MPIF announces Consumer Goods Category winners in 2020 PM Design Excellence Awards
August 5, 2020
The Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF) has announced the winners in the Consumer Goods Category of its 2020 Powder Metallurgy Design Excellence Awards.
The Consumer Goods Category awards prizes for parts produced by Powder Metallurgy, Metal Injection Moulding and metal Additive Manufacturing for consumer categories across a range of market segments such as lawn and garden; off-highway; hand tools and recreation; industrial motors, controls, and hydraulics; hardware and appliances.
Grand Prizes
Consumer Goods–Lawn & Garden/Off Highway Category for Conventional PM
Alpha Precision Group was awarded grand prize in this category for a commercial diesel exhaust flange component used for sensor placement in regulating exhaust emissions. The part combined what previously were three stand-alone components: a flange and two bosses.
Consumer Goods–Smith Metal Products in the Hand Tools/Recreation Category for MIM
In this category, the grand prize was awarded to Smith Metal Products for a jaw frame used in an archery string release device. This device retains the ‘fingers’ that hold the bowstring securely and accurately while the shooter aims at the target. It also houses the trigger for when the archer is ready to shoot.
Consumer Goods–Industrial Motors/Controls & Hydraulics Category for Conventional PM
A grand prize was awarded to Catalus Corporation in this category for a shoe used in a clutch for a refrigeration compressor. The part has been in production since 1984 and has undergone numerous iterations over the years, and can now be made net shape at an increased compaction rate.
Consumer Goods–Hardware/Appliances Category for Conventional PM
The grand prize in this category was awarded to FMS Corporation and its customer Hansen Ag Solutions for a click-plate assembly used in an agricultural livestock feeder. The assembly consists of an inner and outer click plate.
Both parts were challenging due to their multi-level requirements, detailed lettering inscriptions, premium density/wearability in the teeth, and a relatively complex core rod configuration for compacting the inner plate.
Consumer Goods–Hardware/Appliances Category for MIM
A grand prize was awarded to ARC Group Worldwide for a gearbox used in a drive system for motorised blinds. The component holds nine gears that rotate when actuated, to allow blinds to function with a remote-control device.
Consumer Goods–Hand Tools/Recreation Category for metal AM
The grand prize in this category was awarded to Sandvik Additive Manufacturing for a lightweight milling cutter made for Sandvik Coromant using Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) metal Additive Manufacturing. Productivity improvements of up to 200% are said to have been achieved using the cutter.
Awards of distinction
Consumer Goods–Lawn & Garden/Off-Highway Category for Conventional PM
An award of distinction was given to Catalus Corporation in this category for a spacer that serves as a poke-yoke locator and compression limiter where a seat belt assembly is attached to the frame in a side-by-side vehicle.
Consumer Goods–Hardware/Appliances Category for Conventional PM
An award of distinction was given to Metalpo Ind. E Com. Ltda in the Hardware/ Appliances Conventional PM components Category for an upper stator used in a ceiling fan by their customer Philips do Brasil Ltda (Walita Division).
Consumer Goods–Hand Tools/Recreation Category for metal AM
A final award of distinction was given to Sandvik Additive Manufacturing and its customer Seco Tools for a metal additively manufactured coolant clamp that attaches to the cutting edge of industrial turning heads used in machining.
Coolant flows through the clamp, cooling the cutting edge and controlling the waste chips produced. AM makes it possible to form the curved holes inside the clamps that were previously impossible to form using traditional manufacturing processes.
