Panels & Furniture Asia March/April 2024

FURNITURE MANUFACTURING
by laboratory tests and made clear to the end
user by specific labelling. CATAS reported
that a discussion with the American Home
Furnishing Alliance (AHFA) started on this
first document, which led to an evaluation of
its practical effects on marketed products
and its actual effectiveness.
Parallel to what the CPSC was doing,
however, there was a second initiative
that at the legislative level was called the
STURDY Act, which stood for Stop Tipovers
of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth
Act. This study considered to maintain the
existing standard, ASTM F2057, but checked
whether it could be updated to meet the
safety requirements expressed by the US
authorities.
The manufacturers were more in favour of
this second option, as CATAS claimed, and
the following discussions finally led to a
compromise between the two strategies.
A key step at this point was the review
that CPSC did on the new version of ASTM
F2057, establishing that it met the safety
requirements and became the mandatory
reference for CSUs once updated. The
requirements in the updated ASTM standard
are mandatory for furniture produced from
1 Sep 2023 onwards and intended for the US
market, which means all furniture exports into
the US must meet the requirements under
ASTM F2057-23, and not F2057-19 anymore. 3
The F2057-23 standard specifies to verify the
stability of CSUs complying various laboratory
tests: a stability test to simulate a load in the
cabinet; a stability test to simulate a dynamic
horizontal force; a stability test to simulate
a child’s use of a CSU placed on a carpet; an
interlock test, where the mechanism allows
only one drawer to be opened at a time; and
lastly, the testing of anti-tilt systems, which
refers to the ASTM 3096 standard. The ASTM
3096 is “intended to define the test method
and other requirements for tipover restraints
as required in ASTM F2057-23”. 4 The only
revision to the standard in 2023 is the
increase in “the static load applied from 50
pounds to 60 pounds”.
The ASTM F2057-23 applies to
free-standing CSUs, including but
not limited to dressers, chests of
drawers, cabinets with drawers and/or
doors, with the following characteristics:
cabinet height of more than or equals to
68.6cm; weight of more than or equals
to 13.6kg; loadable volume of more than
of equals to 90.6dm 3 . Bookcases, office
furniture, dining room furniture, jewellery
cabinets, under-bed drawers, laundry
storage units, furniture whose use is not
intended for the bedroom, and wallmounted
furniture are not included. P
References
1. US Federal Register. Vol.87 No 226 Nov 2022.
2. ASTM International. ASTM F2057-19.
3. US Federal Register. Safety Standard for Clothing
Storage Units.
MARCH / APRIL 2024 | PANELS & FURNITURE ASIA 45