Furniture & Furnishings

Flammability and Fire Resistance Lab Testing of Commercial and Domestic Furniture and Furnishings

Domestic Upholstery:

The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (as amended in 1989, 1993 and 2010) set levels of fire resistance for domestic upholstered furniture, furnishings and other domestic related products containing upholstery. The Regulations provide schedules 1-5 relating to individual components of domestic upholstered furniture and schedules 6-7 for the labelling requirements.

Three methods of tests are used to satisfy the requirements of the regulations.

BS 5852 Part 1: 1979 – Fire tests for furniture. Methods of test for the ignitibility by smokers’ materials of upholstered composites for seating

BS 5852 Part 2: 1982 – Fire tests for furniture. Methods of test for the ignitibility by smokers’ materials of upholstered composites by flaming sources.

BS 6807: 1986 – Methods of test for the ignitability of mattresses with primary and secondary sources of ignition.

Commercial Upholstery:

At present there is no legislation directly controlling the ignitibility of contract and office furniture, there are statutory and other requirements in use, however attention is drawn to The Furniture & Furnishing (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 in respect of the filling materials of upholstered furniture. In the UK BS 7176: 2007+A1: 2011 lists four different hazard categories and specifies the ignitibility performance of upholstery composites for use in these areas.

The methods of tests used are those described in:

BS EN 1021-1: 2006 – Assessment of the ignitibility of upholstered furniture – Part 1: Ignition source smouldering cigarette.

BS EN 1021-2: 2006 – Assessment of the ignitibility of upholstered furniture – Part 2: Match flame equivalent.

BS 5852: 2006 – Methods of test for the assessment of the ignitability of upholstered seating by smouldering and flaming ignition sources.