Consumer product designer Built NY Inc. of New York won for its insulated, clink-proof BYObag bottle tote for wine or other beverages. Built NY designs, markets and distributes its products, outsourcing production with an Asian processor.
Two identical panels of nylon-faced Neoprene are cut and stitched together in manufacturing each 4-millimeter-thick bag. The material provides thermal insulation, shock absorption and a bouncy feel. Built NY sells through high-end retail outlets. The totes are made to carry one or more bottles and come in burgundy, lagoon blue, leaf green and black. But Built NY can customize totes for promotional purposes. Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates Ltd. used a private-label bag with the recent repositioning of its Pepi brand to target young, hip wine drinkers.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. of Seoul, South Korea, won for its design-exploration circular printer. The concept incorporates high-impact polystyrene or ABS and features an exterior high-gloss texture. The design bends the paper to allow for a smaller-size printer that Samsung is targeting at the portable market.
Samsung also won gold for its 17- and 19-inch LCD display Syncmaster monitors for the home computing market.
Smart Design of New York won for the $12 Vicks-brand underarm digital thermometer from Kaz Inc. of New York. The product reached the market in September after Food and Drug Administration testing. ABS is used for the main housing in white; Thermoplast K-brand hydrogenated-styrene-block-copolymer compounds for the blue overmolding and control panel buttons; and PC for the control panel's LCD window. A company in Shenzhen manufactures the thermometer. A 1.5-volt 3.6mm-high alkaline button-cell battery powers it. Kaz has a worldwide license from Procter & Gamble Co. for Vicks appliances.
Smart Design with Hewlett-Packard Co.'s operation in Fort Collins, Colo., won for the space-saving, $199 Scanjet 4670. The scanner is made of injection molded plastic, glass and wire forming. Eliminating the traditional flatbed scanner's bulky housing or lid minimizes its use of plastic.
Youjin Nam won for her graduate student project - an aquatic device that assists disabled people in the water.
Called the Excel Aquatic Assistant, the advanced technology project became the basis for her master-of-fine-arts thesis at the Academy of Art University's school of industrial design in San Francisco.
Subsequently, Nam has joined fuseproject inc. in San Francisco as a full-time designer.
Her design calls for injection molding graphite- or fiberglass-reinforced PU parts for the highly rigid, thin main shell.
The remote-control body is molded PU with straps of PU covered by Neoprene. The harness body jacket has fiberglass-reinforced nylon in the shoulder and side float, and Neoprene in the back and harness strap.
Internal structural ribbing helps prevent part deformation; integrated mounting locations hold internal components.
The device incorporates wireless Bluetooth technology using a small microchip with a radio transceiver to transmit data without the use of wires. Eight rechargeable 9-volt batteries provide power.
A team of design students at Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts & Design in Kiel, Germany, won for an energy-related undergraduate project titled ``Amun, the Pulse of the House.''
Peter Riering-Czekalla, Vincent Weckert and Sebastian Ritzler, who were involved with the project, are seeking corporate backing for production of the device.
The students want the electricity device to raise awareness of energy consumption in private homes. The strength of a pulsating glow on the device would indicate how much electricity is being used.
The student design includes, in production, an injection molded housing of transparent Makrolon PC and a wall attachment of ABS or PE with a nylonlike elastic textile cover.
Their model was made of the textile polyacrylonitrile; the wall attachment of modeling foam Oriol and a nylon textile.
Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., won for the $249 iPod Mini, an MP3 player that has twin-shot PC/ABS end caps and click wheel, a hard, coated acrylic window and an aluminum housing.
Apple also won for its quiet-running Power Mac G5 personal computer.
American Seating Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich., won for its Kabe concept of a free-standing panel system for office cubicles.
The firm made acoustical-panel prototypes of 100 percent post-consumer PET and began trials in December.
The resin is preformed into a thick mat and formed in a mold. Two of the three-dimensional sheets are thermally bonded together. A water-jet cutting process handles final trimming. Solid maple is used for vertical supports and connectors; furniture-grade plywood for the base.
DeWalt Power Tools of Towson, Md., won for its model 735 heavy-duty planer capable of handling wood up to 13 inches thick. The $479 machine has injection molded, yellow polypropylene housings, gas-assist handles and ABS shrouds, belt/chain covers and dust chutes.
Cast aluminum and stainless steel form the other parts.
DeWalt, a business of Black & Decker Corp., launched the planer in September.
Ford Motor Co. of Dearborn, Mich., won for the Shelby Cobra concept, first shown in January. While primarily aluminum, the concept contains laid-up honeycomb polymer composites and vacuum-resin-infused carbon-fiber parts, including seat backs.
Giugiaro Design of Moncalieri, Italy, won for the Contessa mesh chair from Teknion Corp. of Toronto. Internally, Teknion molds major plastic parts, weaves the upholstery, welds components and finish-coats aluminum pieces. Teknion procures small plastic parts and die-cast aluminum components.
The $1,210 (C$1,650) chair debuted in November.
Walt Disney Imagineering won for the ``Mission: Space'' exhibit, which opened in October at the Epcot theme park in Orlando, Fla.
The project used fiber-reinforced plastics, medium-density composite fiber boards, polymer matrix composites and vacuum-formed elements. Walt Disney Co. is the parent company.
Three British companies - Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. of Crawey, Pearson Lloyd Design Ltd. of London and Design Q Ltd. of Washford won for the interior of the Virgin Atlantic aircraft Upper Class Suite.
The business-class product incorporates post-machined, lightweight, polymer matrix composite moldings to accommodate electrical circuitry, and other composites for the main seat shield.
Four other gold award winners made notable use of plastics in their designs:
Fuseproject inc. for the branding and strategy for Footprints: the Architect Collection - with a techno-gel heel pad and thermoplastic PU sole - from Birkenstock Footprint Sandals Inc. of Novato, Calif.
Ziba Design Inc. of Portland, Ore., for a regional Umpqua Bank research and branding project for Umpqua Holdings Corp., also of Portland.
Techno Art Research Co. Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan; Calty Design Research Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif.; and Toyota Motor Corp. of Toyota City, Japan, for the second-generation Prius hybrid car.
William Hsu of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., for the undergraduate student project UnBathroom, a shippable, temporary toilet with a biodegradable plastic liner bag fused to the die-cut coated cardboard seat cover.
