A Quick Green Turnaround

It took only 20 days for toy designer Hot Buttered Elves, to turn a design which used eco-friendly 3D foam into an approved tooling copy.

The foam came from Dow Chemical’s line called RENUVA which is grown from soybeans. U.S.-grown soybeans the company points out.

RENUVA is made using 60% less fossil fuel than traditional polyol products, Dows says. This “Renewable Resource Technology” is used to manufacture furniture, bedding, carpets, footwear, coatings, adhesives, sealants, car seats and other products.

The modeling solution, called FreeForm3D from SensAble, was used to make Hot Buttered Elves’ Wallable product line more earth-friendly.

And the story has an even nicer angle in that Wallables were originally created as a fund raiser for children's hospitals in Southern California. Now the products have grown into a larger consumer product line and are currently being show cased at the 7th annual ABC Kids Expo.