Honeywell Aerospace, Phoenix, AZ, has received the 2012 Higgins-Caditz Design Award, as part of the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Awards of Excellence in Metalforming, for its HTF7000 propulsion systems. Honeywell Aerospace has more than 38,000 employees at more than 100 sites worldwide and is involved in all aspects of aerospace engine manufacturing. They worked closely with Cygnet Stamping & Fabricating Inc. in Glendale, CA, to develop the tooling and eventually produce a stamped heat shield.

As part of a combustor assembly in its 7,000-pound thrust propulsion engines, Honeywell uses 16 tiled heat shields. These are machined from a cast Haynes material. Honeywell Aerospace project engineer Thomas F. Johnson and staff engineer Ronald B. Pardington redesigned the heat shield to allow it to be stamped.

The new stamped part is made from 0.040 inch Haynes sheet, reducing the weight by over 50 percent and the cost by over 85 percent compared to the machined heat shield, resulting in substantial yearly savings. In addition, the company benefited from a significant engine weight reduction.

The Design Award is one of eight Awards of Excellence in Metalforming presented annually by PMA. Created by the Worcester Pressed Steel Co., Worcester, MA, and sponsored by The Quarterly Club, the design award recognizes a manufacturing company for outstanding achievement in developing an innovative product design. Along with recognition in industry publications and at events, Honeywell will receive a $1,500 cash prize, which will be donated to the Challenger Space Center Arizona, a local non-profit organization providing vital science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs to students primarily in grades K-8.

PMA is the full-service trade association representing the $113-billion metalforming industry of North America—the industry that creates precision metal products using stamping, fabricating, spinning, slide forming and roll forming technologies, and other value-added processes. Its nearly 900 member companies also include suppliers of equipment, materials and services to the industry. PMA leads innovative member companies toward superior competitiveness and profitability through advocacy, networking, statistics, the PMA Educational Foundation, FABTECH and METALFORM tradeshows, and MetalForming magazine.

For more information, visit: www.pma.org/awards