The popular image of a research centre is something like Q’s laboratory in the Bond movies – chock-full of elaborate testing apparatus and clipboard-toting boffins exploding and setting light to things.

And, indeed, there is something of this to the Furniture Industry Research Association in Stevenage. At its distinctively 1960s timber-clad headquarters, 70 technicians and consultants beaver away in a warren of labs and test facilities. One room is a dark, dank sauna where furniture and components endure tropical heat and humidity. In another, upholstery is flammability tested – ignited with miniature timber pallets, or filterless Senior Service, the standard research cigarette.

Then there’s the visitors’ favourite – the mechanical testing laboratories. Here furniture, components and materials are put through strength, flex, impact, delamination and abrasion tests by ranks of fearsome looking equipment, including ‘Squirming Irma’.

The latter comprises a plastic posterior and set of thighs mounted on hydraulic jacks which mimic the action of a generously proportioned commuter wriggling around on a coach or train seat.

All this testing technology performs a deadly serious role for furniture makers and their suppliers. If furniture or components can’t take years of wear and tear, it could spell costly returns – even personal injury claims. And it’s not just mechanical or structural failure at issue. In this ergonomics-conscious age, chairs and beds have to maintain their supporting role unflaggingly too.

FIRA also operates a two-pronged troubleshooting and adjudication service. Its Qualitas operation investigates why products fail and, in exchange for accepting its code of practice and adjudication, retailers can use its logo and promotional material. In addition, FIRA’s Home Service technicians visit complaining consumers, assess product problems, fix them or recommend replacement or refunds.

But, while putting individual products and components through their paces or working out why they’ve gone wrong, accounts for a large part of FIRA’s time and income, the organisation is keen to underline its wider remit. Its role is also to help the UK industry as a whole make the most of its potential and rise to the challenges of an increasingly globalised market.

FIRA managing director Hayden Davies believes the scale and significance of the UK furniture sector are not as widely appreciated as they might be.

‘The industry comprises 7,000 businesses, with a workforce of 130,000, and total annual sales of £7bn. That’s 0.5% of total UK GDP, putting it on a par with aerospace and information technology.’

MDF consumption

He also pointed out that furniture makers are one of the biggest consumers of both wood and sheet materials. ‘For instance, across Europe they account for 67% of all MDF consumption,’ he said.

The flip side, is that UK furniture producers’ problems rarely hit the headlines either, with their biggest concern recently being a sharp rise in imports brought on by the strength of sterling and growth of competition in low labour-cost countries.

‘Just three or four years ago imports accounted for 15% of the market but that figure has been rising at 37% a year,’ said FIRA’s head of research and consultancy Dr Peter Beele. ‘That’s serious growth.’

FIRA has had its strategic, industry-wide role from the outset. It was launched in 1949 as one of a wave of research bodies set up by government and business to help British industry adapt to the post-war market place.

It remained a state and industry-subscription funded operation until the 1980s when the government let it loose in the market. Then, in 1996, it was acquired by TRADA‘s parent TTL Chiltern.

‘This was a natural alliance, not least because of the organisations’ mutual involvement in timber research; FIRA’s for products, TRADA’s for materials,’ said Mr Davies.

Competing in the market, you might assume FIRA’s private client product testing and consultancy work would eclipse pure research and broader industry strategic projects. But that hasn’t happened, partly because of government and EU funding for the latter, partly because £500,000 of its £3m annual income is accounted for by subscriptions from its 600 members.

Perhaps the most important of FIRA’s industry strategy projects recently was its 20/20 Vision Action Plan. This DTI-backed initiative involved the collaboration of a range of bodies under FIRA’s leadership, including TRADA, the Association of Suppliers to the Furniture Industry and British Furniture Manufacturers. The aim, said Dr Beele, was to draw a ‘map’ for the industry’s future research and development.

‘We assessed manufacturers’ research needs and tried to target the research process. We looked at all areas of business: raw materials, production and distribution, marketing and sales, service, design, information technology, standards and legislation, training, health and safety and the environment.’

The 20/20 Vision report was designed to encourage concerted action in such areas as training, raw materials, innovation and bench-marking, and to spur individual companies to ‘take responsibility and act on issues that will benefit their businesses’.

At the end of each ‘chapter’, 20/20 Vision includes a list of ‘actions’ for companies to implement and details of consultancy teams who can advise on how to proceed.

Competitiveness study

Next, FIRA will launch a DTI-backed ‘competitiveness’ study.

‘This will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the furniture industry on the basis of 12 key factors,’ said Mr Davies. ‘It will also involve crystal ball gazing to evaluate what the market situation will be five and 10 years down the line. By comparing the industry now and the shape it will need to be in the future, we can establish a "competitiveness gap" and strategies for bridging it.’

FIRA is also involved on UK and European standards committees and its consultants advise on health, safety and ergonomics, with one important project looking at whether school furniture is keeping up with the rising height and bulk of today’s kids!

Environmental issues are another focus, with FIRA consultants helping furniture makers and their suppliers prepare for chain of custody certification.

Back in the laboratories, the general research and testing activity – as opposed to contracted work for individual clients – is broadly aimed at improving product quality, industry profitability and eco performance.

One project, ‘Fertile’, has been looking at ways of cutting furniture makers’ wood waste disposal bills. At the heart of the research is a new composting vessel which uses forced aeration to accelerate wood dust decomposition. The end result is a compost and soil conditioner, giving furniture companies an additional income stream, as well as lower landfill bills.

Environmental concerns

There is also a strong environmental hook to FIRA’s research into the use of powder-coating on timber and panel products, the aim being to cut manufacturers’ VOC output, raw materials waste, and costs.

The DTI-backed ‘Envirocoat’ solid timber powder coating project has some way to go, with ‘outgassing’ a continuing headache in the curing process. ‘Experiments with sycamore end-grain floor tiles have been promising and we’re now looking at different formulations and curing techniques,’ said Dr Beele.

The use of powder coating in panel products is more advanced, and FIRA is leading a consortium, including Nexfor and application equipment specialist Nordson UK, to develop a new type of MDF that can be coated without pre-treatment heating or coating with conductive primers.

In association with partners including Coed Cymru and furniture maker John Makepeace, FIRA is also looking at the use of short-length timber in furniture. This involves adapting machining techniques and working on jointing systems for short lengths. A ‘logistics model’ is also being developed to assess the value to woodland owners of selling smaller dimension timber to furniture producers: initial calculations are that it could amount to £160 per tonne, compared with the £16 they currently get from charcoal producers.

‘There’s tremendous economic and environmental potential to using short length timber – it just needs a new approach by everyone in the supply chain,’ said Dr Beele.

But just to reassure fans of the Q-style laboratory, while all this work is going on, FIRA is continuing to install strange new kit to knock seven bells out of furniture. One of the latest arrivals is in the bed testing area. Traditionally, to replicate the wear the British inflicted at bedtime, a machine was used that pounded the mattress with a giant three-sided, round-cornered rolling pin. Now, to conform to EU test norms, the roller is being replaced with a more curvaceous one. 007 would have been intrigued.