By Roger Renstrom, Plastics News Correspondent
Dearborn, Michigan - Plastics are prominent in multiple gold-winning entries in the 2012 International Design Excellence Awards. Medical equipment, smartphones, an infant warmer, a task light and headphones are among the winners. The Industrial Designers Society of America in Dulles, Viriginia, organises the annual contest.
Rhys Newman of Nokia Corp. chaired a 19-member panel of consultancy, corporate and academic designers that selected the 35 gold, 71 silver and 123 bronze IDEA winners from among 660 finalists during a 2-4 May gathering in Dearborn, Michigan.
Winners include designers with the New York office of Smart Design llc, who won for the Tot Seedling youth booster seat from New York-based kitchen gadget manufacturer Oxo International Ltd. Materials include polypropylene and, for the cushion, a removable, crevice-free, soft-skin polyurethane. Designed on the basis of extensive user testing, the foldable, portable booster seat aims to help children during their transition from a highchair en route to a big chair.
Designers with the humanitarian assistance program of Bangalore, India-based Embrace Technologies Inc. won for design of an infant warmer. Components include a sleeping bag, a pouch of phase-change material and an electric heater to warm the pouch. The baby wrapping includes cotton, nylon and polyurethane-coated nylon, and the warming pack consists of PU, the proprietary phase-change material and water. One-button operation allows unskilled staff to operate the warmer as an alternative to expensive, traditional incubators.
There was also an award for a digital reading device, made from polycarbonate with a 'soft-touch' polyurethane coating.
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The full version of this story appears on our sister publication, Plastics News
PIC: Sauder Manufacturing Co.'s Wieland furniture line won for the sleepToo virtual family room to accommodate a hospital patient's relatives. Materials include 19 pounds of high-resiliency foam, 15 pounds of various plastics and, if upholstered, 14 pounds of hospital-grade vinyl.
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