The winners of the European Aluminium Award 2008

5 Awards and 2 Special Prizes are given by the Jury of the 2008 European Aluminium Award competition for Industrial Design & Engineering. 48 companies with an innovative product that incorporates aluminium were taking part in this year’s European Aluminium Award. 30 entries were nominated in 5 categories: Consumer Products (Design, Innovation) and Industrial Products (Automotive & Transport, Building & Construction, Mechanical Engineering & Electronics).
The Awards, a sculpture, made of bauxite and aluminium, and a certificate - are handed out 23 September at the Award Gala during the Fair ‘Aluminium 2008’ at Messe Essen in Germany, where all winners and nominees were on display in the Galeria.
It is with great pleasure that the Jury did observe that the quality of the entries is improving year by year moving up to even higher standards. The market is looking for creative and robust solutions and finds in aluminium and aluminium alloys a versatile metal, meeting the competitive needs of the customer. In particolar, environmental issues like weight saving and CO2 reductions make aluminium an obvious material to consider. The overall Jury Prize was therefore awarded to put special emphasis on the environmental and sustainable impact of light-weight constructions and products.

A radiator inspired to the Bryce canyon
Category Consumer Products for Design
Bryce Canyon was the inspiration for the designers of Vasco, when they introduced a new look appliin domestic heating. The columnshaped structures inspired the Vasco designers to develop a radiator composed of vertical aluminium profiles. This concept causes striking light to reflect in multiple colour variations, depending on their incidental angle.
The use of aluminium in this field is not easy, but Vasco took the challenge to develop a complete aluminium radiator that can be fully integrated in the interior design, with great attention to detail: even the backside is well designed.

A competitive sled
Category Consumer Products for Innovation
The shape, the X construction of the frame combined with an elegant and innovative design, is for the Jury the reason to give this innovation award to Alurunner.
The Alurunner is the world’s first sled with real shock absorption through an adjustable shock absorber system. It represents a new concept: combining athletic handling and comfort with many high-tech details. Hills and bumps are ‘ironed out’, the driving stability is significantly improved and the risk of crash is equally diminished. The collapsible aluminium frame allows for space-saving easy storage and transport. An aluminium claw, which is mounted and centred under the seat, ensures effective and safe braking.

An aluminium aircraft recovery system
Category Industrial Products for Automotive & Transport
The Jury means that elegance is combined with functionality in this lifting system. The use of forged aluminium parts shows the lightness compared to strength in perfect harmony. The parts are nice to touch and have a smooth surface. Because the lifting system works hydraulically there is no need for electrical contacts in the direct neighbourhood of the aircraft in line with necessary safety regulations.

The lightweight of aluminium for the Palariccione
Category Industrial Products for Building & Construction
This building Palariccione in Italy is a combination of elegance and industrial use of aluminium. The lightweight construction is achieved in a very functional way with a clear focus on design. All the stairs have different dimensions, what makes the production and logistics very complicated.
This stairway gives the building a great appearance and is part of the architectural solution in perfect harmony with the glass façade.

A highly reflectivesolar panel
Category Industrial Products for Mechanical Engineering & Electronics
Alimex produced only by machining a highly reflective aluminium surface, that can be used for solar applications. ACP 5080MF is produced by a special milling technique on dimensions up to 2,000 x 3,300 mm (width x length). The resulting surface has a mirror finish with no requirements for further hand polishing.
The overall result also includes a severe cost reduction to produce the surfaces. The process guaranties a consistent surface quality with a surface roughness Ra < 0.1 μm.

The ‘aluminium fuse’ by indian Balco
Special Prize for Production Technics in the category Mechanical Engineering & Electronics
At a normal production plant all the pots in the pot line are connected in series and electrical current is passed through each pot to produce aluminium metal.
From the collector bar, current passes through the aluminium bus bars to the next pot in the line. These aluminium bus bars are connected to the next pot raisers by a shorted joint. To put pots online, insulation plates are inserted at the shorted joints of the raiser to avoid any bypass of current to the next pot. In the non-running pots, current is bypassed to the next pot through shorted joint, when the insulation plates are being removed. To take a pot back into the line, the power of whole pot line is to be switched off to 0 kilo Amps for about 8 min. Balco invented the ‘Aluminium fuse’ whereby 320 kA current could be bypassed to the next pot through the fuse instead of the shorted joint for about ten minutes. So by using the fuse technology, pots can be powered on and off at 320 kA without reducing the power to 0 kA.

Evora aluminium structure signed by Lotus
Overall Jury Prize
Lotus provides an automotive structure with a unique approach. They combined adhesive bonding techniques with mechanical joining resulting in innovative and creative solutions. The Jury considered the design to be very innovative and versatile. Moreover the design is very courageous, and Lotus took quite a risk building this structure. Lotus used the expertise and know-how in lightweight materials to complete this structure, achieving a low weight and a high structural stiffness and therefore ensuring a major impact on environmental and sustainable performance.
The Overall Jury Prize was this year awarded to Lotus to give special emphasis on the environmental and sustainable impact of lightweight constructions and products as represented in this ‘green sportscar’.