department, who was a product engineer of an explosion-proof film at that time. He has been thinking about what can make the glass explode without breaking into pieces and hurting the driver. When B learned A's idea, he immediately had an idea. Is it possible for this technology to block the heat of infrared rays while overlapping multiple films to prevent explosion?
This forced them to find Dr. C from another optical research department and ask him to do a computer simulation experiment in the laboratory to see if this material can help prevent the influence of infrared rays. The results of the experiment shocked three scientists. Because the test results show that the reaction of this substance completely violates the laws of optics. After repeated calculations, three 3M scientists decided to apply for two research funds from the company to make multilayer films in the form of physical research to verify whether there was a technological breakthrough.
From 65438 to 0997, small-scale production supported by the fund began. Three scientists have made products with different reflectivity and found that this product may be used in a wide range of fields. The top management of 3M Company was very happy with this discovery and set up a project team in a short time. This project team consists of employees from different countries, regions and institutions, including marketing department, R&D department and production department. The main responsibility of this small team is to turn new technologies into new business opportunities. How to do this is achieved through very strict steps.
Dr. Liu, the general manager of 3M China Center who participated in this project, still remembers the interesting market reaction at that time: the marketing staff of the optical department brought the technical samples to the lamp factory, and the customer told him that such technology might be used behind the electric lamp, so that perhaps the same wattage could bring brighter refraction effect. The automobile manufacturer told the marketing staff in the mechanical department that maybe we can use it on automobile glass, because it can prevent burning infrared rays, and in addition, it may achieve the effect of privacy. The most valuable suggestions came from LCD manufacturers, who were pleasantly surprised to find that the brightness of the same LCD screen can be doubled after using this technology on the back. Brightness has always been the key reason why LCD was defeated by transistor display, and this technology has made LCD have the potential for rapid development.
Finally, the marketers bring all the customers' ideas back to the lab. After examining the realization mode and production cost of each possible product, the marketer went back to the customer and asked how much the other party was willing to pay for the application of this new technology. Finally, everyone found that the application value on the LCD screen was the highest. With this technology, 3M finally developed Vikuiti brightness enhancement film for LCD screen. At present, this product is widely used in LCD screens of mobile phones, televisions and notebook computers all over the world, which not only makes the screen brighter and brighter, but also greatly saves energy consumption and makes the product design lighter and smaller. In 2005, 3M Optical Products Division began to evolve into a new business department with nearly 1,000 people.
"1993 to 2005 may not be a very short time, but it is indeed a very fast speed, from an idea to a huge business sector." Dr. Liu said. It took four or five years to develop the technology. Once the business opportunities were seen in the LCD market, the development speed of the whole business increased rapidly. "Another opportunity is the growing demand for LCD screens in the global market. If this invention was 20 years earlier, maybe this technology can only support a small business department now. "
Many products of 3M are integrated with the growing business and technical fields. In many fields, they are constantly differentiated by technological progress, far ahead of other enterprises. Some innovative products, such as video tapes, masking and transparent tapes, thermal insulation cotton (thin new Shirley, ultra-thin thermal insulation and waterproof materials) and surgical drapes, have changed the rules of the market game, not only created a brand-new industry, but also derived the whole product family. Inspired by the big butterfly
Inspired by the blue butterfly found in the rainforests of Central America and South America, after several years of research, 3M scientists officially launched the polar view series multilayer optical micro-composite building insulation film. It can make light magic on our membrane, just as light makes butterfly wings colorful!
Morpho butterfl is a large colorful butterfly, which lives in tropical areas of Central and South America and is famous for its striking rainbow blue wings.
According to New Scientist, physicists Peter Vukusic and Roy Sumble of the University of Exeter in England have been working together since 1997, and spent three years studying the structural characteristics of wings of butterflies and moths. They found that when the butterfly is observed from different angles, its iridescence will change dramatically. In fact, the bright blue wings of butterflies do not contain any pigment, and its color comes from the reflection of light, which is the so-called "structural color"-the color formed by repeated reflection of light inside the object. They found that butterfly wings are composed of several layers of scales only 3 to 4 microns thick, which overlap like tiny roof tiles, and the structure of each layer of scales is also very complicated. This orderly arrangement of butterfly wings forms a so-called photonic crystal, which can capture light and let only certain wavelengths of light pass through.
The research results of the two scientists quickly attracted the interest of the American 3M company, which aims at innovation. The researchers of 3M company developed polar view series multilayer optical micro-composite thermal insulation films for buildings. This kind of building film with excellent thermal insulation efficiency, good air permeability and landscape characteristics adopts cutting-edge nanotechnology and micro-replication technology, which realizes complete metallization-free and sets a new standard for the whole industry. Research and innovation in each field are a series of parallel lines, and there is no intersection between them. But when these parallel lines intersect at a certain point, they often collide with each other to form a breakthrough and outstanding innovation, which is the diversified innovation that 3M regards as life. When this intersection continues to expand outward and touches the terminals of various markets, this is the magical chain reaction of 3M. Tegaderm, the core product of 3M Medical Products Division? The invention of transparent dressing was inspired by the sense of touch.
During the period of 1978, Dr. Steve Heinecke, a product research scientist in the product R&D department of a medical enterprise, observed the intravenous infusion operation of nurses in the hospital and found that nurses used gauze and adhesive tape to fix the puncture site of intravenous indwelling needle in routine nursing. "When nursing the puncture site, the nurse must first tear off the adhesive tape fixing the catheter and then cover it with gauze," he said. "I think there should be a simpler solution."
Why not design a transparent adhesive film, which can not only help nurses observe the puncture site of intravenous infusion, but also play a role in protection and fixation?
Sure! Steve returned to the lab with this idea, combining the classic bonding and film technology of 3M company. After four years of research and development, 1982 3M? Tegaderm？ There are transparent dressings on the market. The concept of medical transparent dressing became popular in the hospital system in an instant. Transparent dressing quickly and completely changed the nursing method of venipuncture site. Today, ty Gaddum? Transparent dressings are widely used in more than 40 countries around the world.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "transparent and semi-permeable polyurethane dressings are often used to care for catheter puncture sites". Transparent dressing can reliably fix catheter and vascular access equipment; The puncture site can be continuously observed; Patients can take a bath; Compared with traditional gauze and adhesive tape methods, it can reduce the number of dressing changes; The nursing hours can be reduced. "At present, more and more countries and regions refer to this specification to guide their clinical practice. The story happened in 2004. At that time, the automobile beauty market in China was still in the stage of car washing and waxing. However, waxing can only achieve temporary light. In case of air oxidation, rain washing and even the simplest car washing, the thin protective layer will soon fail. How to better realize the permanent maintenance of automobile paint? As a leader in the automotive beauty industry, the technical engineers of the automotive aftermarket products department of 3M China took the lead in conducting higher-level product research.
At first, they introduced some new products of painting and beauty from Japan, which was the leading industry at that time. After research, they found that their characteristic is that they can form a hard protective layer on the surface of car paint, which can achieve relatively lasting protection and wear resistance, but it also brings some disadvantages. If it is damaged locally, the whole paint surface needs to be maintained again.
After repeated experiments with various materials, finally one day Irene Rao of 3M China technical team had an epiphany and protected the paint surface for a long time. There's no need to be hard. Why not try to think the other way around and make an elastic surface protective layer?
Proceeding from this idea, Irene became interested in the patented fluorine-containing material THV, which is unique to 3M Company, by going back to the huge patent and technical material library of 3M Company for search. After repeated communication with 3M's technical colleagues in Europe, Irene further found that one of THV's various brand materials can play a unique role in hydrophobic and oleophobic metallic paint, which can solve the problem that rain and sediment often wash our car paint surface, and the oil stain is difficult to remove, which affects the gloss of the paint surface.
With the help of European colleagues, Irene finally completed the design of a new formula, which was later called the 3M glaze seal set. Once introduced, 3M glaze bag quickly occupied the high-end market of automobile beauty industry and was warmly sought after by the majority of car owners.
3M's innovation does not stop there. THV has many applications in 3M, such as the impermeable layer of plastic optical fiber and automobile oil pipe, and the application of THV in solar panel back film products in new energy field. In recent years, 3M glaze products themselves have begun to further improve the formula. The innovation achievements of 3M have blossomed everywhere in many industries, making more contributions to technological innovation and product upgrading!