by Brianna Crandall — June 22, 2018 — The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), the voice for the commercial furniture industry and developer of safety, performance, and sustainability standards that ensure product performance, has approved new criteria for Product Conformance Requirements. The new document, BIFMA PC-2018, is available free of charge on BIFMA’s website.
The BIFMA Board of Directors and Engineering Committee worked closely together to develop these requirements. Historically, BIFMA offered a one-page guideline, “Statement of Conformance to BIFMA Standards,” which covered the most basic rules for making claims of compliance to ANSI/BIFMA standards.
The Board determined a market need for more specific criteria to establish conformance. The new BIFMA PC-2018 Product Conformance Requirements offers detail-oriented guidance on test planning and protocols, sampling, and making claims of compliance.
According to the BIFMA site, this requirements document applies to all products declared as being in conformance with ANSI/BIFMA mechanical performance standards and the BIFMA G1 Ergonomics Guideline, which pertains to furniture used in office workspaces.
BIFMA recommends that all manufacturers, specifiers, testing labs, and users of office and institutional furniture obtain a copy of BIFMA PC-2018, as this will enable all industry stakeholders to share a common understanding of product conformance. The BIFMA site notes that companies making claims of product conformance for BIFMA standards need to follow these requirements when making conformance statements, and customers who buy products with such claims should be confident that any individual product they purchase would pass the appropriate BIFMA tests.
Complimentary copies of BIFMA PC-2018 are available from BIFMA immediately. This and other standards may be ordered from the BIFMA Online Store.
