Element offers comprehensive furniture testing services to evaluate the safety, durability, and structural adequacy of your product, ensuring that it is quality, safe to use, and fit for purpose. 

Assessing the performance of a furniture unit is a critical part of furniture testing, allowing manufacturers to gain an understanding of the safety and quality of their product while ensuring it maintains its integrity in the most challenging environments. 

Although voluntary, testing furniture for its performance creates a distinct competitive advantage, enabling to get new products to market faster and more cost-effectively. 

Performing furniture testing

Element’s specialized laboratories are equipped with advanced robotic and hydraulic systems that allow us to provide comprehensive Å·ÃÀÊìÅ®ÂÒÂ× for a full range of furniture. We combine static and cyclic tests to simulate the stresses that would be placed on furniture in a normal-use environment and give you results close to real product behavior in an application. 

We conduct furniture testing in accordance with all the major standards such as ANSI/BIFMA, SEFA, ANSI/SOHO, ANSI/KCMA, CKCA and CGSB. Our test reports provide detailed and accurate results that can be used to eliminate the hazards and uncertainties associated with production, maintaining your product for long service life.  

The Element advantage

Element’s furniture testing facility is accredited to ISO 17025 to conduct a wide range of performance testing. With an in-depth understanding of the testing requirements and the industry regulations, our experts are committed to helping you gain timely and efficient market access by providing comprehensive tests that meet the latest furniture testing standards.

In addition to performance testing, our breadth of Å·ÃÀÊìÅ®ÂÒÂ× allows us to offer flammability testing services on your furniture product to ensure that it does not ignite or pose a risk to lives and property in its normal-use environment. Specifically, we test seating furniture to CAL TB 133 and office wall partitions to ASTM E84 and CAN/ULC-S102. 

These Å·ÃÀÊìÅ®ÂÒÂ×, coupled with our vast materials testing knowledge, allow us to be your partner of choice for all of your furniture testing needs. For more information on our services and the standards we test to, contact us today. 

Element’s experts have a high level of expertise in furniture testing, and our Å·ÃÀÊìÅ®ÂÒÂ× allow us to test just about any product. We specialize in performance testing for office furniture, laboratory furnishing, and kitchen and vanity cabinets. 

Some of the products we test include:

  • Desk and table products used in commercial office and related institutional environments (e.g., educational environments)
  • Educational seating (seating for students in pre-school, elementary, middle school, high school, adult education, trade school, and college environments)
  • General-purpose office chairs
  • Institutional lounge and public seating used indoor in public spaces (e.g., waiting, reception, or gathering areas)
  • Laboratory grade furniture (metal and wood)
  • Kitchen cabinets and vanities
  • Office chairs for large occupants
  • Panel systems products (panels, screens, panel-supported systems, access doors, and various hang-on components used in conjunction with panel systems products)
  • Storage units (freestanding, mobile, and wall-mounted storage units)

As testing requirements continually evolve in the furniture industry, our experts stay on top of current standards and regulatory changes to provide the latest industry information and testing methods. Whether it is for office furniture, laboratory furnishing, or educational seating, we can help you to establish compliance with a variety of industry standards. 

The furniture standards we are accredited to test to include: 

American National Standards Institute/Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association

  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.1
  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.4
  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.5
  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.6
  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.9
  • ANSI/BIFMA X5.11
  • ANSI/BIFMA X6.1

Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association

  • SEFA – 8METAL
  • SEFA -8WOOD

American National Standards Institute/Small Office Home Office

  • ANSI/SOHO S6.5

American National Standards Institute/Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association

  • ANSI/KCMA 161.1

Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association

  • BIFMA CMD 1

Canadian Standards

  • CKCA
  • CAN/CGSB-44.227
  • CAN/CGSB-44.229
  • CAN/CGSB-44.232

Other Standards

  • PD-1, PD-3, PD-4
  • GPD-2, GPD 6, GPD 10

Our team of over 9,000 Engaged Experts in North America, Europe, The Middle East, Australia, Asia and Africa are ready to help you.