When we think of furniture, we usually care about its design or comfort, CU TR 025/2012 focuses on its safety.
What is the scope of CU TR 025/2012 on furniture?
CU TR 025/2012 applies to almost all categories of furniture for households and public premises, including:
- Domestic furniture (living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, office at home)
- Furniture for public premises (offices, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, theatres, etc.)
- Upholstered furniture (sofas, armchairs, chairs with cushions)
- Children’s furniture, school furniture, preschool furniture
- Beds, tables, chairs, cabinets, wardrobes
Excluded from the scope:
- Prefabricated buildings (HS code 9406)
- Antiques and second-hand furniture
- Laboratory equipment and furniture integrated into machines
- Outdoor equipment not intended for household or public premises
Upholstered furniture is a particularly important category because it is subject to fire resistance testing, as explained below.
Furniture with integrated electronic devices (e.g. recliners with electric motors, beds with built-in lights, massage chairs) requires double certification: CU TR 025/2012 for furniture and CU TR 004/2011 or CU TR 020/2011 for electrical/electromagnetic safety.
How to obtain EAC Certification for Furniture (Declaration vs Certificate)
Most furniture products are subject to an EAC Declaration of Conformity under schemes indicated in the Annex 5 of the CU TR 025/2012. The exceptions are:
- Children’s furniture
- Furniture for educational institutions
- Furniture for preschool institutions
These require an EAC Certificate of Conformity.
In practice:
Declarations (except for upholstered furniture) are often registered under Scheme 1D, which allows the use of test reports from other recognized standards. For example, UNE-EN 16139:2013 + A1:2015 (Furniture – Strength, durability and safety – Requirements for non-domestic seating) is accepted as a valid testing basis for EAC.
What fire safety procedure applies to upholstered furniture?
Upholstered furniture is subject to fire safety testing. Unlike other products, tests are carried out on the final furniture piece (not just on materials).
The tests aim to determine two key classes:
- Flammability: assessed with sources of ignition such as smouldering cigarettes (GOST R 53294-2009).
- Toxicity of combustion products: evaluated according to GOST 12.1.044-89.
Tests on upholstered furniture cover not only fire resistance but also a wide range of performance and safety indicators. For example, examiners measure the residual deformation of cushions after prolonged load, check the strength of the frame under static pressure, and verify the durability of joints and fixings in chairs. They also assess the intensity of odor released by the materials, the level of electrostatic field generated on the surface, and the softness and elasticity of upholstered elements. In addition, specific fire safety procedures evaluate ignition by smouldering cigarette and open flame exposure, while separate tests determine the toxicity of combustion products, measuring gases such as ammonia or acrylonitrile.
What is the difference between CU TR 025 fire certification and a GOST Fire Certificate?
The main difference lies in how flammability is assessed.
The CU TR 025/2012 fire certification relies on GOST R 53294-2009 “Textile materials. Bedding articles. Upholstered furniture. Blinds. Curtains. Flammability test methods”, a standard developed specifically for textiles and upholstered furniture. It uses ignition sources such as a smouldering cigarette, very similar to the European test method EN 1021-1.
By contrast, the GOST R Fire Certificate basically covers construction materials and is based on GOST 30402-96. This standard classifies the combustibility of building products using direct flame exposure and assigns them to groups (G1–G4). It does not apply to furniture, but to materials used in construction and interior finishing.
When it comes to toxicity of combustion products, both certificates converge: they use GOST 12.1.044-89 as the reference, which means the classification of toxic hazard is consistent across furniture and construction materials.
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