American Seating’s Curved Wood Back Seats - First with No Added Urea Formaldehyde Resins
In what is believed to be an industry first, American Seating can now provide chairs with curved plywood backs as FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) Certified products with no added urea formaldehyde (NAUF). Until now, seating products featuring a curved plywood back could not achieve these combined options.
Curved plywood backs require a strong adhesive to hold their original shape. Glues containing urea-formaldehyde resins have traditionally been used to fulfill the need for this strong adhesive. Recognizing this challenge, the California Air Resources Board’s Airborne Toxic Control Measure allowed a specific product exemption for curved plywood. Recently, however, glues containing no urea-formaldehyde have been formulated to meet the high strength demands of curved plywood products.
With this achievement, American Seating is now able to offer a much more environmentally responsible product. In addition to meeting FSC Certification standards, now all American Seating Stellar® and Spirit® wood back models can also meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria for low emitting materials, composite woods and agrifiber products (IEQ 4.4). Furthermore, the use of FSC Certified wood helps to achieve the Materials and Resources LEED credit for certified wood (MR 7).
American Seating’s ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship was the driving factor in creating this curved plywood solution, which enables specifiers of these products to achieve these important certifications and credits.
Stellar and Spirit products contain significant amounts of recycled material, far exceeding the requirements for LEED recycled content (MR 4). These products are also packaged with 100 percent recyclable packaging material. American Seating products can also assist schools in meeting standards for comfort and indoor air quality through the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.
This fall, American Seating will launch a new online specification tool that will include a recycled content calculator to help architects and specifiers better determine the LEED credits they can receive when selecting other American Seating products for their projects.
With its reputation for long lasting durability and its wood outer-back panel that provides a rich, warm and elegant look, both the Stellar and Spirit series are ideal seating solutions for higher education auditoriums and arenas, as well as suites for sports and performing arts environments.
About American Seating
Since 1886, American Seating has set the benchmark for product design, durability and comfort. American Seating is committed to being an innovator of world-class seating solutions for architectural environments, including the Education, Entertainment, Office and Government Contract markets. American Seating also serves as a leader in transportation seating, including City Service, Rail, Motorcoach and Demand-Response markets. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.A., American Seating employs a U.S.-based workforce. For more information, please visit www.americanseating.com.
For more information on IFMA go to their website at www.ifma.org