Emhart® Teknologies Announces 2005 Create the Future Design Contest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2005

Emhart® Teknologies Announces 2005 Create the Future Design Contest

Fastener designer and manufacturer stimulates, rewards American industrial innovation

Shelton, Conn., Sept. 26 – Emhart® Teknologies has announced the 2005 Create the Future Contest, originated in 2002 by this leading designer and manufacturer of fasteners and assembly systems. The contest is intended to foster creative, practical product design by the global community of engineers, scientists and inventors, said P.A. Gustafson, President and CEO, Emhart® Teknologies. He made the announcement at the company’s Shelton Innovation Center.

Contestants submit original designs in four product categories: medical, safety, transportation and everyday. The entries will be judged by 33 judges from within Emhart Teknologies and other corporations and non-profit organizations nationwide. The grand prize winner receives a new hybrid vehicle or $20,000, and two first prize winners each receive a Segway® Transporter.

Each entry must describe the new design idea in 500 or fewer words: how it works, its innovation, application, utility, manufacturing feasibility, and potential benefits.  Deadline for submission is November 18, 2005. For complete rules, visit www.emhartcontest.com.

“We believe that the most important benefit to the winners is the national and international recognition and the resulting support in launching their ideas from the drawing board into production,” Gustafson said. “As one of the world’s leading industrial design companies, we feel a responsibility to provide our country’s top engineering and design minds with a forum to present their ideas publicly. The Create the Future Contest is that forum.”

The 2005 Create the Future Contest is co-sponsored by NASA TECH BRIEFS magazine, Solid Works, and COMSOL, Inc. (www.nasatech.com).

Over 1,000 people submitted entries for the 2004 Create the Future Contest. Leonard Duffy, owner of Chittenden Research and Development, LLC, in Harrisburg, Vt., won the 2004 Create the Future grand prize for the Unitary Orthopedic Appliance, a removable casting and bracing mechanism designed to speed recovery from orthopedic injury and surgery in humans and animals. The EclockTM Fastner, a cost-efficient and tamper-proof fastener design from Baltimore-based Apogee Designs Ltd.; and the Enhanced Audio Communication device, a mechanism designed by Etrema Products in Ames, Iowa for first responders that attaches to their safety helmets, each won first prize honors.

ABOUT EMHART® TEKNOLOGIES
Emhart® Teknologies, headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, is the global leader in the design and creation of assembly technologies, from concept through installation. The company’s technology-based assembly products and systems deliver innovative integrated solutions to manufacturing challenges worldwide. From automotive to construction, and computers to appliances, Emhart® products are sold in more than 100 countries. A Black and Decker Company, Emhart® Teknologies has 3,000 employees in 24 facilities worldwide.

For more information on the contest or the company, contact Ed Delterio, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Emhart® Teknologies, 50 Shelton Technology Drive, Shelton, CT 06484, (203) 944-1704, ed.dalterio@bdk.com, www.Emhart.com.