By Patricia Okumu
The Kenya Bureau of Standards has advised importers to avoid the importation of poor substandard furniture by ensuring that they get test reports from manufacturing companies before they get shipped in.
Through regular review of risky substandard imports, KEBS has upgraded furniture as one of the products that are high-risk in non-compliance to conformance standards.
To safeguard against unfair trade practices, KEBS will intensify surveillance to ensure only quality furniture is imported. In this case, is the certification of a young man’s recently invented bed.
During the certification process officers from KEBS provided guidance on improvement areas, which included enhancement of stability of the bed, making strong guard rails to prevent patients falling off and changing of base material from wood to steel.
As per the applicable standard, the hospital bed should not be constructed using wood as it is an easier recipient of germs and pathogens and therefore steel is recommended. Certification of the bed affirms SMEs’ role in the furniture industry.
The standards specify the general dimensions, Strength, Stability, and Durability. In particular, KEBS has developed the hospital bed standards that include; KS 2462- 1: 2015 for ordinary beds, KS 2462-2 for paediatric (baby) cots, and KS 2462-3: 2017, Obstetric bed.
To ensure the beds are of quality, a standard test method has been developed; KS ISO19833:2018, Furniture Beds Test methods for the determination of stability, strength, and durability.
Other Standards for furniture include; KS ISO 24496:2017 Office furniture – Methods for determination of dimensions that are used by designers to develop measurements for ergonomics purposes; KS ISO 821:2005 Plastic monobloc chairs – Specification a standard for plastic chairs and; KS 2817:2018 Furniture-Wooden office table-Specification.
In addition to these standards, KEBS has also embraced the usage of new material used in the manufacture of furniture by the inclusion of bamboo as a construction material through the development of KS 2930:2021 Bamboo-culm furniture – General technical requirements.
The new standard offers alternative materials for the manufacture of furniture for both local manufacturers and for imports.
While consumers retain their rights to purchase imported furniture due to their modern design features, they also suffer huge losses as some of this furniture is not durable and is weaker in terms of strength as compared to the locally manufactured furniture. In order to curb all that, it is advisable that SMEs be provided with common user machines such as CNC routers, CNC plasma cutting machines, and other furniture machines for enhanced production of quality furniture comparable to the imports but superior in strength and durability.
