The winners of the BPF Horners Awards for Plastics Innovation and Design, the Bottlemakers Award and the David Williams Award were presented with their trophies at the Horners Annual Banquet on 3 October 2024.
BPF
The winners are:
- Plastics Innovation and Design 2024
The BPF Horners Award for Plastics Innovation and Design was Loughborough University’s ‘Next-Generation Additive Manufactured Police Body Armour’.
Led by Andrew Johnson, the team at the university developed polymer laser-sintered and hybrid aramid laser-sintered body armour panels. These can provide multi-strike protection against knife, spike and handgun ballistic threats in line with the UK Home Office’s Body Armour Standard. The judges were impressed with how the design significantly improves comfort for female police officers.
- Bottlemakers Award 2024
The winner of the Bottlemakers Award was Hawkins Mutes with its blow moulded Brass Instrument Mutes.
Crafted from high-quality ABS plastic and known for its durability and stiffness, it provides exceptional acoustic properties. The material guarantees the longevity of the mutes while delivering a rich and warm tone. The Horners committee considered the product as a great example of the UK's excellence in design and manufacturing. Hawkins Mutes' commitment to domestic design and manufacturing has bolstered the local economy but allowed them to maintain rigorous quality control standards.
- David Williams Award 2024
This year’s David Wiliams Award (for those who make an outstanding contribution to society through plastics) went to Isabel Payne for her invention of the SafiCase.
Payne discovered that a singular menstrual cup replaces 10 years’ worth of single-use sanitary products. With approximately 500 million women relying on sanitary products distributed monthly by charities, the menstrual cup could be a great option. However, research shows menstrual cups cannot be distributed because they're difficult to clean without using a large amount of clean water and a main electrical connection.
The ‘Saficase’ is an all-in-one solution for both cleaning and sterilising menstrual cups, involving minimal water. It's made using medical grade silicone, HDPE, and PP, and uses a steam sterilising circuit powered by a modular solar battery base, which only needs 15ml water and is charged with 24 hours of sunlight per month. The body of the case can also be used to mechanically ‘shake clean’ a cup with 45 ml water for convenient discrete cleaning.