Production and Quality

Healthy Living
You are sure to have come across consumers who have a genuine fear of furniture that can make you ill. And this fear should not really surprise us. In numerous newspaper reports and television programmes consumers have heard about PCP in wood preservation fluids and leather, about formaldehyde in chipboard, about solvents in lacquers and a whole lot more that can cause long-term damage in high concentrations. It would be wrong to dismiss such fears out of hand. Many a furniture house brings the ingredients for a real poison cocktail into its showrooms above all with untested imports – and the consumer then takes them home. Nowadays consumers have acquired so much information that some feel frightened simply by the typical smell of a piece of furniture. The RAL Seal of Quality provides the consumer with reliable security in buying furniture that is free of dangerous substances in such cases, too.

Stability goes without saying
The stability of the furniture is thoroughly checked in ongoing tests. And the furniture testers are quite capable of thinking up some really “rotten“ tests – but nothing should go wrong with furniture that bears the RAL Seal of Quality. No piece of furniture should break, splitter, tear or not withstand in any other way day-to-day use over many years. For the prerequisite for the award of the RAL Seal of Quality is: quality. And this means high-grade materials and careful workmanship.

Safety is our top priority
Safety is the product of stability and durability, but also of the results of other tests that the furniture is subjected to. Furniture with lighting, for example, must be subjected to electrical safety tests. For the later user should be protected against getting an electric shock. With their tests the testers would like to ensure that nothing untoward will happen in normal everyday use. The German Furniture Quality Association (GFQA ) laid down the comprehensive tests to be made, because one thing is sure with the GFQA: safe is safe. That's the reason for all the hard tests.