If You Build It, They May Come But No Guarantees Ergonomics
Posted in Uncategorized on August 26th, 2009 by admin – Be the first to commentSelecting the right office chair can be a difficult mission. The term “ergonomic office chair” is often referred to by the office seating industry and yet if you questioned a room full of office chair builders and suppliers to explain what is meant by ergonomics when referring to office chairs theres a big possibility you would be given many various responses and viewpoints.
The fact of the matter is that ergonomic office chairs is really just a concept, a buzz-word term that has found favor within the office furniture market. Dictionary definitions of ergonomics vary widely stressing phrases like productivity, fatigue, discomfort, efficiency, safety etc.
Here is a definition of ergonomics in relation to office furniture according to Phillip P. Swindle Sr., CRM/VP Sales & Marketing at Info PRO Concepts, Inc. (http://www.OfficeAnything.com):
“Ergonomic chairs adapt naturally and adjust precisely to fit people of all sizes and postures doing all kinds of activities, all day long. They provide a full compliment of adjustments to provide enhanced posture, superior comfort, and body support. Ergonomics inherently increase employee productivity by reducing fatigue. All of our ergonomic chairs are physically responsive, whether the user is in motion or at rest, our chairs spontaneously support the preferred posture, increasing circulation.”
If the mission is to uncover quality, name-brand discount office furniture or Reception Chair, be sure you’re including ergomnomics and not just how much it cost.
Think about Adjustable Seat Depth
This important human-friendly item is missing from a big number of office furniture, nevertheless I believe it to be essential for correct ergonomics. Think about it for a second; shoppers come in various heights and sizes. That’s the nature of being human.
If the worker’s upper leg measurement doesn’t suit the chair’s seat depth you still won’t feel right sitting in it, even if the worker’s leg length looks proper for it. When correctly set up the seat depth of your ergonomic office chairs should be set up so you are able to put a clenched fist between the very edge of the chair’s seat pad and the back of one’s knee.
A chair’s back height adjustment is important and proper ergonomic office furniture permits one to change it to give proper lower back support. Stay away from office chairs with oversized lumbar foam infill supports, a slightly curved foam back shell is all you need provided you set it up to suit your back. Some office chairs come equipped with an adjustable ergonomic lumbar support which varies to the back.
Include Arm Height Adjustment
The employee should configure the office seating arm height to make sure that the lower arms are level with the desktop. Keyboard and mouse use should be more natural and you should not be stretching or straining to manuver them.
Arm heights that reposition on executive ergonomic office chairs can be seen in many different implementations. The simplest is by using a knurled knob, you loosen it, move the arms to where you want them and lock it off.
Consider Being able to Adjust Tilt Tension
Lower quality office chairs have a fixed tension setting for the seat base and this is often combined with a permanent contact back pad. This means that the seat and back move in proportion to one another. This is suitable if the employee is the correct weight for the chair’s mechanism. For folks not within the fixed mechanism weight specifications, getting comfortable in this type of office seatingis just not easy.
If you are light framed, tilting frontward in one of these chairs seems just like it is attempting to catapult you out of the chair. It is also quite hard to lean back in as your body weight is too low to lean back easily. But, if the worker is big or heavy framed they probably will encounter the opposite problem as the office seating has the employee bouncing around all over the office.
So, make sure that the tension on your office seating can be changed to suit the employee’s body weight. Also, try and stay away from permanent contact back chairs; instead select a chair that has separate seat and back tension adjustment. A lot of top quality office chairs are equipped with automatic tension control where the mechanism automatically compensates for the the user’s body weight and taking away the need for separate tilt tension adjustment.
Selecting the right office chair doesn’t have to be a big endeavor. An “ergonomic office chair” is frequently referred to in the office furniture industry and are available today from most discount office furniture stores.
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