Rosemont, Ill. — A new side-by-side utility vehicle that used 11 rotationally molded parts netted Centro Inc. the Product of the Year award at the Rotoplas conference.
The Intimidator Inc. utility vehicle also won the award for Innovative/State of the Art. Production will begin in January.
Parts competition winners were honored Sept. 28 at Rotoplas, held in Rosemont and organized by the Association of Rotational Molders.
Centro used CNC-machined and cast aluminum molds from Avantech Inc., running on two Ferry rotomolding machines.
“Centro provided insightful design and creative engineering services to redesign the Intimidator Utility Vehicle,” the company said in its submission for the awards. “These services included styling, structural framing and the development of major components.”
One of the biggest challenges, company officials said, was to create the seamless assembly of thermoformed and metal parts.
Centro is based in North Liberty, Iowa.
Dutchland Plastics LLC won the Conversion Award for its rotomolded contribution to a large mobile generator from ITW/Hobart.
Dutchland, of Oostburg, Wis., helped the customer convert a top hood cover, cable trays and diesel tank to rotomolding from steel. The hood cover is molded in four different colors. Dutchland uses several molded-in inserts in the cover and tank, and cooling fixtures are needed for the cover and cable trays to hold critical dimensions, the molder said.
Dutchland molds the parts on a Ferry 430/330 machine. The diesel tank is molded from cross-linked high density polyethylene. The other parts are linear low density polyethylene. Centro uses cast aluminum parts. The mold-maker was not listed.
