CHICAGO—A luggage rack, a golf ball cover and an in-line skate chassis came out winners in AlliedSignal Plastics' ``Take Your Best Shot'' NPE design contest.
The contest challenged designers, molders and manufacturers to submit designs converting plastics of other materials to AlliedSignal's Capron-, Petra- and Nypel-brand resins. Winners, chosen from a field of 20 entrants, were announced June 16 at NPE 1997 in Chicago.
``The key was to have people think of applications they wouldn't usually think about for our product line,'' Americas sales and marketing director Michael Bogar said. ``We received ideas ranging from an entire car to using different materials.''
John Heuchert of Jac Products Inc. in Macomb, Mich., took first place with a design that combined a 14-piece luggage rack into a single part by using AlliedSignal's Capron-brand nylon resin in a gas-assist process.
The new product also trims the number of suppliers from four to one, thereby reducing costs and labor, Heuchert said in an Allied-Signal news release. For his effort, Heuchert and his firm will receive a laptop and 250 hours of free design time from AlliedSignal's engineering plastics application development engineering group.
Spalding Sports Worldwide of Chicopee, Mass., and Gard Mayer of Livingston, N.J.-based MAIR each placed as runners-up.
Spalding used Capron resins on a golf ball cover to improve the ball's driving distance.
Mayer's Tech VR3.2 chassis can attach a set of wheels to any skate boot, including ice skates.