The Furniture Industry Research Association (FIRA) in conjunction with the Furniture Retail Quality Group (FRQG) has published four new standards which relate to children’s furniture.
The FRQG comprises representatives from most of the major retailers of furniture in the UK. The group, which is chaired by FIRA, specialises in producing standards and guidance documents covering areas of interest with the furniture industry that are not fully covered by British or European standards.
The group’s most recently published standards relate to revised documents for children’s furniture and comprise:
> FIRA-FRQG C001: 2016 Furniture – Children’s domestic furniture – General safety requirements
> FIRA-FRQG C002: 2016 Furniture – Children’s domestic furniture – Seating – Requirements for strength, stability and durability
> FIRA-FRQG C003: 2016 Furniture – Children’s domestic furniture – Tables – Requirements for strength, stability and durability
> FIRA-FRQG C004: 2016 Furniture – Children’s domestic furniture – Storage furniture – Requirements for strength, stability and durability
As a summary, updates to the general safety document, seating and tables documents mostly centre around updates to standard references. In light of recent safety reports the changes to the document for storage furniture enhances the requirements for wall attachment devices and warnings relating to ensuring storage items are attached to the building.
The standards, which are free to FIRA members, are available from www.fira.co.uk/publications/guides. Non-members can purchase copies from the TRADA bookshop at https://bookshop.trada.co.uk
