Dutch chemical company DSM (Heerlen; www.dsm.com), UK-based cable fastener producer HellermannTyton (Crawley; www.hellermanntyton.com) and US carmaker Ford have earned an “Innovation Award” from the US trade group Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE, Danbury, Connecticut; www.4spe.org) for a wiring harness clip made of ocean-harvested polyamide 6. The award was announced during the SPE Automotive Division’s 50th Automotive Innovation Awards Competition.

DSM’s “Akulon RePurposed” line of PA 6 and PA 6.6 is made from discarded fishing nets collected from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. The resin maker said a proprietary process is used to thoroughly clean and process the nylon fishing nets, yielding a PA 6 engineering material with performance comparable to new petroleum-based plastic.

The material is used in the production of wiring harness clips made by HellermannTyton for Ford’s Bronco Sport SUV, where it holds guide wires that power various features in the vehicle’s cargo area. The harness clips fasten to the sides of the second-row seats of the vehicle.