First school chair receives the FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award
FIRA is pleased to announce that the Newton chair by Orangebox is the first school chair to receive the prestigious FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award, in recognition of its exceptional ergonomic design.
The FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award identifies genuine ergonomic excellence in furniture products used in workplace, school and domestic environments by clearly distinguishing those that are outstanding from other products in the marketplace.
In order to receive the Award, safety, user-friendliness and the comfort and wellbeing of the user are considered, as well as whether the product is fit for purpose both structurally and ergonomically.
Classrooms have historically been ergonomically challenging environments for students. Dimensional misfit and lack of movement puts pressure on the spine. Furniture must therefore fit the users, support learning environments and be fit for purpose.
The Newton has an adjustable seat and integral footrest to help avoid dimensional mismatch, which can cause fatigue and loss of concentration in the classroom. It also incorporates a simple two tilt sitting position, enabling students to lean back to listen in comfort and to tip forward for a more healthy upright reading and writing position when working at a table. The Newton chair is the first of a number of products the Company is providing aimed at ergonomics in the classroom
FIRA's Senior Ergonomist Levent Caglar has campaigned for an improvement in ergonomic standards in schools for a number of years. Levent is the Principal UK ergonomics expert on European (CEN) and International (ISO) standards committees, which are responsible for producing ergonomics standards for educational, office, contract and domestic furniture. He is the convenor of the European committee for furniture for educational institutions.
Levent has undertaken many studies for the Department for Education, the results of which have been used by the department for the production of their guidelines on the use and purchase of school furniture. He has also provided the ergonomics data for the School furniture website www.schoolfurniture.uk.com which provides ergonomic data for school furniture and fittings.
Commenting on the Newton school chair, Levent said, "Newton chair not only achieves a very good fit for a wide range of children but also brilliantly incorporates natural movement for children's well-being. Children are able to adopt comfortable dynamic postures whilst sitting on Newton chairs.
Levent added, "The importance and understanding of ergonomics is growing rapidly, with many educational authorities and establishments seeing the benefits of using ergonomically designed products in terms of health and safety as well as behaviour and ability to learn"
Orangebox Ergonomist Jim Taylour, said "We are delighted that the Newton chair is the first school chair to receive the FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award. This means that those buying our product are assured that the Newton chair has been designed with the users' safety, comfort and ease of use in mind, as well as being aesthetically pleasing and fit-for-purpose."
FIRA's recognition of genuine ergonomic excellence in the design and manufacture of products will provide distinction from competitors, whilst assisting specifiers in purchasing genuinely ergonomically designed furniture.
FIRA is keen to encourage other manufacturers and designers to aspire to the Ergonomics Excellence Award. All items of workplace, school, domestic furniture and computer workstations and accessories are eligible, provided that they comply with the latest relevant British (BS), European (EN) and International (ISO) standards, which FIRA's trials will require them to exceed.
If you have a product which you would like to put forward for the FIRA Ergonomics Excellence Award, contact the FIRA Contact Customer Services on 01438 777700.
