EN 16121 Non-Domestic Storage Furniture - Requirements for Safety, Strength, Durability and Stability

The European standard “EN 16121 Non-domestic storage furniture - Requirements for safety, strength, durability and stability” describes the safety, strength and durability requirements for all types of non-domestic storage furniture, including office storage furniture. This standard does not apply to domestic storage, industrial storage, kitchen, catering equipment, retail storage and industrial storage cabinets. Furthermore, the strength and durability requirements do not apply to the structure of the building, for example the strength of wall-hung cabinets only includes the cabinets and the parts used for attachment. The wall and wall connections are not included.

This standard includes five annexes:

• Annex A (normative): Test methods for finger compression and shear and compression
• Annex B (normative): Requirements for schools, kindergartens and similar practices
• Appendix C (normative): Selection of items from a range of furniture
• Annex D (informative): Application-related test severity guide for non-domestic storage furniture
• Annex E (informative): Recommended loads for tests not specified in this standard.

This standard does not include requirements for resistance to ageing, deterioration and flammability.

For the purposes of this standard, the following terms and definitions apply:

• Accessible parts mean those parts that are readily accessible to the user when in the intended configuration of use and with which the user is likely to make unintentional contact, including those parts less than 1.000 mm above any surface on which a child may stand, but excluding doors, sashes and extensions, including their hardware. These parts include, but are not limited to:
  • The exposed edges and corners of storage units that are accessible to the user when doors, drawers and extensions are closed.
  • Corners and edges of handles.
• Parts accessible during assembly and folding are parts that can only be accessed when the furniture is being assembled and folded.
• The unit is the complete piece of furniture including the structure and all components such as drawers, doors and other storage features.
• Clear height is the unobstructed height above the bottom surface, such as the top of the bottom extension member and the bottom edge of the top extension member or structure of the unit.
• A leveling device is an adjustable device designed to keep a piece of furniture perpendicular to the floor, such as adjustable feet or similar.
• The tray is a storage element designed to be removed from the storage unit and used independently during normal use.
• Potential energy is the value calculated by multiplying the total mass (kg) of the unit (or part), the gravity (m/s2) and the height from the ground to the centre of gravity (m). For the purpose of this standard, the gravity is assumed to be 10 m/s2.

Where a single unit is provided for testing, all safety tests shall be carried out on the same specimen and in the order in which they are listed in this standard. Endurance tests may be carried out on a second specimen. For a range of units of similar construction and sharing hardware, or for single units with features using the same hardware and fixings (e.g. a unit with drawers of different sizes), selected tests shall be carried out on the worst case units/components as detailed in the appendix to the standard (Annex C). The tests shall be carried out in the order in which they are listed in this standard. If a unit or component within a product range does not meet the requirements of this standard, compliance cannot be claimed for the entire range.

Unless otherwise stated, the following tolerances apply:

• Forces: Plus/minus 5 percent of nominal force. Forces can be replaced by masses.
• Speeds: Plus/minus 5 percent of rated speed.
• Masses: Plus/minus 1 percent of nominal mass.
• Dimensions: All dimensions less than 300 mm shall have a tolerance of plus/minus 1 mm of the nominal size. All other dimensions shall have a tolerance of plus/minus 0,5 percent of the nominal size.
• Angles: Plus/minus 2 degrees of the nominal angle.

For the purposes of uncertainty measurement, test results are not considered to be adversely affected when the above tolerances are met.

The general safety requirements are based on the knowledge that storage furniture and its parts are only likely to cause injury if they are heavy and fall a significant distance. This is possible if floor-standing units remain stable, wall- or screen-mounted units are separated or heavy parts are separated from the units. Therefore, the tests included in the table provided in the standard are considered to affect safety only if:

• The height of the centre of gravity of the unit or any part is at least 650 mm above the floor and the total mass is at least 10 kg.
• The potential energy of the unit or any part is at least 65 Nm and the height of the centre of gravity of the unit or any part is not more than 650 mm.

The general safety requirements are described in this standard as follows: Storage units must be designed to minimise the risk of injury to the user. All parts of the storage unit that the user comes into contact with during intended use must be designed to avoid physical injury and damage. This requirement is met if:

• Accessible parts must be rounded or chamfered and all other edges accessible during intended use must be free of burrs and sharp edges.
• 61 cm tubular components must be sealed.

Our organization, which has been trying to support businesses from every sector with its testing, measurement, analysis and evaluation studies carried out in a wide range for years, has a strong staff that closely follows the developments in the world in the field of science and technology and constantly improves itself. In this context, testing services in accordance with the "EN 16121 Outdoor storage furniture - Requirements for safety, strength, durability and balance" standard are also provided to businesses.