On the 31st May, the new EN 1729-2 document was sent by CEN to all national standardization bodies for their publication.
With this article we want to let you know about the
important changes that the experts of the Technical Commission 207 of the CEN, working group 6, have
analyzed and studied for more than 5 years.
Let's start with the
scope: the standard specifies the safety requirements and test methods for chairs and tables in educational institutions, including kindergarten, childcare institutions and early years education settings, but does not apply to special purpose such as workstations, laboratories, ranked seating and workshops.
Let's go into the details of the changes regarding the
chairs:
- A reference to the weight of the end user has been introduced, which aligns with the data already present in the other seating standards: 110 kg.
- The reference to the stability test has been updated. To check if a chair complies with stability requirements, the current EN 1022:2018 will be applied, instead of the previous EN 1022:2005.
- The definition of "seat with single column" has been introduced. This type of seat is increasingly used in schools throughout Europe and therefore an additional verification has been introduced, which we will see listed in the following points.
- The evaluation of the safety requirements is stricter for the smaller "size" seats. References are made to standard EN 17191 "Seats for children" for chairs sizes from 0 to 3 and from 0 to 1.
- Stability: the minimum backward stability requirement for size 5, 6 and 7 seats has been reduced from 180 N to 140 N. The verification of the corner stability introduced by EN 1022:2018 has been added, but only for chairs sizes 4 to 7.
- Single column seating: the seat front edge durability test will not be more applied to this type of seating, but a side to side test has been introduced for chairs sizes from 3 to 7.
- Armrests: the fatigue test of the armrests has been introduced, already defined in the EN 1728 method and required in the other requirement standards (seats for domestic and non-domestic use, for example) and the test sequence has been modified when overload is foreseen (static load vertical armrests).
- The tests of the auxiliary writing surfaces (static load test and durability) have been introduced for all sizes of seats that are equipped with them.
- The information for use for seats of sizes from 0 to 3 has been modified. Also in this case, for these seats, reference will be made to EN 17191 "Seating for children".
At the following
link you could read a previous article published when the standard on children's chairs, EN 17191:
https://catas.com/en-GB/news/sedie-per-bambino Now let's move on to the main changes introduced for the
tables:
- The evaluation of the general safety requirements has been modified by removing the verification of the surface gloss of the table top according to EN 13722.
- The horizontal impact stability test has been added.
- The durability height adjustment mechanism of electrically operated tables has been added.
With this article we would like to inform our customers about the main changes: we suggest the purchase and a careful reading of the standard to be able to go into more detail.
We are always available for any clarification our customers may need, even with courses designed ad hoc according to their specific needs.
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