November 14, 2013 - RS Components (RS) and Allied Electronics (Allied), the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc (LSE: ECM), the world''s leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, is spurring the world''s engineers into creative combat with an invitation to pit their design skills against each other using DesignSpark Mechanical, the company''s new free and intuitive 3D design software, co-developed with SpaceClaim.

The challenge is set for engineers of all backgrounds and disciplines to create an innovative, original design that takes into account the principles of mobility, accessibility or green living as key features of the end product. The aim of the challenge is to urge all engineers to road test DesignSpark Mechanical, and to join the more than 50,000 visitors to DesignSpark.com who have downloaded the tool and experienced the simplicity of the software first hand. The most popular design, as voted for by the DesignSpark engineering community, will be transformed into a physical prototype using a 3D printer, and presented to the winning engineer along with the top prize of £5,000. Two runners-up will each receive a prize of £2,500.

To take part in the challenge, participants need to simply download the free DesignSpark Mechanical software from www.designspark.com/mechanical, create a 3D representation of their design, and submit the final idea by uploading it to DesignShare, the collaborative project space on DesignSpark.com, where each idea will be posted and votes will be cast. All entries must be received by 17:00 GMT on November 22, 2013.

For details about how to enter the DesignSpark Mechanical customer challenge go to http://designshare.designspark.com/eng/.