The Generation by Knoll® work chair revolutionized the world of office seating with significant support from material science, processing and expert application development at DuPont. The chair embraces the idea of elastic design – where a product rearranges itself in response to its user.
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Image: Knoll, Inc.
Using the inherent properties of DuPont™ high-performance thermoplastics and particularly the DuPont™ Hytrel® RS TPC-ET for the Flex Back Net, Generation by Knoll® literally flexes as you change position, responding to your movements. |
Key to the chair’s flexing and supportive features is the use of high-performance DuPont thermoplastics in the form of renewably sourced DuPont™ Hytrel® RS TPC-ET for the Flex Back Net with no compromise on properties and DuPont™ Hytrel® TPC-ET and DuPont™ Crastin® PBT for the Dynamic Suspension control.
"The materials used in the chair's construction are vital from both an aesthetic and functional standpoint," explains Nicole Mirchandani, Knoll® senior marketing director. "By getting DuPont involved early in the design process, we were able to evaluate a huge variety of material-selection ideas to achieve our comfort and performance targets. The use of renewably sourced materials also enables us to deliver a pace setting design that reinforces our commitment to sustainability."
According to Rick Tobar, development programs manager at DuPont: "As well as introducing many different samples, we demonstrated how the different materials could be used and how the designers could extract the maximum value out of our materials in terms of balancing functional attributes against design needs ... such as increased support while maintaining the necessary flex."
Designed by Formway Design of New Zealand, Generation uses high-performance DuPont materials in a way that had never before been seen in the furniture industry. The Flex Back Net and the Dynamic Suspension control work together to give the chair its flexibility and structure – allowing it to move to suit the extended range of motion required in a contemporary working environment – and yet still retain the memory of its original position.
The Flex Back Net, which deploys renewably sourced Hytrel®, supports many different postures and allows for a wide range of multi-dimensional movement – not just from front-to-back, but also from side-to-side. Users also can push against the Flex Top of the backrest and it will bend over to support their arm as they turn and chat with a colleague.
The chair’s streamlined and innovative Dynamic Suspension control, which uses Hytrel® and Crastin®, is a simple, non-mechanical control concept that provides a smooth, weight-compensated ride. Without the complexity of metal links or springs, the control uses one-third the number of parts of a traditional ergonomic chair mechanism. The chair also is 20 percent lighter than most high-performance chairs on the market.
Thanks, in part, to its use of renewably sourced materials from DuPont, Generation was the first product in the furniture industry to be rated Sustainable Platinum by the SMaRT© Consensus Sustainable Product Standard, a comprehensive, transparent, sustainable product standard that measures a product’s environmental, economic and social benefits over its life cycle and throughout its global supply chain, from raw materials extraction through reclamation or re-use.
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DuPont Performance Polymers is committed to working with customers throughout the world to develop new products, components and systems that help reduce dependence on fossil fuels and protect people and the environment. With more than 40 manufacturing, development and research centers throughout the world, DuPont Performance Polymers uses the industry’s broadest portfolio of plastics, elastomers, renewably sourced polymers, filaments and high-performance parts and shapes to deliver cost-effective solutions to customers in aerospace, automotive, consumer, electrical, electronic, industrial, sporting goods and other diversified industries.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit www.dupont.com.
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Knoll® is a registered trademark of Knoll, Inc.
SMaRT© is a copyright of Sustainable Consensus Products Corporation.
