In these short lines, we report some information on the activities of the committees that are in charge of defining standards for furniture surfaces at international level.
In this regard, we would like to point out that alongside the "historical" Working Group 7 (Surfaces) of Technical Committee 207 (Furniture) of CEN, Working Group 8 (Surfaces) of Technical Committee 136 (Furniture) of ISO, the international standardization organization has also been active for a few years now.
The work of the latter group is particularly relevant as it is leading to the standardization of test methods for furniture surfaces on a global level. The hope is that in the years to come, for example a light exposure test or a scratch resistance test can be carried out in the same way in Europe, China, the USA and many other countries around the world, greatly simplifying technical requirements and specifications that today are often difficult to understand due to a different “regulatory language”.
A further positive aspect of the situation described above is that the work of CEN is certainly considered the most advanced in the specific case of furniture surfaces. The European standards are therefore also taken as a reference by ISO and the first standards developed by the Working Group on Surfaces almost entirely follow the European methods.
Furniture Surfaces - Update on European Standards (EN) Recently published standards- EN 15185:2024 - Furniture - Assessment of the surface resistance to abrasion
- EN 13721:2023 - Furniture - Assessment of the surface reflectance
- EN 16611:2023 - Assessment of the surface resistance to microscratching
- CEN/TS 16209:2022 - Classification for properties for furniture surfaces
Standards in publication- EN 15186:2024 - Assessment of the surface resistance to scratching- Just published
- FprEN 15187:2024 - Assessment of the effect of light exposure - Under formal vote
Standards in ProcessIn the last meetings of Working Group 7 of TC 207, the draft on the definition of the uncertainty of test results was discussed.
The tolerance (evaluation ± 1) was clarified through the publication of a new non-standard document -
Draft Furniture - General guidelines about measurement uncertainty, in order to better interpret CEN/TR 17292 Technical report regarding precision data for standards EN 12720, EN 12721, EN 12722, EN 15185 and EN 15186.
The IHD laboratory in Dresden will soon present the results of a research on the synthetic wine to be used for the EN 12720 Cold Liquid Resistance test, and the new formulation of the standard detergent (in sustainability).
Furniture Surfaces - Update on International Standards (ISO) Published standards- ISO 4211-5:2021 - Assessment of resistance to abrasion
Standards in process- ISO/DIS 4211-1 - Assessment of resistance to cold liquids. Working on 3rd draft. An annex will be added containing the classification table based on CEN/TS 16209
- ISO 4211-6 - Assessment of resistance to scratching. The method, which is essentially the same as the European standard EN 15186, is ready for a formal vote
- During the next meetings, EN 15187 Assessment of the effect of light exposure will be presented to the WG with the request to make it an ISO standard
For info:Claudio Caon
+39 0432 747224
caon@catas.com
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