BIFMA’s X6.5-2022 Standard addresses home office and occasional-use desk, table and storage products

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the introduction of the safety and performance standard: ANSI/BIFMA X6.5-2022 Home Office and Occasional-Use Desk, Table and Storage Products, as recently announced by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA).

The BIFMA Sub-Committees for Desks, Tables and Files worked diligently for the past three and one-half years to introduce this ANSI standard. This standard is a revision and re-designation of ANSI/SOHO S6.5-2008(R2013) Small Office / Home Office. The Sub-Committees began work in 2018 with an invitation to broad industry stakeholder participation to revise and re-designate ANSI/SOHO S6.5.

The Sub-Committees revised ANSI/BIFMA X5.5 Desk and Table Standard in 2021 and used this standard and ANSI/BIFMA X5.9-2019 Storage Units as the basis for ANSI/BIFMA X6.5-2022 Home Office and Occasional-Use Desk, Table and Storage Products.

Numerous participants worked on extensive reviews of the standard, and many improvements have been achieved. There was special emphasis on the Stability, Leg Strength, and Height Adjustable Desk/Table Surfaces tests.

Several multi-stakeholder lab workshops were held in 2018 and 2019. In 2020 and 2021 the draft proposals were reviewed by the BIFMA Association and approved. Thanks to the hard work of the BIFMA Sub-Committees and diverse industry stakeholders, this national consensus standard was finalized and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on April 5, 2022.

The timeline in revising this standard, both before and during the pandemic, provided timely insights that benefited the development of tests and requirements for products used in the home office. The Scope of ANSI/BIFMA X6.5-2022 includes the following: “This standard provides a common basis for evaluating the safety, durability and structural performance of home office and occasional-use desk, table and storage products.”

Copies of the new ANSI/BIFMA Standard X6.5-2022 Home Office and Occasional-Use Desk, Table and Storage Products are available from BIFMA for members, and from Techstreet for non-members.