AKRON, OHIO — Plastic parts designers can aspire to a new honor: a joint award by Plastics News and the Industrial Designers Society of America, a 2,400-member group based in Great Falls, Va.
The honor, called the ``IDSA/ Plastics News Design Award,'' will be presented annually at the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s Structural Plastics Division meeting. The winner will receive the award at a luncheon during the last day of the March 29-April 1 meeting in St. Louis.
``This new award promises to shine a much-deserved light on the important work done by parts designers, and to highlight the fruits of teamwork between designers, toolmakers and manufacturers,'' said Plastics News Editor Robert Grace. ``At the same time, we look forward to collaborating with IDSA and strengthening our ties with the industrial design community.''
The Structural Plastics Division meeting already features a day-long, joint conference session on design with IDSA that precedes the start of SPD's own conference program. The SPD/IDSA's 1998 joint conference session will take place March 29 at the Adam's Mark Hotel, the meeting's headquarters.
The showcase of the SPD meeting each year is its existing New Product Design Competition, which attracts close to 100 entries annually. Entries routinely include a cross section of structural products, from high-precision medical, electronic and computer parts to innovative applications in transportation, sporting goods and construction.
Any part or product entered into the SPD competition will be eligible for the IDSA/Plastics News Design Award — provided the part will be in commercial production by the end of the calendar year.
The competition is open to all; entrants do not need to be SPI, SPD or IDSA members.
IDSA's Materials & Processes Section will supply a five-person jury to review the parts and select the new award's winner at the meeting. Criteria include:
Design innovation.
Benefits to the user, including performance, comfort, safety, ease of use, and universal function and access.
Benefits to the manufacturer, including increased sales and market penetration, reduced time to market or to manufacture, cost effectiveness, parts consolidation, and ease of assembly.
Ecologically responsible use of materials and processes throughout its life cycle, including source and waste reduction, energy efficiency and repair/ reuse/recyclability.
Appropriate aesthetics.
For more information on SPD's 1998 Applied Plastics Technology & Design Conference or on how to enter a part in the design contest, call the conference hotline at (800) 525-3984, or request details via SPD's fax-on-demand service at (800) 774-4614, ext. 6401.
Internet users also can watch for links to related information on Plastics News' Web site (http://www. plasticsnews.com) or the sites of IDSA's Materials & Processes Section (http://www.idsa-mp.org) or SPI's Structural Plastics Division (http://www.structuralspi.org).
