Sustain-a-Bear: A cuddly teddy created by infusing a new, green consciousness

Aditi JustaDec 23 2009

Toys have always been a child’s fantasy. How about making those favorite teddy bears of yours green? In an effort to prevent those lovely playthings from going into basements, attics and landfills, three Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students came forward to make a difference. The trio created a cute bear by infusing a new, green consciousness into every stage of the teddy bear production.

sustain a bear

Dubbed the Sustain-a-Bear, the toy is made using fleece sourced from recycled PET plastic. For assembling it, ultrasonic welding, which employs heat and vibration to bond together the seven pieces of fabric, has been brought to use instead of glue and thread. The mechanical engineering doctoral students Christina Laskowski and Todd Snelson, along with mechanical engineering senior Saadia Safir, working under the guidance of Associate Professor Daniel Walczyk and Professor Michael Jensen from Rensselaer’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering have created an inexpensive to produce, easy to assemble, fully recyclable and undeniably cuddly teddy.

The Sustain-a-Bear bagged the first place in the recent 2009 Manufacturing Student Design Competition held by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). The first Sustain-a-Bear made by the team was Alpha, the one-color, hand-sewn prototype composed of 19 individual parts. After the Alpha, came Epsilon, its considerably cuter cousin that was made by ultrasonically welding seven distinct parts.

Via: Physorg