Industrial design trends: Using design patents of automotive body kits as an example
| Autor: | MENG TU PA YA, 蒙杜巴雅 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 105 When facing challenges in the mature stage, some Taiwanese companies in manufacture industry start to use brand and design to find a new position. The change makes that the industrial design could be a significant step to gain advantages. Industrial designers play a role to create innovations under specific conditions with certain restrictions. They produce creative form design of products in order to gain advantages in competitions. Among the industrial design, the design of aerodynamics body kits is one of the most innovative categories and is always challenged. They require high strength of product image forming ability and three-dimensional constructional concept to show the innovation of product design. Therefore, this study uses aerodynamic body kits (ABK) as an example to discuss the development of innovation in industrial design worldwide, further investigate capabilities and relative advantages of different nations in this field. We use proper nouns of ABK to establish a keyword set to search relevant patent data, such as bumper. From WEBPAT, we collect 1,866 U.S. patents covering a period between 1978 and 2016. We then apply main path analysis to find out the long-term development of the designs in ABK. We also use edge-betweenness cluster analysis to identify the different branches in the whole knowledge network of ABK design. We also provide the suggestion on design strategic by using the Design Patent Map analysis. The present study integrates external relationships and internal contents of patents to come up with a complete strategic allocation analysis The results show that ABK design patents have started from a French corporation, Renault, since 1978. In the 1980s, the Japanese corporation (e.g. Toyota and Honda), American corporations (e.g. Ford and GM), and Germany corporations (e.g. Daimler AG and BMW) gradually started to apply for design patents. So did car modification shops such as Lorinser and Lund in 1984. According to the development of main path, the trend for forms went from square-shape and simple form to multi-curved and flow line form. Also, there is no corporation leading the main stream of the design of aerodynamic body kits which means that every corporation has the same level of innovative ability. The result of edge-betweenness analysis includes five clusters, i.e. Rear bumper、Front bumper、Sqare grill、Hexagonal grill and Spoiler. JP firms are more ambious on using ABK design patens to add values on their cars rather than the firms Europe or US. Some firms with unique position in the market, e.g. Porsche, also play a dominant role in the field of spoiler design. This study further applies patent data analysis to explore the potential markets for firms and new entrant innovators via patent map analysis. It also helps firm to understand how to utilize innovation to build up new positions. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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