New National Standards for Furniture Officially Implemented in 2025

New National Standards for Furniture Officially Implemented in 2025

Approved by the State Administration for Market Regulation (National Standardization Administration), the national mandatory standard GB 18584-2024《Limits of Hazardous Substances in Furniture》, issued on June 25, 2024, will be officially implemented on July 1, 2025.

The new version of the standard replaces GB 18584-2001 《Limits of Hazardous Substances in Wooden Furniture for Indoor Decoration Materials》

and GB 28481-2012 《Limits of Hazardous Substances in Plastic Furniture》. It has a wider scope of application, covering various types of furniture

products, including imported furniture and raw materials.

Additional rules in the new standard:

In the new version of the standard, requirements and test methods for benzene, toluene, xylene, total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), radionuclides, and dimethyl fumarate have been added. It also includes the definition, requirements, and test methods for migratable harmful elements, clarifies the limit values of migratable harmful element heavy metals for various furniture products, unifies testing indicators such as phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and decomposable aromatic amine dyes, and proposes a new non-destructive testing method for formaldehyde emission.

New non-destructive testing:

The non-destructive testing of harmful substances in finished furniture (hereinafter referred to as the "climate chamber method") refers to placing the

entire piece of furniture in a suitably sized climate chamber. After a certain period of time, the air inside the chamber is collected and analyzed to measure the emission of harmful substances such as formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, xylene, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) from the furniture.

After the test is completed, the furniture remains in an undamaged state as it was before entering the chamber. The climate chamber is an environmental test chamber with constant temperature and humidity, capable of gas exchange with the outside world. It is designed to simulate the emission of harmful substances from finished furniture in daily indoor ventilation environments, making the test results more in line with actual usage scenarios.

Comparison Table of Differences Between Old and New Standards

With the continuous development of the furniture industry and the increasing awareness of environmental protection among consumers, relying solely on the desiccator method to test formaldehyde emissions from furniture as a market access threshold can no longer meet the current industry needs. The introduction of the climate chamber method for testing harmful substances in the entire furniture in the latest GB 18584-2024 《Limits of Hazardous Substan

-ces in Furniture》 officially declares the arrival of the era of non-destructive testing for harmful volatile substances in furniture!

      The launch of the national mandatory standard GB 18584-2024 will help drive domestic furniture production and testing activities towards a more green

and environmentally friendly direction. It is conducive to forcing enterprises to enhance the competitiveness of their products, benefits consumers, actively responds to the country's development call in the new era, and accelerates the formation of new productive forces in the furniture industry!