Inside the Haworth Test Lab

At our headquarters, tucked between the offices and manufacturing (and behind secured doors) is the Haworth Test Lab.

You might say this is a sort of “torture chamber” for our products. They are evaluated under the harshest conditions, from extreme temperature changes to tens of thousands of simulations covering repetitive wear and tear.

“If they can make it through this, there won’t be any issues,” says Dezi Noteboom, Test Lab Supervisor, who has worked in the lab more than 35 years. His job is to push products to the limit, to make sure they perform to our high standards. The goal is to predict failures and fix them before they get to the customer.

Meeting High Industry Standards

Our test lab conducts more than 1,800 tests each year. One test request can require as many as 15 different assessments, with each taking up to a week to complete. Our electric testing facilities are recognized as a SATELLITE™ lab by Intertek, which audits its procedures to ensure the results meet the highest industry standards. The rest of our test lab facilities are accredited by A2LA, short for the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation.

Extreme Temperatures

More than anything, temperature weakens products. That’s why there are chambers that simulate extreme dry heat, high humidity, and freezing cold. The chambers can heat up to 120°F. Or they can switch to 90% humidity. Stick your head inside one and your safety glasses immediately fog up; the small room feels like a sauna.

Furniture will spend days, or even a week, inside these extreme temperature chambers. And they’ll go back and forth between them. These tests are checking to see if and when the fabric on a chair puckers or adhesives fall apart.

The chambers are used to do aging tests on fabrics, sunscreens, and floor tiles by creating the damaging effects of sunlight and rain over time. “We want to make sure we won’t have an issue with our products going bad once they get out in the field, whether from UV rays coming through windows, or from sitting out directly in the sunlight,” Dezi says.

Durability Testing

The biggest section of our lab is devoted to durability testing. Here, chairs, cabinets, and height-adjustable tables are placed in machines that push, pull, and twist them. One machine repeatedly drops a 125 lb. weight on the edge of a chair seat—100,000 times.

The testing is designed to go above and beyond the industry standards set by the trade organization, BIFMA. “If this was a BIFMA test, we would drop the bag in the center of the seat. We also drop it on the front end,” says Dezi, noting the test better represents real use.

Samples of products are tested at different stages of the development process and again before they are ready to release to the market.

Finish Testing

Haworth Test Lab Coordinator Christine Hicks oversees all the finish testing. Christine, who has worked in our lab for 18 of her 25 years with the company, is tasked with staining products with everything from markers to mustard. “The information we gather provides guidance for the care and maintenance instructions in manuals,” she says.

The stain tests show how easily common products clean up and testing is done on wood veneer, wood, fabrics, and metal. To simulate real life, Christine leaves the stains on wood for an hour and painted steel for four hours before cleaning. “I just remove them with warm water and a little bit of dish soap,” she says. While most stains come clean, ones made from iodine, ink, and mustard are understandably toughest on light woods.

Learn about some of the other research and development we’re doing with textile technology in the Haworth Digital Knits Lab.