The ANSI/BIFMA Safety and Performance Standards are developed by the BIFMA Engineering Committee. The standards are reviewed every five years according to guidelines established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The standards are intended to provide manufacturers, specifiers, and users with a common basis for evaluating safety, durability, and the structural adequacy of the specified furniture, independent of construction materials. The standards define specific tests, laboratory equipment to be used, the conditions of test, and the minimum acceptance levels to be used in evaluating these products. Copies of obsolete editions of the various standards are available upon request. All accredited standards developers must follow the ANSI Essential Requirements and their own set of written procedures in the process of developing new or revising existing standards. To obtain a copy of the ANSI Essential requirements go to http://www.ansi.org. If you are interested in the procedures that BIFMA uses in developing standards you may download a copy from the following: BIFMA Revised Proc_14June07.pdf Also, BIFMA is accredited by ANSI to be the administrator of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee TC-136 Furniture. This has been very useful for BIFMA in our involvement with International Standards for office furniture. However, ISO TC-136 covers ALL furniture, not just office furniture. If you have an interest in International Standards for furniture that would be other than office furniture, BIFMA would like to hear from you.
BIFMA e3-2008 Furniture Sustainability Standard and level™ Certification Program BIFMA International and NSF International (NSF) announced the release of BIFMA e3-2008 Furniture Sustainability Standard to the NSF consensus ballot process and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) public comment period in June of 2008. The standard is an open, consensus based method to evaluate the sustainable attributes of furniture products.  It addresses all three aspects of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) and includes criteria for evaluating human & ecosystem health, energy, natural resource and corporate social responsibility impacts. The draft standard is downloadable here: BIFMA e3-2008.pdf. In June of 2009, BIFMA announced the premier of the product certification program, level™. For more information, the news release is available at http://bifma.org/news/newsrelease.pdfs/level_PR_05.pdf and the level™ website is: http://levelcertified.org
GENERAL PURPOSE OFFICE CHAIRS X5.1 The Chair Subcommittee completed the Association Ballot of X5.1-2009/2010 and approved to start ANSI Canvass. If you are interested in participating in the ANSI Canvass please contact Roxanne DeBoer at BIFMA email@bifma.org.
EDUCATIONAL SEATING The Working Group met recently on November 18, 2009 at Advanced Furniture Testing in Holland, MI and at Herman Miller, Inc. to review various Educational Furniture items and plan for the meeting April 14 & 15, 2010 at the Grand Rapids Hilton Inn. Copies of the proposed Draft will be available to non-BIFMA members on a limited basis. Contact Dick Driscoll. Note: This draft document is not to be used, quoted or in anyway referenced in a contract bid or specifications.
ANSI/BIFMA FURNITURE EMISSIONS STANDARDS
X5.6 PANEL SYSTEMS STANDARD The Panel Systems Association Ballot is complete and all voters returned Affirmative votes. There were no Negative votes. However, there were four Affirmative ballots received with constructive/valuable comments. A Comments Review Team will meet, review the comments with each commentor (address minor issues) and recommend to the Panel Subcommittee to proceed to ANSI Canvass. Contact Roxanne DeBoer if you are interested in participating in the ANSI Canvass. email@bifma.org or (616) 285-3963.
X5.5 DESK/TABLE STANDARD APPROVED BY ANSI JANUARY 2, 2008.
SMALL OFFICE HOME OFFICE PRODUCTS APPROVED BY ANSI AUGUST 4, 2008. NEW EDITION AVAILABLE FROM BIFMA.
BIFMA X5.3 - 2007 VERTICAL FILES - NEW EDITION AVAILABLE FROM BIFMA
BIFMA COLOR MEASUREMENT STANDARD Color 3.1-2005 (Approved October 19, 2005)
BIFMA TEXTILE CHARACTERISTICS STANDARD Tex4.1-2005 (Approved March 9, 2005)
BIFMA QUALITY SYSTEM STANDARD
ERGONOMIC GUIDELINES G1-2002
SUSTAINABILITY GUIDELINES-2005 Developed to provide a roadmap for office furniture manufacturers and suppliers of all sizes to establish and/or expand their environmental management systems and include sustainable business practices.
PD-1-2004 INDUSTRY DEFINITIONS
DEFINITION OF STANDARD WORKSTATION SYSTEMS For use in LEED-CI MR Credit 4.1 and 4.2 (Recycled Content)
Information on locations and capabilities of test labs worldwide.
Order ANSI/BIFMA Safety and Performance Standards using our Online Order Form or using our Printable Order Form (Printable Order Form requies Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
Contact: Richard P. Driscoll, Director of Technical Services if you have comments or questions.
This page updated 2010-01-19