Honoring top parts, processes in thermoforming

Cleveland — The Society of Plastics Engineers Thermoforming Division named the winners of its biennial parts competition at a recent conference in Cleveland.

"This year's parts competition was especially impressive, as we had 31 entries, the most in recent memory," part competition chair Travis Kieffer said. "We received more than 10 entries alone for our new sustainability category."

"The quality and diversity of the entries was also notable," he added. "We think the innovation and technology on display was the best yet, and it shows that the plastics thermoforming industry is stronger than ever."

This year's winners are:

People's Choice Award to Profile Plastics of Lake Bluff, Ill., for covers for medical part product application.

The PVC/acrylic covers are a multi-part pressure forming project that meets high cosmetic requirements and target price points of the customer and serves as a durable, easy-to-service solution for a new-to-market medical cart product application.

A customer wanted to develop a new and innovative medical cart featuring a highly cosmetic finish, maximized space utilization, ease of serviceability and durability. Working together in the design, Profile Plastics successfully achieved each project-defined goal.

The part also won the Pressure Forming Gold Award.
The Vacuum Forming Gold Award went to Formed Plastics Inc. of Carle Place, N.Y., for medical laboratory equipment covers.

The project included a series of polycarbonate/PVC/acrylic cosmetic covers with value-added assembly for medical laboratory equipment.

The assembly of covers service a modular system which permits multiple configurations to fit any size lab footprint. A tailored solution to manufacturing was thermoforming with universal tooling and material blank sizes. This provided a more streamlined, cost-effective, high-quality approach to satisfy any production run size or finish the customer may require.

The Vacuum Forming Silver Award went to 2P Support & Focaccia Group of Udine, Italy, for an LCD tail light.

The project consists of 18 thermoformed parts plus four polyurethane parts to transform a standard commercial vehicle into a pickup for the LCV (light commercial vehicle) sector. The thermoformed parts are all produced with textured ABS certified for automotive use.

The Pressure Forming Silver Award went to Formed Plastics for rail support chest deck.

A structural rail and support component are located underneath a patient's chest on surgical tables.

The PVC and acrylic part offers extreme rigidity and support throughout the geometry of the product to reinforce the rated weight capacity of each table. In addition, the rail system allows for adjustment from patient to patient to properly position and affix their spine within guidelines for each procedure.

The Twin Sheet Gold Award went to Vantage Plastics of Standish, Mich., for pallet and lid.

The returnable packaging assembly prolongs the freshness of fruit, vegetables, and flowers that are shipped and stored throughout the world. The material for the pallet and lid is extrusion-grade high molecular weight polyethylene with black colorant.

Twin Sheet Silver Award went to Duo Form of Edwardsburg, Mich., for twin sheet sliding pass-through ABS door for a utility vehicle.

The customer needed a sliding door designed for a utility vehicle that would be sturdy, fit existing latches and hardware and could be produced at high volumes. To eliminate the need for gluing and multiple fixtures, the part was designed to be twin sheet formed. This also brought the structurally-sound qualities the customer was looking for.

The Thin Gauge Medical Gold Award went to CMI Plastics of Ayden, N.C., for the pharma tray.

The project included two trays that hold several different vial sizes. When one tray isn't used to hold components, it's used as a lid. The customer asked to create four trays with a lid for each tray (eight thermoforms in total). CMI took the common diameter components and grouped them together.

The firm then designed a cavity to hold varying length components that had similar diameters. By doing this, CMI reduced the need down to two base trays. Both trays are made with FDA Recycled PET.

The 3D Printed Tooling Gold Award went to Duo Form for the wet bath for truck camper.

The customer needed a finished part for a prototype unit in less than two weeks. To quickly make this happen, Duo Form designed a 3D printed tool.

The tool was printed in house on a 3D Pellet Fed Printer with glass-filled polycarbonate pellets, which eliminated the need to add vacuum holes in the tool due to the porosity of the material.

The 3D Printed Tooling Silver Award went to Plastics Unlimited of Preston, Iowa, for an agriculture equipment wheel cover.

The wheel cover is made using 3D printed tooling. It's formed to provide a highly aesthetic, structurally rigid part that can also pass high wear requirements.

The part also had to be able to withstand all durability tests that large equipment encounters, including extreme temperatures testing, accelerated weather testing and corrosion testing with many different extreme chemicals. The material is high molecular weight PE.

The Sustainable Thermoforming Gold Award went to Vantage Plastics for the returnable recyclable shipping tray.

This returnable packaging assembly holds automotive components that are shipped within North America by the customer. The tray is single sheet thermoformed, with a starting thickness of 0.2 inches, using aluminum temperature-controlled production tooling.

Sustainable Thermoforming Silver Award to Good Natured Products of Brampton, Ontario, for GoodGuard tamper-evident containers.

This application includes patent pending dual hinged tamper-evident clamshells made using plant-based materials. These multi-purpose clamshells offer an exclusive tamper-evident locking tab and dual hinged design.

The locking tab stays attached to the clamshell with no tearaway strips or clips that can escape into the environment as plastic pollution. With the two hinges and unique seal, there's no need to double up with a wrapping label to achieve tamper resistance.

The Electric Vehicle and Battery Applications Gold Award went to Electro-General Plastics of Grove City, Ohio, for the Ford Maverick OEM spoiler and door skirt.

This application replaces labor-intensive fiberglass parts, resulting in reduced component costs for the customer. The door skirt addresses the challenge of matching the OEM swirl texture for the door skirt. The seamless look addresses the challenge of achieving a seamless look for the door skirt when it is next to the glass.

The part meets the challenge of designing a spoiler that mimics the appearance of an SUV on a pickup truck cap and the hidden assembly solves the challenge of designing a hidden assembly method for inner and outer parts while accommodating threaded inserts.

Electric Vehicle and Battery Applications Silver Award went to DALB Inc. of Kearneysville, W. Va., for a car grille.

Used in many appliances, industrial equipment and now automobiles, this product is an example of how technology can streamline and incorporate many different technologies and features into one. This car grille is the exterior grille that allows for various types of functionality to be present on the front of the car by limiting cut throughs, multiple smaller parts, and assemblies.