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Dr. Lorenzo Fiorineschi
University of Florence

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Conceptual Design
0 Engineering Design
0 Prototyping
0 Mechanical design
0 Design Creativity

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Conceptual Design
Engineering Design
Prototyping

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Short Biography

Lorenzo Fiorineschi currently works at the Department of Industrial Engineering , University of Florence. Lorenzo does research in Industrial Engineering, and teaches conceptual design methods to engineering students. His main research arguments are Design Methods and Creativity. Additionally, he works as professional consultant to support firms in creative problem-solving tasks related to mechanical engineering. He is co-author of one of the most acknowledged Italian technical handbooks.

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Profile ImageAlexander L. Clarke Department of Anaesthesia Ro...
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Profile ImageNiccolò Becattini Universidad Tecnica Federico...
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Profile ImageMonica Carfagni Università di Firenze, Fir...
Profile ImageLapo Governi Dipartimento di Ingegneria I...
Profile ImageRocco Furferi Department of Industrial Tec...
Profile ImageFederico Nati Dipartimento di Fisica, Univ...
Profile ImageFrancesco Piacentini Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapi...
Profile ImagePaolo de Bernardis Istituto di Fisica dell'Univ...
Profile ImageFrancesco Frillici Department of Industrial Eng...
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Earlycite article
Published: 30 July 2021 in World Journal of Engineering
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative solution for press-fit technology processes, which could improve the precision of the positioning movements and the stiffness of the structural elements. Design/methodology/approach A concept is presented and the related kinematics is described. Then, preliminary embodiment evaluations have been performed in terms of kinematics, force control and load distribution on the main structural elements. Findings Thanks to the additional leg, the proposed solution allows a preload that is capable of compensating the backlash of joints. The particular structure with four extendible legs and eight cardan joints ensures the parallelism between the ground and the plate holding the end effector, without any need of additional controls. However, it implies that the legs are not subjected to pure tension–compression stresses. Research limitations/implications This work is focused on the conceptual phase of the design process, with only preliminary embodiment analysis that paves the way for subsequent and more detailed design steps. Especially concerning the actual stiffness of the system, comprehensive evaluations could be performed only after the identification of the particular parts/devices used to implement the main functional elements. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research work that comprehensively describes and analyzes the considered kinematics, within a real industrial application context.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Luca Pugi; Federico Rotini. New mechanism for press-fit processes: preliminary analysis. World Journal of Engineering 2021, ahead-of-p, 1 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Luca Pugi, Federico Rotini. New mechanism for press-fit processes: preliminary analysis. World Journal of Engineering. 2021; ahead-of-p (ahead-of-p):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Luca Pugi; Federico Rotini. 2021. "New mechanism for press-fit processes: preliminary analysis." World Journal of Engineering ahead-of-p, no. ahead-of-p: 1.

Preprint content
Published: 16 July 2021
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ACS Style

Simone Cubeda; Tommaso Bacci; Lorenzo Mazzei; Simone Salvadori; Bruno Facchini; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Yary Volpe. Design of a Non-Reactive Warm Rig With Real Lean-Premix Combustor Swirlers and Film-Cooled First Stage Nozzles. 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Simone Cubeda, Tommaso Bacci, Lorenzo Mazzei, Simone Salvadori, Bruno Facchini, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Yary Volpe. Design of a Non-Reactive Warm Rig With Real Lean-Premix Combustor Swirlers and Film-Cooled First Stage Nozzles. . 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Simone Cubeda; Tommaso Bacci; Lorenzo Mazzei; Simone Salvadori; Bruno Facchini; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Yary Volpe. 2021. "Design of a Non-Reactive Warm Rig With Real Lean-Premix Combustor Swirlers and Film-Cooled First Stage Nozzles." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 13 July 2021 in Applied Sciences
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The System Operator (SO), also known as Nine Boxes or Multiscreen, is classically used for analysing the undesired situation according to different perspectives. However, its logic can be suitably exploited also for other kinds of tasks. In such a context, this paper shows an alternative application of the SO. In particular, the new proposed SO approach allows us to formulate alternative problems, i.e., different from the central one, although referring to the same problem-solving task. By applying the proposed procedure to a real case study, this paper shows that the tool can be used for problem analysis and formulation purposes, aimed at better clarifying the problem-solving task. The case study concerns a preliminary set of experiments performed to evaluate the possibility of obtaining angular shapes by bending tiles made by a specific compostable composite material. The suggestions obtained using the proposed SO approach allowed us to find potentially valid solutions, thus paving the way for further validation tests. In particular, tests are still needed to validate the actual potentialities of the proposed SO. Additionally, further and more comprehensive tests are required to validate the solutions inferred in this study concerning the compostable tiles.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Frillici; Federico Rotini; Leonardo Conti; Giuseppe Rossi. Adapted Use of the TRIZ System Operator. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 6476 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Frillici, Federico Rotini, Leonardo Conti, Giuseppe Rossi. Adapted Use of the TRIZ System Operator. Applied Sciences. 2021; 11 (14):6476.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Frillici; Federico Rotini; Leonardo Conti; Giuseppe Rossi. 2021. "Adapted Use of the TRIZ System Operator." Applied Sciences 11, no. 14: 6476.

Research article
Published: 04 June 2021 in Design Science
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Although TRIZ is widely acknowledged as a powerful aid to improve efficacy and efficiency of the creative design process, practitioners diffusedly experience difficulties in the selection of the most suitable tool. Such an issue represents a severe limitation in consideration of the large number of tools TRIZ offers. Here, Inventive Principles (IPs) are acknowledged as the most popular TRIZ technique, and their conjointly use with the Contradiction Matrix makes the selection of the appropriate IP a sufficiently supported task. However, the reliability of the Contradiction Matrix is often questioned and an agreement on a solid and reliable procedure for the selection of IPs is far from being reached. In such a context, the paper investigates the recurrence of IPs to solve contradictions, with reference to a classification framework that takes into consideration the nature of the problem to be solved and the technical-scientific domain it belongs to. The outcomes of the analysis reveal that leveraged IPs are considerably related with the technical-scientific domain and the nature of the problem to be solved. The found relationships are worth delving into and translating into selection guidelines.

ACS Style

Yuri Borgianni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. The process for individuating TRIZ Inventive Principles: deterministic, stochastic or domain-oriented? Design Science 2021, 7, 1 .

AMA Style

Yuri Borgianni, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Federico Rotini. The process for individuating TRIZ Inventive Principles: deterministic, stochastic or domain-oriented? Design Science. 2021; 7 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yuri Borgianni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. 2021. "The process for individuating TRIZ Inventive Principles: deterministic, stochastic or domain-oriented?" Design Science 7, no. : 1.

Research article
Published: 20 May 2021 in Journal of Engineering Design
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In the field of design, novelty is widely acknowledged as a key parameter for creativity assessments. Accordingly, scholars have proposed several definitions, metrics and procedures to assess novelty for different purposes. Although the availability of many alternatives allows researchers to perform in-depth investigations, it makes the orientation among the available combinations of novelty concepts, types and metrics quite hard. In such a manifold context, the aim of this work is to map the literature about novelty assessment in engineering design. To this purpose, a systematic literature review has been performed on the Scopus database to identify a relevant set of contributions through specific search strategies and skimming processes. A map of novelty metrics has been obtained, which shows that most of them belong to the uncommonness type, while others need further investigations. The obtained results are intended to support scholars in browsing the different metrics, when selecting the most suited for their specific research objectives.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. Novelty metrics in engineering design. Journal of Engineering Design 2021, 1 -31.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Federico Rotini. Novelty metrics in engineering design. Journal of Engineering Design. 2021; ():1-31.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. 2021. "Novelty metrics in engineering design." Journal of Engineering Design , no. : 1-31.

Journal article
Published: 18 March 2021 in Journal of Agricultural Engineering
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Plant nurseries usually control weed growth with N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine treatment. Some studies have suggested potential impacts of this treatment on both the environment and users. A possible ecological alternative is the use of ground wood particles for mulching. However, the production of the required wood particles for use in potted plants is challenging. In this article, the classical chipping and sieving process is compared with a new proposed process involving chipping and refining phases. The two processes were applied to wood logs (spruce) from the forests of the Tosco-Emiliano Apennine. The tests were performed over a week using the machinery available at the Mo.To.R.E. (Montagna Toscana Ricerca Energie) consortium. Although the results achieved were based on preliminary evaluations, they indicated the potential superiority of the new process in terms of both economic and ecological efficiency. These findings can pave the way to the development of optimized processes aimed at a significant reduction in the use of chemical herbicides for weed control.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini; Giuseppe Rossi; Leonardo Conti. Innovative process and technology for the production of wood mulch. Journal of Agricultural Engineering 2021, 52, 1 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Federico Rotini, Giuseppe Rossi, Leonardo Conti. Innovative process and technology for the production of wood mulch. Journal of Agricultural Engineering. 2021; 52 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini; Giuseppe Rossi; Leonardo Conti. 2021. "Innovative process and technology for the production of wood mulch." Journal of Agricultural Engineering 52, no. 1: 1.

Journal article
Published: 13 October 2020 in Journal of Agricultural Engineering
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Packaging waste is cause for serious concern. Each year hundreds of millions of tons of packaging are produced, therefore solutions that drastically reduce their environmental impact are urgently needed. While the recycling of metal, wood, paper and cardboard packaging has been significantly improved, an efficient recycling or disposal of some plastics is not yet feasible. The European Union implemented various regulations concerning packaging and packaging waste and set some relevant short to medium-term targets for recycling and disposal rates. Over the last decade, the global trend of the eco-sustainable packaging market is heading in the same direction. The aim of this research is to develop an innovative and sustainable composite material for the production of tertiary packaging based on the combination of natural fibres and biodegradable biopolymers. In particular, the experimental application entailed the creation of prototypes consisting of a material made of straw and biodegradable plastic Mater-Bi® which is named NeoPalea. The new material was prototyped to verify its physical characteristics and to determine its potential use to replace current not-biodegradable packaging. The results show a good match with the characteristics of current polymers, suggesting that this material can be used as a potential substitute in packaging applications.

ACS Style

Giuseppe Rossi; Leonardo Conti; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Massimiliano Marvasi; Massimo Monti; Federico Rotini; Marco Togni; Matteo Barbari. A new eco-friendly packaging material made of straw and bioplastic. Journal of Agricultural Engineering 2020, 51, 185 -191.

AMA Style

Giuseppe Rossi, Leonardo Conti, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Massimiliano Marvasi, Massimo Monti, Federico Rotini, Marco Togni, Matteo Barbari. A new eco-friendly packaging material made of straw and bioplastic. Journal of Agricultural Engineering. 2020; 51 (4):185-191.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giuseppe Rossi; Leonardo Conti; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Massimiliano Marvasi; Massimo Monti; Federico Rotini; Marco Togni; Matteo Barbari. 2020. "A new eco-friendly packaging material made of straw and bioplastic." Journal of Agricultural Engineering 51, no. 4: 185-191.

Original paper
Published: 12 September 2020 in International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM)
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Planning prototyping strategies for conceptual design purposes is a crucial activity, which needs a clear understanding of the potentialities of the different typologies of prototype. Therefore, to prepare future designers, it is very important to provide the required information in design-related academic courses. However, prototypes and prototyping activities are often taught in specific courses with a major emphasis on the underpinning technologies, but with limited attention on design implications, especially about the fuzzy-front-end of the design process. The work presented in this paper aims at investigating about how students perceive the usefulness of prototypes during conceptual design activities, in order to provide first indications about the gap to be filled. To this purpose, two classes of students participated to an experimental session, and were asked to perform a conceptual design task individually. Subsequently, they participated to an on-line survey developed to gather information about the perceived usefulness of prototypes, in relation to the performed conceptual design activity. Several findings have been obtained from this work, but maybe the most impacting one concerns the different consideration that the two samples of students had about the fidelity of prototypes. Indeed, differently from what recently highlighted in current literature, it emerged that engineering students preferred low-fidelity prototypes. However, other unexpected evidences have been found, which highlight that at least for the considered institution, students still lack a comprehensive understanding of the design-related potentialities of prototypes.

ACS Style

Monica Carfagni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Rocco Furferi; Lapo Governi; Federico Rotini. Usefulness of prototypes in conceptual design: students’ view. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM) 2020, 14, 1305 -1319.

AMA Style

Monica Carfagni, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Rocco Furferi, Lapo Governi, Federico Rotini. Usefulness of prototypes in conceptual design: students’ view. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM). 2020; 14 (4):1305-1319.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Monica Carfagni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Rocco Furferi; Lapo Governi; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Usefulness of prototypes in conceptual design: students’ view." International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM) 14, no. 4: 1305-1319.

Research article
Published: 24 August 2020 in International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation
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The novelty metric suggested by Shah and colleagues is one of the most widespread among the suggestions made by scholars, and it is based on the subjective identification of attributes and/or functions underpinning analyzed ideas. If not correctly managed, this subjectivity can lead to non-negligible ambiguity of assessments, which could potentially invalidate the research results. Several variants to this metric have been proposed in the last two decades, with some of them claiming to have improved the original metric. However, the related benefits and drawbacks are still unclear, especially in terms of subjectivity. The aim of this study is to estimate the potential misalignment between research teams that independently perform the assessment of the same set of ideas. To this purpose, the considered metrics have been applied to a set of 100 ideas by utilizing the assessment results from three independent evaluators. It was revealed that the obtained novelty scores can be extremely different owing to the plethora of different possible interpretations of the analyzed ideas. Accordingly, the results highlight that for the same set of ideas, very different novelty assessment rationales can be followed by the evaluators.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. Subjectivity of novelty metrics based on idea decomposition. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 2020, 8, 223 -239.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Federico Rotini. Subjectivity of novelty metrics based on idea decomposition. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. 2020; 8 (4):223-239.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Subjectivity of novelty metrics based on idea decomposition." International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 8, no. 4: 223-239.

Journal article
Published: 18 July 2020 in Applied Sciences
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The high concentration and rapid increase in lung diseases caused by COVID-19 has suddenly led medical staff to face a lack of ventilators in emergency situations. In this context, many enthusiasts and/or designers all over the world have started to think about low cost and open-source solutions for emergency ventilators, with the aim of providing concrete aid. In a small amount of time, many different solutions have been proposed, most of which are based on the automatic compression of the auxiliary manual breathing unit (AMBU) bag. In particular, many different designs have been conceived for the AMBU compression mechanism, which contains the most critical parts to be designed. Here arises the aim of this work, i.e., to propose a methodological approach to support the creativity of designers involved in inventing increasingly sustainable and reliable low-cost compression mechanisms for AMBU-based ventilators. Accordingly, a conceptual framework is proposed, capable of collecting existing ideas and organizing the underpinning concepts, to provide stimuli for new idea generation and to keep track of (and possibly to share) the explored design space. Illustrative examples are provided in order to show how the proposal can be used in practice. In particular, a set of currently available solutions is schematically shown through the proposed graphical tools, and the generation of new illustrative solutions is presented. Additionally, it is shown how to represent further ideas (e.g., those coming from other teams) in the framework.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. Challenging COVID-19 with Creativity: Supporting Design Space Exploration for Emergency Ventilators. Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 4955 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Federico Rotini. Challenging COVID-19 with Creativity: Supporting Design Space Exploration for Emergency Ventilators. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (14):4955.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Challenging COVID-19 with Creativity: Supporting Design Space Exploration for Emergency Ventilators." Applied Sciences 10, no. 14: 4955.

Articles
Published: 20 May 2020 in International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation
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Idea generation is acknowledged to benefit from intentionally administered stimuli or designers’ processes that include the search for external sources of inspiration. Text-based and graphic forms of stimuli are the most leveraged in design literature, but it has not been yet demonstrated which form is most effective for boosting creativity. This is due to the fact that previous studies have employed many varying conditions which do not allow for comparisons to be made. The present paper presents an experiment in which three groups of 27 participants were asked to generate new ideas for new-borns’ outfits. To perform the task, the participants first considered five stimuli presented to them in one of the forms depending on which group the participants had been assigned to, i.e. textual, pictorial or combined (juxtaposition of the two). The stimuli were intended to share the semantic content, thus limiting potential bias due to different meanings. The outcomes of the experiment were evaluated in terms of creativity and non-obviousness. The presence of a pictorial dimension resulted in a significant increase in terms of rarity and non-obviousness of ideas, but did not affect quality, originality or quantity. The limited overlap among ideas emerging from the three forms suggests the potential value of developing design tools for idea generation that mix multiple forms of stimuli.

ACS Style

Yuri Borgianni; Lorenzo Maccioni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. Forms of stimuli and their effects on idea generation in terms of creativity metrics and non-obviousness. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 2020, 8, 147 -164.

AMA Style

Yuri Borgianni, Lorenzo Maccioni, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Federico Rotini. Forms of stimuli and their effects on idea generation in terms of creativity metrics and non-obviousness. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. 2020; 8 (3):147-164.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yuri Borgianni; Lorenzo Maccioni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Forms of stimuli and their effects on idea generation in terms of creativity metrics and non-obviousness." International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation 8, no. 3: 147-164.

Journal article
Published: 11 May 2020 in Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science
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ACS Style

Gaetano Cascini; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. Impact of Design Representations on Creativity of Design Outcomes. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science 2020, 23, 31 -60.

AMA Style

Gaetano Cascini, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Federico Rotini. Impact of Design Representations on Creativity of Design Outcomes. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science. 2020; 23 (2):31-60.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gaetano Cascini; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Impact of Design Representations on Creativity of Design Outcomes." Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science 23, no. 2: 31-60.

Journal article
Published: 07 May 2020 in Applied Sciences
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The definition of a comprehensive initial set of engineering requirements is crucial to an effective and successful design process. To support engineering designers in this non-trivial task, well-acknowledged requirement checklists are available in literature, but their actual support is arguable. Indeed, engineering design tasks involve multifunctional systems, characterized by a complex map of requirements affecting different functions. Aiming at improving the support provided by common checklists, this paper proposes a structured tool capable of allocating different requirements to specific functions, and to discern between design wishes and demands. A first experiment of the tool enabled the extraction of useful information for future developments targeting the enhancement of the tool’s efficacy. Indeed, although some advantages have been observed in terms of the number of proposed requirements, the presence of multiple functions led users (engineering students in this work) to useless repetitions of the same requirement. In addition, the use of the proposed tool resulted in increased perceived effort, which has been measured through the NASA Task Load Index method. These limitations constitute the starting point for planning future research and the mentioned enhancements, beyond representing a warning for scholars involved in systematizing the extraction and management of design requirements. Moreover, thanks to the robustness of the scientific approach used in this work, similar experiments can be repeated to obtain data with a more general validity, especially from industry.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Niccolò Becattini; Yuri Borgianni; Federico Rotini. Testing a New Structured Tool for Supporting Requirements’ Formulation and Decomposition. Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 3259 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Niccolò Becattini, Yuri Borgianni, Federico Rotini. Testing a New Structured Tool for Supporting Requirements’ Formulation and Decomposition. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (9):3259.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Niccolò Becattini; Yuri Borgianni; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Testing a New Structured Tool for Supporting Requirements’ Formulation and Decomposition." Applied Sciences 10, no. 9: 3259.

Original paper
Published: 04 March 2020 in Research in Engineering Design
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The a posteriori novelty metric proposed in 2003 by Shah and colleagues is still one of the most widely used in design research, constituting the reference for many experiments on creativity and effectiveness of ideation. However, recent research highlights that in the presence of ideas implementing different numbers of attributes, some non-negligible problems arise. The objective of this paper is to estimate the potential errors that can be committed when applying the metric of Shah et al. in these situations. The investigation has been performed by relying on a high number of randomly generated virtual sets of ideas. The results obtained revealed that the problem of “missing attributes”, if not opportunely faced, leads the considered metric to misleading novelty scores.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. Impact of missing attributes on the novelty metric of Shah et al. Research in Engineering Design 2020, 31, 221 -234.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Federico Rotini. Impact of missing attributes on the novelty metric of Shah et al. Research in Engineering Design. 2020; 31 (2):221-234.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini. 2020. "Impact of missing attributes on the novelty metric of Shah et al." Research in Engineering Design 31, no. 2: 221-234.

Journal article
Published: 12 October 2019 in Fuel Processing Technology
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The exploitation of wood biomass for thermal energy production often represents an effective complementary source to petroleum, especially where there is the availability of extended forests. Focusing the attention on household plants, the wood pellet currently constitutes a widespread biofuel, which however is characterized by non-negligible production costs. Wood microchips constitute a recently developed alternative, which compensates its inferior characteristics by an easier production process. To obtain these biofuels, the particle size reduction is crucial, because it sensibly influences the power consumption of the drying processes, as well as the raw material supply strategies. In this context, this paper presents an innovative grinding technology, which can be exploited to produce wood particle sizes for both wood pellets and microchips production. In particular, the prototype of the grinder and the experimental plant are shown, which have been used for performing preliminary biofuel production tests. The main design characteristics of the prototype are provided, together with preliminary experimental results that provide first evidences about the potentialities of the proposed wood grinding technology.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Gaetano Cascini; Federico Rotini; Alessandro Tonarelli. Versatile grinder technology for the production of wood biofuels. Fuel Processing Technology 2019, 197, 106217 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Gaetano Cascini, Federico Rotini, Alessandro Tonarelli. Versatile grinder technology for the production of wood biofuels. Fuel Processing Technology. 2019; 197 ():106217.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Gaetano Cascini; Federico Rotini; Alessandro Tonarelli. 2019. "Versatile grinder technology for the production of wood biofuels." Fuel Processing Technology 197, no. : 106217.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2019 in International Journal of Product Development
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Designing products implies to deal with a series of issues affecting their entire life cycle, which are often solved by exploiting the benefits offered by modular architectures. Nevertheless, although several studies have been performed on this argument, understanding 'when' and 'how' to adopt modularity still remains a non-trivial task, especially in the early design stages. Indeed, different modularity types can be found in literature, but it is unclear whether they can be linked to specific categories of design problems or not. Attempting to fill this gap, the paper proposes an investigation strategy to highlight the relationship between modular solutions and design problems. An illustrative application of the proposal on a sample of products is presented together with the achieved results. They show that the proposed investigation approach potentially allows to highlight preferred modular solutions for specific problem categories. Moreover, a new set of unambiguous definitions of the modularity types is presented to clearly identify interfaces and interactions among modules.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. Linking design problems and modular solutions. International Journal of Product Development 2019, 23, 1 .

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Federico Rotini. Linking design problems and modular solutions. International Journal of Product Development. 2019; 23 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Federico Rotini. 2019. "Linking design problems and modular solutions." International Journal of Product Development 23, no. 1: 1.

E literature review
Published: 12 October 2018 in Rapid Prototyping Journal
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Purpose This paper aims to argue about the involvement of additive technologies (ATs) in the prototyping issues of designing. More precisely, it reviews the literature contributions focused on the different perspectives of prototyping activities for design purposes, searching for both available knowledge and research needs concerning the correct exploitation of ATs. Design/methodology/approach A two-step literature review has been performed. In the first step, general information has been retrieved about prototyping issues related to design. In the second step, the literature searches were focused on retrieving more detailed information about ATs, concerning each of the main issues identified in the previous step. Extracted information has been analyzed and discussed for understanding the actual coverage of the arguments and for identifying possible research needs. Findings Four generally valid prototyping issues have been identified in the first step of the literature review. For each of them, available information and current lacks have been identified and discussed about the involvement of AT, allowing to extract six different research hints for future works. Originality/value This is the first literature review concerning AT-focused contributions that cover the complex and inter-disciplinary issues characterizing prototyping activities in design contexts.

ACS Style

Monica Carfagni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Rocco Furferi; Lapo Governi; Federico Rotini. The role of additive technologies in the prototyping issues of design. Rapid Prototyping Journal 2018, 24, 1101 -1116.

AMA Style

Monica Carfagni, Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Rocco Furferi, Lapo Governi, Federico Rotini. The role of additive technologies in the prototyping issues of design. Rapid Prototyping Journal. 2018; 24 (7):1101-1116.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Monica Carfagni; Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Rocco Furferi; Lapo Governi; Federico Rotini. 2018. "The role of additive technologies in the prototyping issues of design." Rapid Prototyping Journal 24, no. 7: 1101-1116.

Case report
Published: 06 August 2018 in Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology
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Purpose Learning systematic conceptual design approaches could be difficult for students who are asked to adapt their intuitive design rationale to more abstract and divergent thinking styles. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual design approach with a well-defined reference framework and procedure to help students to gradually move toward concreteness and to explore the design space. Design/methodology/approach The so-called problem–solution network approach has been taken as a reference and upgraded with a specific framework to manage abstraction levels. A first didactical application of the proposal is described, and specific feedbacks from students have been collected by means of an anonymous survey. Findings Despite the limited course time allotted for the argument, students’ feedbacks revealed that the proposed abstraction framework is useful to learn systematic conceptual design and to support the understanding of creative design thinking. Research limitations/implications The proposal has been applied on a single class of MS engineering students in a course where only a part of the available time was allotted to conceptual design activities. However, the received positive feedbacks are encouraging and allow pushing toward more comprehensive applications and investigations. Originality/value The proposal shown in this paper uses acknowledged concepts of abstraction and function to propose a new integrated framework to manage abstraction levels in problem solving activities. The framework has been implemented in a very recent conceptual design approach based on problem–solution co-evolution, which has been proposed to overcome the flaws ascribed to classical function-based methods.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi. Abstraction framework to support students in learning creative conceptual design. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology 2018, 16, 616 -636.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi. Abstraction framework to support students in learning creative conceptual design. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology. 2018; 16 (4):616-636.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi. 2018. "Abstraction framework to support students in learning creative conceptual design." Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology 16, no. 4: 616-636.

Journal article
Published: 29 May 2018 in International Journal of Innovation Science
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Purpose This paper aims to provide suggestions for the identification of potential new applications for the existing products and/or technologies. Design/methodology/approach A nine-step method has been developed for extracting information about a product or technology, processing the international patent database (IPD) and extracting useful hints for potential new applications. An academic case study has been used to perform the first application of the proposal. Findings A novel approach for processing IPD aimed at supporting the identification of new opportunities for exploiting existing products/technologies. The case study application shows that the proposal allows to extract potentially useful and non-obvious suggestions for new product applications. Research limitations/implications Although some limits inevitably affect this preliminary version of the proposal, important hints for future developments have been inferred for a more comprehensive exploitation of both the firm internal knowledge and the suggestions provided by the international patent database. Practical implications The achieved results can support firms in expanding market opportunities for their products or technologies. Originality/value The proposed approach offers a new structured path for stimulating idea generation for new product applications, by exploiting product information and the cooperative patent classification.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Giovanni Gregori; Federico Rotini. Stimulating idea generation for new product applications. International Journal of Innovation Science 2018, 10, 454 -474.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Giovanni Gregori, Federico Rotini. Stimulating idea generation for new product applications. International Journal of Innovation Science. 2018; 10 (4):454-474.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Giovanni Gregori; Federico Rotini. 2018. "Stimulating idea generation for new product applications." International Journal of Innovation Science 10, no. 4: 454-474.

Original articles
Published: 14 May 2018 in Journal of Engineering Design
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Systematic design methods are widely diffused in academia, representing a standard in many engineering courses. Nevertheless, some flaws related to the conceptual design phase have been ascribed to these methods, especially concerning a non-comprehensive support to innovation. However, literature acknowledges several creativity-enhancing tools that can be conveniently combined with systematic design methods. In particular, many scholars refer to TRIZ, i.e. the well-known Russian problem-solving theory. Moreover, recent literature contributions propose some alternatives to the classical Functional Decomposition and Morphology (FDM), claiming to overcome some of the related flaws. One of them is the Problem Solution Network (PSN) approach, i.e. a systematic conceptual design method strongly based on a problem-solution co-evolutionary logic. In this context, our work aims at combining the potentialities of TRIZ with the benefits claimed for the PSN, by proposing a comprehensive integration procedure. Accordingly, this paper reports a detailed description of the proposal, where TRIZ tools are exploited to support problem solving within the PSN approach. Furthermore, an application is also reported where an industrial case study is presented to argue about possible potentialities and lacks of the proposed approach.

ACS Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini; Marco Tomassini. Exploiting TRIZ Tools for enhancing systematic conceptual design activities. Journal of Engineering Design 2018, 29, 259 -290.

AMA Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi, Francesco Saverio Frillici, Federico Rotini, Marco Tomassini. Exploiting TRIZ Tools for enhancing systematic conceptual design activities. Journal of Engineering Design. 2018; 29 (6):259-290.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lorenzo Fiorineschi; Francesco Saverio Frillici; Federico Rotini; Marco Tomassini. 2018. "Exploiting TRIZ Tools for enhancing systematic conceptual design activities." Journal of Engineering Design 29, no. 6: 259-290.