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Show Off Your Talent
The ET Foundation—the educational and scientific organization devoted to promoting and advancing aluminum extrusion processes and technologies—is proud to invite designers, architects, engineers, aluminum extruders, fabricators, and manufacturers to enter the International Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition.
Innovation is a key objective of the competition, which encourages designers to hone their skills and develop new techniques and uses for aluminum extrusions. Individuals or companies are eligible to enter the professional competition.
Professional Class Awards
In addition to the $3,500 Grand Prize, a First-Place Prize may be awarded for the best design in each of the three Professional categories:
| Structural |
$2,000 |
| Engineered Products |
$2,000 |
| Transportation |
$2,000 |
| Alternative Energy |
$2,000 |
Individual designers and companies are eligible to enter the 2012 Professional Design Competition. Aluminum extruders and their customers are encouraged to team up to enter their design in the Competition. We want to reward your innovation and ingenuity!
Entry Deadline: March 5, 2012
Endless possibilities…
For designers and engineers the possibilities are endless when designing with aluminum extrusions. Aluminum profiles can provide the solution to many design challenges. With aluminum extrusions you don’t have to compromise your design to accommodate standard shapes—you can design exactly the shape you need and let the production process accommodate itself to your specific design.
Aluminum profiles have many advantages, including
- Favorable strength-to-weight ratios
- Flexibility of numerous alloys
- Ability to design to close tolerances, and
- Unsurpassed advantages of the extrusion process
…making aluminum extrusion the material and process of choice.
Careful design is the way to gain maximum benefit from the many variable characteristics of aluminum alloys and from the flexibility of the extrusion process. The Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition is a great place to show off your talent and innovation in design…and it offers the possibility of winning money and recognition for your unique design!
Aluminum Extrusion Technical Resources
As you plan your design for the International Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition, here are some resources that will assist you with learning about the features and benefits of extruded aluminum, the process used to create them, as well as examples of other designs using aluminum extrusions.
Visit the Technical Resources page
Judging Criteria
Winning entries will be those that demonstrate the benefits of aluminum extrusions, whether by inventing a new product or improving an existing one, by achieving the following objectives:
Creativity: innovative design, new application capability, methods to meet a new design challenge
Practicality: ease of fabrication and assembly, cost-effectiveness
Process improvement: customization or improvement of extrusion processes, close tolerances
Market Potential: design marketability and likelihood of market success.
Entry Categories
These are just a few of the possible applications for aluminum profiles. Submit your own design or prototype—it will be considered.
- Office component systems
- Exhibit display booths
- Furniture
- Architectural facades, w indows
- Bridges & bridge decking
- Modular building systems
- Satellite components
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| Photo courtesy of Classic Exhibits. |
- Bicycles, sporting goods, recreational equipment
- Ladders, scaffolds
- Lighting, lighting tracks
- Appliances, other durable household goods
- Scientific, agricultural, industrial, mining equipment
- Machine components
- Electrical & thermal components
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- Auto chassis & space frames, motorcycle frames & components, seat runners, roog rack rails, steering columns, door handles, radiator frames
- Truck grills, trailer frames, flooring, cross members
- Rail car frames & components
- Airplane wings, seat tracks, window grames, handrails, landing gear
- Space vehicle components
- Boat hulls, crossbars, support bars, door & hatch cover trim, tracks & rub rails
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| Photo courtesy of Classic Trailers, Inc. |
Photo courtesy of
Aluminum Chambered Boats, Inc. |
Aluminum’s sustainable characteristics, along with the versatility of the extrusion process, make aluminum extrusions ideal for alternative energy applications, including:
- Photovoltaic and Concentrated Solar Power
- Building-integrated photovoltaic modules
- Wind power
- Hydro-electric power
- Geothermal energy systems
Any part or component designed for use in an alternative energy system will fit into this category.
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| Photo courtesy of Acciona |
Photo coming soon! |
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