The Gadget Competition is judged by the members of PAPTAC’s Engineering and Maintenance Community. Prizes and certificates are awarded by the sponsor, Pulp & Paper Canada Magazine.
No contest in 2012
DESCRIPTION
Background
The gadget competition began in 1951, and is organised by the Mechanical Engineering and Maintenance Committee, and sponsored by Pulp & Paper Canada Magazine.
Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of the Gadget Competition is to encourage and reward innovative thinking in Canada's pulp and paper industry. The competition is designed particularly to stimulate the interest and participation of operators, foremen, millwrights, etc., as well as of engineers and technicians.
Nature of Award
A certificate to all winners and cash prizes: first prize of $400.00 and second prize of $200.00.
Eligibility
- The judging committee is looking for good ideas which have been translated into simple, easy-to-make devices that have proven their usefulness and durability in the mill operation.
- A gadget may be the product of many hands, but must be the brainchild of at most two persons. Consequently, to be eligible, an entry must be submitted by a maximum of two persons.
- A gadget is not available commercially, although it may incorporate commercially available parts. It is not a complex design, painstakingly evolved. Rather, it is a simple solution to a problem which may be quite complex. It is a shortcut which other people, facing the same problem, have not previously considered.
- The ideal gadget is cheap, easy to make from materials available in the mill and has been in use long enough to prove its worth. It is useful enough to make one wonder why someone didn't think of the idea before.
Entries
Each entry must consist of:
- A written description of the gadget. The written description should be submitted on the "Gadget Entry Form" available from your Mill Manager, Chief Engineer or Superintendent. The description should include the purpose or need for which the gadget was developed, the materials used and methods of fabrication, how the gadget operates and the benefits gained from its use.
- One or more illustrations which show how the gadget is made and how it operates.
- All entries received will be published in the Gadget Competition Book.
Judging Rules
- Anyone working for a pulp and paper company in Canada is eligible to enter.
- Each entry must be submitted by at most two persons.
- Entries must be received in Montreal by mid-September of each year. Entries received thereafter will be held over for the next year's competition.
- A gadget entered in competition should be in use in the mill.
- A gadget awaiting a patent cannot be submitted.
- Lifting devices will not be judged, to avoid possible liability issues for non-rated, non-engineered, or non-approved devices.
- Each entry must be approved by a Superintendent or by the Mill Manager.
- Each entry is judged on a total of 40 points; from 1 to 10 points in each of the four following categories: originality, usefulness and application, functional value (economic and safety), and presentation.
Judging Committee
The entries are judged by the Mechanical Engineering and Maintenance Committee. Pulp & Paper Canada, continuing its sponsorship of the Gadget Competition, will award prizes plus framed certificates to winners.
Award Presentation
Prizes and certificates are usually presented at the PAPTAC Annual Meeting of each year. Descriptions and illustrations of the winning gadgets, plus photos of the awards presentations, are published in Pulp & Paper Canada. All submitted entries can also be found in the "Gadget Competition Book" available from the Publications Administrator of PAPTAC. 
Gadget and Photo Submission Interactive Form
