A high degree of innovation, performance, technology application and environmental protection put two appliances designed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) ahead of the rest in the Machinery and Equipment Design category of this year's awards.
The Micro-Injection Moulding Machine by the HKPC's manufacturing technology division was one of them.
Designed for the manufacturing of miniature plastic components which weigh as little as 0.0009g, the integrated design system ensures that resin material is dosed accurately in the shot volume position. It also ensures that the production environment remains dust-free.
Lee Kwok-keung, principal consultant of the manufacturing technology division, said the machine allowed manufacturers to produce micro-components that were used in the medical, electronic and optical industries at a lower cost.
Supported by the government's Innovation and Technology Fund, the cost of the Micro-Injection Moulding Machine is one-third of the cost of leading machines overseas. The new technology could be shared by local machine manufacturers to develop their own models in the future, Mr Lee said.
The other winning design was the Super-Critical CO2 Beam Dyeing System by the material technology division of the HKPC. This is the first local design based on the supercritical fluid dyeing technology - that allows a one-step dyeing process without the need for water or pollutants such as chemical additives.