National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 16121:2023, incorporating corrigendum April 2025. It supersedes BS EN 14073‑2:2004 and BS EN 16121:2013+A1:2017, which are withdrawn.

The start and finish of text introduced or altered by corrigendum is indicated in the text by tags. Text altered by CEN corrigendum April 2025 is indicated in the text by .

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee FW/0/2, Domestic and Contract Furniture.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 January 2024.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 27 November 2023.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 16121:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 207 “Furniture”, the secretariat of which is held by UNI.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2024, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by June 2024.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 16121:2013+A1:2017 and EN 14073‑2:2004.

In comparison with the previous version EN 16121:2013+A1:2017 of edition EN 16121:2013 and of edition EN 14073‑2:2004, the following technical modifications have been made:

update on the requirements for finger entrapment reflecting CEN/TR 17202:2018 including an annex containing test methods;
normative references have been updated;
requirements for glass have been improved;
finger entrapment/shear squeeze requirements have been corrected and made applicable to kindergarten only;
office and laboratory storage have been added to the list of applications;
the fields of application in relation to the test severity were amended;
test load added in Annex E.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

1 Scope

This document specifies requirements for the safety, strength, and durability for all types of non-domestic storage furniture including office storage furniture.

It does not apply to domestic storage, industrial storage, kitchen, catering equipment, retail storage, and industrial storage lockers.

Requirements for strength and durability do not apply to the structure of the building for example the strength of wall hanging cabinets includes only the cabinets and the parts used for attachment. The wall and the wall attachments are not included.

This document contains five annexes:

Annex A (normative) Test methods for finger entrapment and shear and compression;
Annex B (normative) Requirements for schools, kindergartens and similar applications;
Annex C (normative) Selecting product from a range of furniture;
Annex D (informative) Guidance of test severity in relation to application for non-domestic storage furniture;
Annex E (informative) Suggested loads for tests not specified in this document.

It does not include requirements for the resistance to ageing, degradation and flammability.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Test sequence and tolerances

4.1 Individual units

4.2 Range of units

4.3 Tolerances

5 Safety requirements

5.1 Principles of safety requirements

5.2 General safety requirements

5.3 Holes in tubular/rigid components

5.4 Shear and compression points

5.5 Hinged horizontal lids

5.6 Vertical glass components

5.7 Stability

5.8 Structural safety

6 Strength and durability

6.1 General

6.2 Strength and durability requirements

7 Information for use

8 Test report

BS EN 16121:2023

Non-domestic storage furniture. Requirements for safety, strength, durability and stability

Current

Published:

30 Apr 2025