Winning first place in the industrial category for automotive/transportation was Hawkeye Preferred Tooling Group of Charles City, Iowa, for a coextrusion blow molded clean-side duct for a glider truck kit from Harrison Truck Centers.
Glider semitruck tractors are brand-new trucks fitted with remanufactured diesel engines that do not require diesel exhaust fluid since they are grandfathered in for emissions standards, according to Hawkeye. The duct goes from the air cleaner housing to the engine.
Hawkeye is 3D blow molded using sequential coextrusion of polypropylene and thermoplastic elastomer on a Placo blow molding machine. Hawkeye assisted with the part design, built the mold and ran sample parts.
The small-diameter round end of the duck has a skin of PP on the outer layer and TPE on the inner layer. Both the oval rigid opening and the round flexible opening are machined to finish the inside diameters. The small round end is flexible for sealing. The large oval opening has a rubber boot, which is part of the air cleaner assembly for sealing.
In the "other" category of industrial, Silgan Plastics won first place for a motor oil dispenser with a flexible spout and hinged lid for Chevron Havoline motor oil. The reusable dispensing containers are provided to automotive service shops, which buy the oil in a bag-in-box format. Both dispenser and oil are provided in a branded rack stand.
The container is molded from high density polyethylene. The flexible spout is made from a blend of high- and low-density PE.
Silgan officials said the design allowed Silgan to remain relevant in the supply chain, even though the bag-in-box reduced overall plastic consumption by 89 percent from using individual quart bottles.