New Ergonomic Office Chairs Shown at IIDEX
Workstation Furniture Innovations Yield Seating for Greater Comfort
Sep 28, 2009
Ergonomic office furniture figured prominently among exhibits at the 2009 IIDEX/NeoCon conference and show held recently in Toronto, Canada.
Notable among ergonomic chair exhibits was an increased use of mesh for the back rest and seat pan. Mesh has the advantage of allowing air flow to help the sitter’s back to cool and to aid the release of perspiration.
Ergonomic chairs assist comfort in two ways:
- They adapt to the sitter’s weight, size and personal preferences;
- They allow the sitter freedom of movement, to avoid muscle strain, improve circulation and help keep vertebral disks pliant.
Ergonomic Chair by Humanscale
Humanscale demonstrated its new Diffrient World chair that uses a novel weight-sensing mechanism to adapt to each sitter. This requires no adjustment by the person seated in it but instead automatically conforms to the sitter’s body and weight. As experienced by this reporter, the tri-panel mesh back of the chair flexes as the sitter reclines or sits up so that it provides pressure to maintain the sitter’s correct curvature in the lumbar region of the spine.
The seat pan is a mesh supported by a frame that, unlike some other mesh chairs, has no bar at the front. This ensures that there is no rigid element below the sitter’s thighs, so that blood circulation in the legs is not restricted.
The chair is lighter than most other ergonomic office chairs, weighing only 25 pounds. The construction consists of only eight major parts.
The chair was designed by Niels Diffrient who has many ergonomic and sustainable products to his name.
Executive Chair and Task Chair from Teknion
Teknion exhibited two new ergonomic chairs:
- Marini Executive chair;
- Visio task chair.
The executive chair can be easily adjusted by a person while seated. Tilt resistance of back and seat can be set by the sitter to accommodate weight and preference. The back rest maintains contact with and support of the sitter’s lumbar spine while the sitter moves between upright to reclining.
The seat pan foam is molded to distribute weight evenly, eliminating pressure points. The density and resilience of the foam avoid the padding from ‘bottoming-out’ on to the solid base of the seat pan.
The back rest of the task chair uses a new mesh fabric, Flexweave, which the manufacturer says is softer than traditional mesh fabrics.
Both the executive and task chairs provide seat height adjustments ranges of 3 to 5 inches. The seat depth can be adjusted by 2.5 inches to adapt to different leg lengths and reduce pressure behind the knees.
New Ergonomic Office Chair from U.K.
Tayco demonstrated the Moneypenny collection of chairs it is importing into Canada under a new agreement with the U.K. manufacturer, Boss Design.
The mesh back has a lumbar support that can be adjusted in height by the sitter. The tension applied to the tilt of the back and seat pan is adjusted by a handle that the sitter rotates to increase or decrease the tension. The back rest is available with an optional headrest.
The seat pan can be moved forward or back: the sitter presses a button, moves until he or she is comfortable and releases the button. Seat height and armrest height are also adjustable.
Ergonomics Adds Comfort in the Office
Office furniture designed on ergonomic principles has been available for some decades. New materials and innovations in mechanisms are bringing new levels of adjustability and comfort to office seating, to help reduce the strains on the body of long periods of sitting at desks and computers.
IIDEX NeoCon is held every September in Toronto. Owned by ARIDO (Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario) it is produced and managed by Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI).
See also: Green Interior Design at IIDEX, Cost Benefit of Ergonomic Chairs
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