Educan’s Ergo Chairs Pass Safety Tests With Flying Colours

October 4, 2022

Educan takes safety and durability very seriously. In fact, “built to last” is one of three core pillars in the “made right” brand. One important way to keep this promise to our customers is through voluntary third-party testing and certification.

We’re pleased to announce that Educan’s Ergo Chair (1940) — which was re-designed in 2021 — has now passed a series of third-party tests that meet BIFMA’s educational seating standards. These tests certify the chair is safe and reliable for classrooms from pre-schools all the way through to college and university lecture halls. Specifically, the 1940 chair was evaluated for:

front stability test

Rear and front stability test

COMPLIES!

The rear and front stability tests ensure that the chairs don’t tip over when force is applied. To meet the BIFMA standard, the Ergo chair had 30 pounds of force (lbf) applied horizonally to the back and 135 lbf vertically to the front.

Structural stability makes it less likely for students to fall off their seats while fidgeting. However, kids rocking back and forth on the back legs will continue to cause a few unavoidable crashes in the classroom.

BIFMA drop test

Drop test

COMPLIES!

Just like it sounds, the drop test measures how strong the chair is when a large weight is dropped on it from above (imagine a student jumping from a desk onto the seat).

To meet the BIFMA standard, the test dropped 225-lb from 6” above the chair with no loss of serviceability (functional load). It also dropped 300-lb from 6” above the seat with no sudden change in structural integrity.

Last year, Educan performed its own drop test on the Ergo chair that went above and beyond the BIFMA standard. We dropped 330-lb on the chair from 22” (almost two feet!) above the seat without any changes to the frame or structural integrity.

Watch the video!

Backrest strength (static)

COMPLIES!

Backrest strength is important so that the back of the chair doesn’t warp or bend from normal leaning back in the chair. The testing agency applied 150 lbf (the functional load) without causing any damage to the chair and 225 lbf (the proof load) without compromising its structural integrity.

BIFMA corner load ease test

Seating durability tests (cyclic)

COMPLIES!

The seating durability tests are divided into two: an impact test and a front corner load-ease test. The impact test drops a 125-lb bag 100,000 times from 1.4” above the seat at a rate of 14 cycles per minute (CPM).

 The front corner load-ease test places a 200-lb bag 20,000 times (on both the right and left side of the chair) at a rate of 17 CPM. That’s a lot of pounding!

 

Backrest durability (cyclic)

COMPLIES!

The backrest durability test is closely related to the backrest strength test, but instead of applying a static (not-moving) force, the durability test uses a machine to repeatedly apply the same force over a period of time.

Educan’s Ergo-chair test simulated a 240-lb student sitting on the seat and pushing 80,000 times (cycles) against the backrest with 75 pounds of force (lbf)!

BIFMA leg strength test

Leg strength test (front and side)

COMPLIES!

To test the leg strength, a machine pulls on the legs from either side to ensure they don’t bend or break. The BIFMA standard requires the legs can be pulled frontwards, backwards, left, and right with 75 pounds of force (lbf) for the functional load and 113 lbf for the proof load.

In other words, it would take a powerful student with a grudge against ergonomic chairs to break off these legs.

What is BIFMA?

The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association (BIFMA) is a voluntary non-profit trade association that allows manufacturers to certify their products are safe for industrial and commercial industries. Educan’s Ergo chair was certified as “compliant” through a third-party testing facility in Canada that is BIFMA accredited.

If you have any questions about our products and their safety standards, please contact us at 604-517-1010.