Furniture Industry Research Association summarise final quarter activity

The Furniture Industry Research Association have shared highlights from their work for the final quarter of 2018.

There was a lot of standards activity during the quarter which was made available to members. These included details of newly published standards for:

• BS EN 1022: 2018 Furniture - Seating - Determination of stability

• BS EN 1335-2: 2018 Office furniture. Office Work Chair. Safety Requirements

• BS EN 16780 Textile child care articles — Safety requirements and test methods for children's cot bumpers

• PD CEN/TR 17292: 2018 Technical report regarding precision data for standards EN 12720, EN 12721, EN 12722, EN 15185 and EN 15186

In addition the Research Association attended two standards meetings, insights of which were shared with members. These included a meeting of CEN TC 207 WG9, the European Standards committee that develops common test methods for furniture standards recently met in Berlin. The content of the meeting was wide ranging, covering everything from stability requirements for hanging and swing seats to electrically adjusted furniture and how to influence its application to furniture.

CEN TC207 WG1, the European standards committee tasked with producing standards for domestic furniture, also met in Berlin. The subjects discussed included the Machinery Directive and electrical furniture; an amendment to EN 14749 – domestic storage furniture – to look at the stability of TV units; the revision of EN 1129 Parts 1 and 2 – Foldaway beds; the revision of EN 1725 for domestic beds; clarification of the assembly and care instruction requirement contained within many European Standards and concluded with an update on work within ISO CEN TC136 preparing international furniture standards.

In November the Research Association announced that Buoyant Upholstery had achieved ‘Certified Company’ status under their ‘Compliance Scheme for the Fire Performance of Upholstered Furniture’. In order to become a Certified Company Buoyant Upholstery’s manufacturing site was audited to ensure due diligence procedures covering all facets of production were not only in place, but were robust enough to meet the requirements of the FFFSR. This included checking their process management systems, control of materials, traceability, compliance testing, labelling and crisis management.

Despite the current political climate, two Brexit papers were published. The first being guidance on buying and selling timber in a Brexit no-deal scenario. Furthermore a DEFRA (Department Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) paper was made available to members offering guidance to industry in the event of a ‘no deal Brexit’ scenario.

Turning to the FIRA Gold Certification, which is exclusive to FIRA Members, the Research Association recognised BA Clic Components with their second FIRA Gold Product Certification for their General Domestic Kitchen Range. This follows on from a previous Gold certification for their Kitchen Doors and Panels originally awarded in June 2010.

Anyone wishing to see first-hand the work of the Furniture Industry Research Association are invited to attend their February Open Day which take place in Stevenage, Herts.