What do you observe when you see a giraffe? A tall, elegantly poised animal strolling lazily across the African savannah? Your favorite animal at the local zoo? What would you observe if you looked through a telescope made of 3M's culture of curiosity (insistence on taking risks and rejecting mediocrity)? You might see a new treatment for a serious condition of human suffering called venous ulcers of the lower extremities (a serious complication of uncontrolled high venous blood pressure due to damage to blood vessels, valves, or declining muscle function).
Patients with venous ulcers of the lower extremities are fortunate because such challenges stimulate the curiosity of 3M scientists and inspire creativity in solving problems. In this case, a 3M product developer in Germany recalled reading that giraffes never develop venous ulcers. He wondered why this was because giraffes have such long legs that the distance from the leg to the heart is twice that of humans, which requires higher venous blood pressure to maintain circulation, and so the blood vessels are put under more pressure.
It occurred to him that the giraffe's rough, inelastic skin acts as a compression bandage of sorts, maximizing the effect of each muscle movement to optimize blood return and prevent swelling and ulceration. Realizing this, the 3M team set out to find a material with the capabilities of giraffe skin. 3M's culture of curiosity sparks opportunities, and a culture of collaboration drives solutions. At 3M, the bond between people and technology creates endless possibilities for combining and applying different specialties, multiplying ideas and expanding solutions. After investigating a range of materials, successes and failures, a member of the 3M team suggested trying the material used in 3M?Coban? self-adhesive bandages - an elastic material used to wrap sprains and immobilize bandages. The bandage is based on one of 3M's core technologies, Nonwovens, and was introduced in the 1960s with a material originally developed by 3M for use in gift-wrapping ribbons. Today, the technology is used in thousands of products, from surgical masks to floor mopping wipes, all the way to insulation for thermal clothing.
The team returned to research and development to take the Coban? brand of material and improve it, designing the 3M? Coban? two-layer compression system, which contains a foam layer to address comfort concerns and a taut compression layer. When applied together, the two layers lock into each other to form a thin, inelastic "pant leg," making it easier for doctors to apply than traditional four-layer systems or zinc paste bandages, and providing an ideal balance between comfort and compression. At 3M, the instinct to find a better way to solve a problem has become second nature. This time, the story begins with a giraffe - proving that in the world of innovation, no problem is "too high" to solve. The lab is the most common place where ideas are transformed into final inventions, and for 3M, the lab is an important incubator for 3M's innovations.
One winter more than two decades ago, a 3M researcher was conducting experiments in a basement in Quebec, Canada. Because it is located in the northern hemisphere at high latitudes, the winter sun hangs low above the horizon, so he invented a prismatic glass catheter, oblique sunlight into the catheter at one end, it will be propagated along the wall of the catheter, the whole tube is like a lamp through the body of the light, so that the basement is suddenly much brighter.
After that, 3M used thin-film technology to produce the light conduit, but for many years the prismatic conduit's applications were limited to lighting or decorating buildings, with only a small amount of sales each year. In the 1990s, with the popularization of notebook computers, liquid crystal display technology began to develop rapidly. Due to the unique characteristics and structure of liquid crystal panels, the utilization of light is very low, and how to increase the brightness of liquid crystal displays has always been a problem for researchers.
An occasional whim led 3M scientists to try cutting this prismatic conduit and laying it flat on the LCD backlight. Something unexpected happened, due to the prism's role in concentrating light, this novel way to try to make the LCD display forward much brighter.
Previously, 3M scientists had been inspired by the butterfly wings due to the physical structure of the scales on the refraction of light, reflection of different spots imagined, the use of polymer industry on the most advanced computer simulation control system, successfully invented the 3M?Multilayer Optical Film (Multilayer Optical Film ) technology, through the change in the structure of the film to control the light of the Output of light by changing the structure of the film. This multilayer film consists of hundreds of nanometer-sized layers, each with different material properties. The optical interaction between the layers ultimately results in the reflection of light.
From this, 3M scientists came up with the idea of combining these two unique discoveries into one. After a period of research and development, 3M combined micro-replicating technology and thin film technology to further optimize the prismatic catheter's light-gathering function, resulting in an even more significant brightness enhancement effect, which was named BEF (Brightness Enhancement Film).
In order to allow customers to better accept this product, 3M engineers purchased two of the best laptop computers on the market at the time, one of them plus two prisms perpendicular to each other's direction of the Brightness Enhancement Film, in the layer of unassuming film under the action of the computer screen brightness than the original increased more than double! When these two computers were presented to their manufacturers, they were quickly convinced. From this day onwards, the brightening film began its magical journey, widely used in small cell phones, PDAs, large computer monitors, LCD TVs and other LCD products, and the manufacturers of these products are no longer how to both save power and can make the screen brightness increase this problem.
Compared with the monotony of the laboratory, life is more like a magnificent book, the moment of inadvertence may also open the window of innovation, reflecting the light of wisdom, the key lies in whether you are meticulous enough.
In 1930, 3M produced transparent tape that was widely used in tens of thousands of homes and offices, making it the company's first product to have a direct relationship with the consumer market. But the thin, clear tape was a pain to peel off from thick paper loops. Sometimes the front of the tape rolls up or sticks to the paper loop and is difficult to remove. Store clerks who used clear tape to secure wrapping paper all day long even experienced hand cramps from tearing the tape all day long. a 3M business manager noticed this problem and began researching easy ways to peel the tape off of thick paper loops, thus making the use of clear tape more convenient.
After repeated experiments, he eventually invented a desktop tape cutter with a knife. With this tape cutter, not only can the tape be cut at the desired length, but because of the knife, there is no need to bother looking for scissors or a razor blade when using it.
With the invention of the tape cutter with a serrated knife, the number of customers who loved to use clear tape increased day by day, bringing more customers to 3M. Imagine if there is no such a combination, the market for transparent tape may be far less than today's momentum, and more importantly, think and solve the problem is not responsible for research and development or product planning, but a face of the problem can play a creative, hard to try to solve the business manager.
The invention and development of modern mobile communication devices has greatly facilitated people's work and life, and the desire to communicate anytime, anywhere is readily available, but behind these conveniences, there is also the hidden danger of privacy leakage.
One chance opportunity, a careful 3M researcher found that the shutters can present different scenes in different viewpoints. When you look directly at them, you can clearly see the outside of the window, and if you turn them slightly sideways, the view is completely obscured. He was very inspired and immediately started to develop the ultra-fine blinds structure. Through the tireless efforts of many 3M researchers and exploration, finally succeeded in the development of the display of anti-peep piece, so that the screen information exclusively for users from the front of the 60-degree angle of view, anyone on both sides can only see the black screen, thus protecting the business secrets and personal privacy, so that computers or cell phones and other use of a more free and easy.
More importantly, this attitude of always paying attention to life and keeping an eye on it is the source of 3M's endless creativity. Over the past century, it is this attitude of always measuring life with innovative eyes that has pushed 3M to continue to push forward and provide consumers with more quality products. Ideas come from customer needs
Not all of 3M's ideas come from laboratories and careful observation of everyday life. Sometimes, a customer's complaint or request is the beginning of another journey of innovation.
Two-tone-bodied cars were popular in the United States in the early 1930s. At that time, the workers' practice was to paint the body before the use of strong tape and kraft paper to cover part of the body, to be dry after the paint and then tear off the "tape", but this way of operation has many shortcomings: in the tearing off of the "tape" at the same time will often take off the body of a part of the new paint, resulting in both the customer complaints and requests. But this way of operation has a lot of disadvantages: in tearing off the "tape" at the same time will often bring part of the body of the new paint, the result is not only increase the workload of workers, but also lead to the production cost overruns. 3M a scientific research staff Dick Drew from the city of Sao Paulo, an auto body shop workers complained about the accidentally learned of the above situation. At that time, 3M still only produces abrasive products, but the sensitive Dick but thus found that the customer (car body shop) for a special tape strong demand. So he used his spare time to carry out in-depth research, after numerous attempts to finally use the sandpaper backing base of the production process and the glue coating process, successfully developed a moderate viscosity, easy to operate, easy to peel off the masking tape.
After years of continuous improvement and refinement, 3M Masking Tape has formed a high-quality all-round series of products, and successfully applied to the original car factory and parts suppliers, aircraft and other transportation manufacturers, automotive maintenance masking plant, boats and other watercraft manufacturers, printing and paper industry, as well as various types of electronic and electrical production plants. This masking tape has become one of the most important products of 3M in the next 60 years.
By the 1920s, Dick Drew had become one of the most innovative inventors in 3M's history, but he wasn't resting on his laurels and didn't ignore changing customer needs. When he learned that a St. Paul insulation plant needed 3M's help in developing a waterproofing design for insulation foam on railroad refrigerated cars, Dick Drew went back to work ......
Some of 3M's researchers began to consider wrapping a layer of waterproofing invented by DuPont around 3M masking tape, and Drew came up with the idea for a waterproof glass cloth. In July 1929, Drew used 100 yards of glass cloth as a conductive test, and he quickly developed a sample tape and sent it to the insulation company in St. Paul. Unfortunately, his new product did not adequately address this particular customer's requirements, but the sample clearly demonstrated the superior performance of insulating packaging for other types of products. After trial and error, Drew realized that if a primer was applied to the glass cloth, the adhesive could be applied evenly, and the problem of breakage was solved with the use of a special machine. Eventually, Drew developed a colorless, odorless adhesive that improved the tape.
On September 8, 1930, the first roll of Scotch(TM) Glass Cloth Tape was delivered to a customer, who gave feedback by praising 3M: "You have not hesitated to make yourselves as perfect as possible. I am sure that if this product is brought to market, there will be enough sales to justify the R&D expenditure". The customer's words clearly proved to be conservative, and Scotch(TM) Glass Cloth Tape became one of the best-known and most widely used products in 3M's history. Commercial businesses used it for encapsulation; farmers found it could be used to mend broken turkey eggs; home users used him to mend toys and torn paper ...... New uses were constantly being discovered, and sales have continued to rise to this day.
Meeting customers' needs and then exceeding their expectations with superior quality, value, and service is one of 3M's core values, a value that has allowed 3M to break new ground, build strong customer relationships, and make itself one of the world's most respected corporations []1 . The soil of mistakes breeds the fruit of innovation
The birth of a new product is often not overnight, many products from the conception to the birth of a wave of twists and turns, 3M's newspaper sticker is one of the examples. Is one of the examples. 1978, 3M scientists Spence Silver found a very different kind of adhesive, viscous, can keep a long time, repeated use can also maintain viscous, but do not know how to use it to the product. Like many other new technologies, if you can't find a use for it, you can't count it as good technology. Silver continued to publicize the technology within the company, and 3M's technical staff didn't give up hope for new product development.
In 1973, Art Fry, a researcher in charge of product development, heard about Silver's technology and was very interested. During a church service, he saw that the choir would put a piece of paper in their Bibles as a bookmark, but the paper would often slip out of the book. This inspired Fry: Wouldn't a reusable, less sticky adhesive on a piece of paper be perfect for this purpose? So Post-it? (Post-it?) was born in the church choir.
But many people were skeptical about the market for the Post-it. What kind of appeal would a little yellow piece of paper have? Who would be willing to pay extra for such a piece of paper with adhesive to replace the original bookmark? After the market and technicians continue to work, the newspaper sticker? was formally introduced to the market in 1980, and unexpectedly, this small yellow paper piece achieved great success. Today, a variety of colors and shapes of products continue to emerge, every day millions of people around the world to use 3M's newspaper stickers?
In the past one hundred years, 3M's innovative technologies and products have touched people's hearts and decorated their lives with details. Looking to the future, the legacy of 3M's innovation culture will lead one group of 3M employees after another to work tirelessly to refresh history and brighten lives with a steady stream of innovative technologies and products. Cross-departmental communication promotes the birth of new markets
In September 1993, another technology exchange conference began at 3M's R&D center in Sao Paulo. The R&D staff privately referred to it as the "Olympic Games". Because every scientist on this day to create a display board, on stage, to introduce their new research ideas and implementation. At 3M, only by attracting the attention of scientists from other fields can a simple technology be turned into a possible multi-disciplinary application, and only then will the corresponding internal funds be able to sponsor the innovative project.
3M Scientist A told the conference that he had discovered a material with a very high refractive index, which could modulate the reflection ratio so that the material reflected light at 100% or 80% or a smaller ratio. But he was not sure what use the invention would have, but experience told him that perhaps it would lead to a revolution in the world of materials. a from the laser research division of the process research department, this unexpected discovery has nothing to do with his department's projects. a's idea was echoed by Dr. B of the film development department, B at that time is a kind of explosion-proof film product engineer. He had been thinking about what would make glass explode without shattering into pieces and injuring the driver, and when he learned about A's idea, B had an immediate thought about whether it would be possible to make the technology block infrared heat while multiple films overlapped to prevent an explosion.
That led them to Dr. C, a Ph.D. in another optics research department, who was asked to do a computer simulation in his research lab to see if the material would help protect against infrared light. And the results of the test gave the three scientists a big shock. The results showed that the material reacted in a way that violated the laws of optics. Repeated calculations were still unable to resolve the situation, the three 3M scientists decided to apply for two research grants from the company to create a multilayer film in the form of physical research to verify whether there is a technological breakthrough.
In 1997, small-scale production began under the auspices of the funds, and the three scientists produced products with different reflectance and found that the product could be used in a wide range of applications. 3M executives were delighted with the discovery, and a project team was formed in a very short period of time. The project team consisted of employees from various countries, regions, and business units, including marketing, R&D, production, and so on. This small team was given the key responsibility of turning new technologies into new business opportunities. How this is done is reached by very strict steps.
Dr. Liu Yaoqi, general manager of 3M's China R&D center, who was involved in the project, still remembers an interesting market reaction: A marketer from the optics department brought a sample of the technology to a lamp factory, and the customer told him that it might be possible to use the technology on the back of an electric lamp so that perhaps the same wattage could be used to bring about brighter refractive effects. And the automobile manufacturer said to the marketer in the mechanical department, "Maybe we can use it on automobile glass, because it can prevent burning infrared rays, and in addition, maybe it can achieve the effect of privacy and confidentiality. The most economically rewarding suggestion came from LCD manufacturers, who were surprised to find that the same LCD screen could be doubled in brightness by using the technology on the back. Brightness has always been a key reason why LCDs have been beaten up by transistorized displays, and this technology gives them the potential to grow by leaps and bounds.
Eventually, marketers took the ideas of customers on all sides back to the lab. After assessing how each possible application was realized and how much it would cost to produce, the marketers went back to the customers to ask how much they would be willing to pay for the application of this new technology. In the end, it was found that the application of the highest value in the LCD screen. 3M eventually used this technology to develop the application of the LCD screen Vikuiti brightness enhancement film, this product is now widely used in the world's cell phones, televisions, laptops, LCD screens, not only to make the picture brighter, more vibrant colors, but also greatly saves energy, so that the product design can be more thin and light, compact. And the 3M Optical Products Division began to evolve into a new business unit of nearly 1,000 people in 2005,
"1993 to 2005 may not have been a very short period of time, but it was really a very fast pace to go from a germ of an idea to a huge business unit." Dr. Liu Yaoqi said. It took four or five years to develop the technology, and once the business opportunity was seen in the LCD market, the whole business got a rapid boost. "Another opportunity was the growth in demand for LCD screens in the global market, and if this invention had been 20 years earlier, perhaps the technology would only be supporting a small business unit now."
Many of 3M's products are a combination of growing business and technology sectors, and in many areas it continues to be far ahead of other companies through technological advances to achieve product differentiation, with some of its innovations such as video tapes, masking and transparent tapes, thermal insulation foam (Thinsulate New Cheryl, an ultra-thin, insulating and waterproofing material), and surgical dustless covers (surgicaldrape). All of these products are game changers in the marketplace, creating not only brand new industries, but also entire families of products that have ensured that 3M has gained new markets and a first-class brand []1 . Inspired by the Large Flashback Butterfly
Inspired by the blue large flashback butterfly found in the rainforests of Central and South America, 3M scientists officially launched the Polar View series of multi-layer optical micro-composite architectural insulation films after several years of research. It allows light to play tricks on our film, just as light makes butterfly wings glow!
The Morpho butterflies are large colorful butterflies that live in the tropics of Central and South America and are famous for their remarkable iridescent blue wings.
Physicists Peter Vukusic and Roy Sambles of the University of Exeter, England, began working together in 1997 and spent three years studying the construction characteristics of butterfly and moth wings, according to the British weekly magazine New Scientist. They discovered that the iridescence of the Greater Flash butterfly changes in stunning ways when viewed from different angles. In fact, the bright blue wings of the butterfly do not contain any pigment, but its color comes from the reflection of light, the so-called "structural color" - the color formed by light reflecting many times inside an object. They found that butterfly wings are made up of layers of scales only 3 to 4 micrometers thick, which overlap like tiny roof tiles, and that the structure of each scale is complex. This well-organized arrangement of the butterfly's wings forms what are known as photonic crystals, which trap light and allow only certain wavelengths of light to pass through.
The results of the two scientists' research soon aroused the interest of the U.S. company 3M, which aims to innovate, and 3M's researchers thus developed a series of multi-layer optical micro-composite architectural insulation films. This has excellent thermal insulation performance and good permeability, landscape nature of the building film, the use of cutting-edge nanotechnology and micro-replication technology, to achieve a completely metal-free, for the entire industry has set a new standard. Research and innovation in each field is a series of parallel extended lines that do not intersect with each other, but when this series of parallel lines crosses at a certain point, they often collide to form a breakthrough and outstanding innovation, which is the diversified innovation that 3M treats as if it were its life. When this intersection continues to expand outward, reaching the end of each market, this is 3M's magical chain reaction. 3M's Medical Products Division's core product - Tegaderm - the invention of transparent dressings is from the touch of inspiration.
In 1978, Dr. Steve Heinecke, a product development scientist in the Medical Business Product Development Division, was observing nurses administering intravenous fluids in a hospital when he noticed that the nurses were routinely using gauze and tape to secure the puncture site of an IV needle. "Nurses had to remove the tape to hold the catheter in place and then cover it with gauze when they were caring for the puncture site," he said. "I thought there was a simpler way to do this."
Why not design a transparent, adhesive film that would help nurses visualize the IV puncture site and protect it at the same time?
Of course! Steve went back to the lab with this idea, combining 3M's classic adhesive and film technologies, and after four years of research and development, the 3M Tegaderm? transparent dressing was launched in 1982. The concept of medical transparent dressings became instantly popular, and Tegaderm? transparent dressings quickly revolutionized IV puncture site care in the hospital system. Today, Tegaderm? transparent dressings are used in more than 140 countries worldwide.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's CDC Guidelines for the Prevention of Vascular Catheter-Associated Infections state: "Transparent, semi-permeable, polyurethane dressings are commonly used for catheterization site care. Transparent dressings provide reliable fixation of catheters and vascular access devices; continuous visualization of the puncture site; patient bathing; fewer dressing changes than the traditional method of gauze and tape; and fewer nursing hours." More and more countries and regions are now adopting this standard to guide their clinical practice. The story happened in 2004, when China's auto beauty market was still stuck in the stage of washing and waxing, however, waxing can only achieve a momentary shine, encountering air oxidation, rain wash or even the simplest car wash, a thin layer of protective layer, soon does not work. How to better realize the long-lasting care of the car paint surface? As a leader in the automotive beauty industry, the technical engineers of 3M China's Automotive Aftermarket Products Division took the lead in researching higher-order products.
They first introduced some new products from Japan, which was the industry leader at the time, and found that their characteristics could form a hard protective layer on the surface of the paint to achieve relatively long-lasting protection and abrasion resistance, but they also brought some drawbacks, such as the need to re-maintain the entire paint surface if it was partially damaged.
After repeated experiments with a variety of materials, one day Irene Rao of 3M China's technical team had a flash of insight that durable protection of the paint surface doesn't necessarily have to be hard, so why not try to think in reverse and make an elastic surface protection layer?
From this idea, Irene went back to 3M's huge library of patents and technical materials to search for THV, a patented fluorine-containing material that is unique to 3M, and became very interested in it. After repeated communication with 3M's European technical colleagues, Irene further discovered that among the various grades of THV, there is one that can play a unique role in hydrophobicity for metal paints, which can solve the problem of rainwater and mud washing away, staining oil and dirt that are difficult to be removed, and affecting the luster of paints that are often encountered in our automobile paints.
With the help of her European colleagues, Irene finalized the design of the new formula, which became known as the 3M Sealer Kit.
The 3M Sealer Kit, once launched, quickly captured the high-end market of the automotive beauty industry, and has been warmly received by the vast number of car owners.
3M's innovation does not stop here, THV in 3M there are many applications, such as plastic fiber optics and automotive fuel line anti-penetration layer, in the field of new energy will be used in the THV solar panels protective film (back sheet film) products and so on. 3M glaze products itself in recent years also began to further improve the formula. 3M innovation has blossomed in a number of industries, for technological innovation, product upgrading to make more contributions!