North Pole – December 18, 2023 – Santa’s Workshop has confirmed reports that a pre-Christmas mishap involving Santa’s sleigh won’t stop the on-time delivery of presents this year. The flying-reindeer-powered vehicle was undamaged after hitting a bump during an unauthorized takeoff last weekend. The elves who attempted what the North Pole is calling a “joy ride” were not injured when Santa’s Sleigh overturned.
“I’m just glad that no one was hurt,” Santa Claus said in a rare pre-holiday interview that did not involve his appearance at a shopping mall. “When Mrs. Claus and I ordered a rotomolded sleigh from Gregstrom last year, we’d never heard of polyurethane foam filling. But thanks to the design assistance we received, Santa’s Sleigh got some needed impact resistance. Ho-Ho-Ho!”
Rotational molding is a plastics manufacturing process that creates strong, hollow products like sleigh panels that can be filled with polyurethane foam for buoyancy, rigidity, impact strength, cushioning, and low-temperature insulation. The North Pole would not confirm whether buoyancy was a design requirement because of Santa’s concerns about a possible water landing.
“Let’s not spend our holiday season worrying about what may or may not happen,” Mrs. Claus smiled at reporters in a Zoom interview from her kitchen, where a rotomolded tank that contained cookie frosting was clearly visible. “I first heard about rotational molding back when I was earning my degrees in engineering and material science, and I trust what it can do for us here at the North Pole.”
Unlike injection molding, another plastics production process, rotational molding has low tooling costs. That’s important with large, one-of-a-kind items like Santa’s sleigh since mold costs can’t be amortized across high volumes of parts. Rotational molding also supports molded-in hardware and permanent parts marking, an attractive alternative to labels or stickers that tend to peel under winter weather conditions.
“Gregstrom is proud to be the North Pole’s manufacturing partner,” said Jeff DiDonato, the company’s president. “We’re excited about Christmas and are glad that Santa’s elves weren’t injured in the recent crash. Still, how did they not end up on the Naughty List?”
About Gregstrom Corporation
Since 1946, Gregstrom Corporation of Woburn, Massachusetts (USAA) has been Santa’s trusted manufacturing partner. In addition to sleighs, Gregstrom makes rotomolded parts and products for industrial, commercial, and medical customers. Visit the company’s portfolio to see examples of these rotationally molded products, or contact Gregstrom for more information.
