“First bell ring, First of September, first time to school” – this day remains in memory for life. A child wants to study and get to know new and interesting things when he comes to school, meets classmates, sees student’s desks, cozy classroom.
When a child starts to study at school he spends much time in a fixed sedentary position for a long period during lessons. In time child may feel fatigue. When he is ten years old he’d probably need to visit orthopedist. Ten years is the age when scoliosis is formed. Let’s ask a question – what kind of furniture should children have?
Preschool and school furniture fabrication is allowed only to specialized facilities with a separate branch of juvenile furniture manufacturing. It is a knowledge-intensive and high-technology process that combines use of modern technologies and world standard professional technological equipment. Good juvenile furniture should minimize risk of diseases therefore ergonomics of juvenile furniture is extremely important.
Furniture for modern student should be:
First of all one should pay attention to materials and accessories used for student’s furniture manufacturing, i.e. chemical and mechanical safety. For example SINTEX uses laminated chip board by Austrian company EGGER that meets all norms of high ecological safety (E1 class) and can be used for juvenile furniture fabrication. For the sake of long service life student’s desk edges are treated with edge material by German company REHAU that in its turn guarantee quality, ecological and mechanical safety of furniture edges. We do not treat table-tops with usual furniture (paper, melamine) edge as it can be damaged during first month of service.
Materials used for desk and chair facing should have low thermal conductivity (no more than 0,46W/m2) and withstand exposure from warm water, detergent and cleaning agents.
Metal frames of school furniture are manufactured from steel tube of square profile that is stronger than more fashionable round profile. Metal frame of furniture is painted with anticorrosive polymer powder paint. These paints are wear- and impact-resistant, they held to keep good external look of school furniture for long period.
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First of all one should pay attention to usage of basic production decisions that provide injury prevention:
Juvenile furniture structure should not have fold-back sets, clamps and mechanisms, sharp angles and edges, protruding screws and bolts and other things that create danger of injury, entrapment and so on. Furniture should not have seediness and sticking parts, transforming elements should be equipped with fixing elements.
One should also pay attention to possibility of injury if using furniture not properly. Remember how often your child or you stood on a chair with your feet. That’s why juvenile furniture should possess high strength property.
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Opening, pull-out devices and fastening elements bear intensive load in juvenile furniture. That’s why we use hardware by Austrian company BLUM when designing our furniture.
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Special adjustable feet are used in cabinets and racks, for desks we use special pads preventing furniture contact with the floor after cleaning and peeling of the edge and laminated chip board swelling are used.
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Cabinets for teaching aids and different didactic materials are manufactured in four types: open racks (for demonstration materials and exhibition of students’ work), semi-closed (with opened and closed parts), closed and cabinets with glassed upper part (for safety reasons glass in cabinets is used only in MDF profile). Door knob is used in cabinets (due to plated coating it has longer service life, less hazardous because of sharp angles absence).
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During installation cabinets are connected with special assembly ties in order to prevent them from falling.
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Shelves in cabinet have rigid fixation on special assembly ties that prevent from falling out and allows furniture assembling-disassembling.
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Adjustable feet smooth floor unevenness.
All cabinets and racks have four dimensions in height, two in width, if combined with corner elements (that act as rounding elements) give possibility to equip any office with required furniture kit.
Pupil’s spine is still forming and will get hard only in age of adolescence. When 6-7 years old child goes to school his spine is still flexible as plasticine. It is the very time when one should pay attention to proper bearing.
Otherwise the following complications may occur:
Following conditions should be observed for student’s body right position:
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Feet used by SINTEX (2-6 growth group) allows furniture to “grow” together with children, they are safer in service because of table-top rounded form.
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Chair back and seat have physiological bends and incline angles. This requirement is stipulated by convenience as well as by safety in service. Chair without bend of front edge has negative influence on leg blood circulation, back curve and pitch – on back position. These requirements dot not accept usage of flat plywood and wood chip board for student’s chair details fabrication.
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Usage of square tube for chair structure provides special stability of the product.
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Line of furniture for teachers comprises desks with convenient built-in drawers and closed shelves, mobile and additional pedestals, office chair.
Special classrooms such as Chemistry, Physics, Biology and computer classrooms should be equipped with specialized furniture. Special attention should be paid for observance of safety instructions and conformity with sanitary standards. For example surfaces of demonstration and laboratory desks should be treated with special compound resistant to corrosion environment.
Standard desks and tables are not suitable for foreign language classrooms as repeated listening and spelling of texts is required for pronunciation and right articulation training. Therefore Sintex offers special desks with language cabins.
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Desk for foreign language classroom |
Computer desk |
Laboratory desk for Physics and Chemistry classrooms |
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Demonstration desk for Physics and Chemistry classrooms |
School libraries are equipped with racks with opened shelves, carrousel cabinet is used for specialty demonstration and books exposition.
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Lecterns are offered as well since different events, workshops are held in school.
It is very important to consider color when choosing juvenile furniture. It influences visual functions as well as performance, capability to acquire information.
Classroom equipped with light-colored furniture (treatment with texture preservation) is 20% brighter at the same time of the day than classroom equipped with desks painted in dark color provided the same windows orientation and wall color.
Surface of juvenile furniture should have dull color, so as glossy surface of tables, cabinets and of the other equipment results in fatigue: 12-18% decreases sharpness of sight, quickness of distinction, distinct vision.
For teacher workplace arrangement in classrooms we suggest to use desk-top organizers and stationery trays by means of which one can avoid disorder on the desk and inside the desk. Using hanger hooks and magazine holder a teacher will have all the necessary things at hand. We don’t forget that our teachers are mostly women; therefore mirror is an important part of the classroom. Free floating foot rest is foreseen to avoid thrombophlebitis and relieve leg tension at continuous work.
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desk-top organizer |
stationery tray |
desk-top organizer |
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wall-mounted mirror |
Hanger hook |
Newspaper and magazine holder |
The school consists not only from classrooms. Every school has principle office, teachers’ office, deputy principle office and a number of other rooms that need to be furnished with high-quality and low cost furniture. SINTEX company offers office furniture series that give possibility to furnish any room according to its service.
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If it is not possible to use line furniture SINTEX is ready to offer tailor-made furniture fabrication in the style of the rest of the furniture.
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Sintex offers a kitchen specially designed for housekeeping room in schools. The kitchen consists of modules, width 400 mm and 800 mm, having double bowls sink.
Adjustable feet avoid floor unevenness and provide easy cleaning under the cabinets.
Top cabinets have special ventilation slots for air circulation improvement.
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CONCLUSION: Use of ergonomic school furniture, meeting GOST requirements, satisfying children demand for activity result in health preservation, attention concentration and training results improvement.
