Tijdens de beurs Kunststoffen 2014 in Veldhoven heeft de SPE Benelux (Society of Plastics Engineers) de winnaars van de Polymers and Plastics Innovation Awards 2014 bekendgemaakt. Deze wedstrijd werd mede georganiseerd door Flanders Plastics Vision en de NRK. De prijzen zijn uitgereikt in acht verschillende categorieën. De jury bestond uit industrie-experts, wetenschappers en ontwerpspecialisten. De organisatie heeft in totaal 35 inzendingen ontvangen, waarvan er uiteindelijk 24 zijn toegelaten tot de wedstrijden. De jury heeft 8 eerste plaatsen en 8 tweede plaatsen toegekend.

Winnaars:
Categorie Best Plastic Design: Procter & Gamble - dop voor schoonmaakmiddelfles

Categorie Plastics & Electronics: Pezy - 3K micro steker

Categorie Material Innovation: DSM - PET XL-T, thermisch geleidend PET

Categorie Hybrid product: Deceuninck - raamprofiel zonder metaal

Best Substitute product: VanBerlo - afzuigkap

Categorie Best Lightweight innovation: PolyOne - zware LED-verlichting

Categorie New surfaces for plastics: Conwed - anti slip ondertapijt

Categorie Recycling: Protective Packaging Systems - verpakking voor elektronica

Uit het juryrapport - omschrijving van de winnende inzendingen:

Best Plastic Design - Procter & Gamble – Detergent bottle dosing cap
This small dosing cap consists of 4 different high precision parts in Polypropylene. The parts inside the cap create a pump-mechanism to allow dosing of the right quantity. The small parts are made in high precision tools and assembled. The sustainability element in this product is remarkable, as the dosing-cap does not only avoid the use of a separate dosing cup, but it avoids the overdose or over-use of concentrated detergent. The Jury was impressed with the combination of high precision, cost, recyclability and sustainability.

Plastics & Electronics - Pezy – 3K connector
A fantastic example of micro-injection moulding and assembly. The part is produced by insert overmoulding of microscopic small connectors. Because of the microscopic size everything becomes highly complex: the tooling, the positioning, the moulding process, etc… The jury found that this great engineering work (in combination with a very difficult process) lead to
wonderful results, which proves that plastics and polymers have a great role to play in the miniaturization of electronic products and components.

Material Innovation - DSM PET XL-T
This new thermally conductive PET material allows the production of housings of LED-lamps, which typically produce a lot of heat. The low outgassing and high dimensional stability of this material ultimately allows to make lighter parts, adding to the sustainability (of for instance the vehicles) of the end product.

Hybrid product - Deceuninck – ZENDOW#NEO Window profile
This window profile is produced with different materials and technologies, amongst other Deceuninck’s proprietary Linktrusion technology. Classic PVC window frames have lots of metal inside to reinforce the strength of the window. Deceunink’s process eliminates the use of steel frames by using continuous glass fibers to reinforce the part. With no metal and the use of a PVC foam, the insulation properties are improved substantually and ease of recycling is achieved. The jury was impressed with the complexity of the process and the fine result in properties and sustainability enhancements.

Best Substitute product - VanBerlo – Kitchen hood
This kitchen hood used to be completely in steel. Vanberlo design agency developed this for Gutmann. The product has not only a much nicer design than the steel hoods, but has also a much lower cost and enhanced serial production. Internally in the hood, the freedom of design of plastic has lead to an improved filtration construction, which reduces odours and fat-deposit in the kitchen. The jury found this a perfect example in which, by using plastic instead of steel, we not only achieve a nicer design, but we reduce cost and increase performance.

Best Lightweight innovation - PolyOne – Heavy duty LED light
This heavy duty lamp was previously produced from metal. A special PolyOne compound allowed the injection moulding of the housing, which formerly needed an extensive assembly and several post treatments. Beside a considerable cost saving the weight reduction was over 30%, improving the sustainability considerably. The jury found the combination of weight reduction and cost saving + metal replacement another wonderful example of what plastic materials and technologies can do.

New surfaces for plastics - Conwed – anti slip carpet underlay
This part does not look innovative, but the process to manufacture it, is highly innovative. This part is produced by a special netting technology in combination with a co-extrusion. The extrusion tools used for this process are highly complex and new. The co-extrusion of the anti-slip layer assures perfect adhesion and no peel off. The jury awarded this very functional surface, which was created by a new process and lead to a product with better recycling and other enhanced properties compared to existing alternatives.

Recycling - Protective Packaging Systems – electronic device pack
The design of this packaging avoids the use of secondary packaging of the different electronic device accessories like cables, power cords, chargers, etc…, as the pack has tailored cavities to make the accessories fit and hold the device itself. This pack is made out of 50 to 100% recycled HDPE/LDPE material. On top of this the pack can be re-used (if wanted by the customer) or at least completely recycled by the company to produce the same or similar packs. The Jury was impressed with the avoidance of secondary packaging materials, the re-use possibilities and the recycling content for a new protective packaging that on top has a very nice design.