Furniture tipping accidents: redesign for prevention

Published Further
September 1998, Vol.30(5):625–639, doi:10.1016/S0001-4575(98)00013-X

Author 

C.G Drury ^a,

S.J Czaja ^b

G.V Prabhu ^a

R.W Mayne ^a

S Noland ^c

aState University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14260, U.S.A.

bDepartment of Industrial Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, U.S.A.

cUnited States Postal Service, Technical and Engineering Division, Menrifield, VA 22082, U.S.A.

Received 14 August 1996. Revised 24 January 1998. Available online 1 December 1998. 

Abstract

A large public service organization was concerned with protection of its customers against hazards associated with furniture tipping in public use concourses. Because no injury experience was available for analysis, hazard patterns for tipping accidents were developed from an observational study of public interaction with the furniture. For each hazard pattern, anthropometric models were used to find the probability of the furniture being safe from tipping, for different age and gender combinations. A safety criterion was developed from this modeling, and used to change the weights of some furniture items to resist tipping. These modifications have now been implemented and are in widespread use. Implications for broader application of these models to the development of valid tipping standards for furniture are discussed.

Keywords

Furniture

Tipping

Biomechanics

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  Corresponding author. Tel.: 001 716 645 2357; Fax: 001 716 645 3302; e-mail: drury@acsu.buffalo.edu

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