Manufacturas Muñoz PLT

What aspects need to be taken into account when choosing furniture?

It is important to take the following elements into account when choosing your furniture:

The user’s physical features like weight and height.
The work that he usually carries out (repetitive gestures, prolonged periods in the same position).
Their work environment (type of floor, height of the work surface, etc.).
How colors (pastel, relaxing shades, or strong, dynamic colors) and your own personal taste come together in terms of design and finishings.
Harmony with your company’s furniture.

All these elements will condition the type of chairs and the surfaces to be chosen, and will serve as guidelines to determine their requirements.

What is the comfort of the furniture based on?

The purpose behind the design of a chair is to provide a sense of well-being to its user.
The seat is usually linked to the work surfaces, and therefore it must be designed taking into account the height, depth, width, tilt and separation of the seat, the height of the armrest and the size and tilt of the backrest, as well as their cushioning.

The design must highlight the location of the surfaces where the back, head and arms will be placed, as well as their size and weight and their size and form, seeing as these are the elements that act as stabilizers. If the chair fails to provide a sufficient level of balance, the user must compensate for this by assuming different positions, an action which requires additional energy, on account of the muscle effect and greater discomfort.

What does safe furniture entail?

It guarantees the user’s health.
The materials must be user-friendly, and should provide adequate body temperature, an adequate posture using anti-allergic fabrics, etc.
Their design must be well thought of in order to prevent accidents, and must be delivered with clear instructions to facilitate the user’s experience with the furniture.
The structure must be well developed in such a way that it guarantees its stability when sitting down.

Assembly systems must be well built, in order to avoid problems with the furniture.

What is the purpose of providing an employee with a good chair?

The employee should keep his health in time.

The chair should contribute an appropriate level of comfort.
The chair’s design should facilitate adequate working positions.
The employee will keep his health in time if:
He sits in a proper position.
He uses the chair’s mechanisms, whenever necessary.
The height of the backrest and seat are properly regulated.
The chair, in both its static as well as its dynamic positions, is properly manufactured.
The chair is safe, in terms of the components used.

The employee will find comfort in the chair due to: The fabrics and foam used, the quality of the plastic materials that he comes in contact with. Of course, there are other additional topics such as the chair’s design, and the architecture of the chair itself. The chair will facilitate the efficiency of the work, if: Its architecture is adequate for the needs of the place where it will be used. This means that the backrest and seat are located at specific angles from the chair's axis.

How should we sit?

With our feet parallel to the ground.

With our legs perpendicular to our feet.
With our thighs perpendicular to our legs.
With our torso perpendicular to our thighs.

What is the purpose of the chair in terms of both static and dynamic postures? The objective of a chair in its fixed position; that is, without activating its mechanisms is:

To preserve the natural curvature of the spine.
To facilitate vital functions like breathing, stomach functions, etc.
To provide comfort for the buttocks and thighs.
To facilitate the support of the arms.
To preserve each person’s popliteal cavity.
To allow for the body's own mobility (while sitting).
To allow a horizontal turn of the upper body, in order to prevent fatigue from setting in.

The purpose of the chair in its dynamic positions is:

To preserve the natural curvature of the spine.
To provide comfort for the buttocks and thighs.
To facilitate the support of the arms.
To preserve each person’s popliteal cavity.
To make all movements without changes in the position, or loss of support to the upper body.
To allow for movements of the body, in order to prevent fatigue from setting in.
To allow a horizontal turn of the upper body, in order to prevent fatigue from setting in.

What is the backrest of a chair?

It is the set of the chair’s components that allows to support the upper body. It must be properly shaped - vertically - to provide proper support to our dorsal cyphosis and our lumbar lordosis. It must follow the corresponding norms that define the radius of a horizontal curvature, preventing the back and the spine from moving sideways. Its height must be regulated in order to adapt to the shape of our back. Different people’s lumbar vertebrae can be at different heights. It is a known fact that, when sitting down, the difference in height from the seat between taller and shorter individuals can be of up to 32 mm. That is why the backrests of chairs are given approximately 50 mm of graduation. In terms of their architecture, the backrest must be located at specific angles in order to allow for the mobility inherent to a person in a forward-sitting position, aside from facilitating natural functions such as breathing and digesting. The size of the backrest should be appropriate to hold the person’s back when it is resting in a mid-seated position. For management positions, traditional design has made for very high backrests, that often times fail to have many practical applications, and which maybe even hamper part of the harmony that we should have in our lives.

What is the seat of a chair?

It is the set of components in a chair, that are used to support the buttocks and thighs. Its height should be regulated from approximately 42 to 53 cm, in order to allow for each individual’s own physical features, while supporting the popliteal cavity. The seat supports 80% of the body weight, with the remaining 20% being dissipated through the ground. Of this 80%, 4/5 are dissipated on a diameter of approximately 30 cm, with the central axis of the chair in the middle. For this reason, it is important that seats are not too deep, or otherwise people would tend not to go to the bottom of the seat, which means that they will not use the backrest properly, seeking to avoid the excessive heat and discomfort in the thigh area.

Armrests, are they interesting?

Usually, armrests are not necessary, as we support our arms on the work surface. If said space is not sufficient, then armrests are necessary, as we have no place to rest our arms on the work surface. They are also necessary for cases where a person assumes a half-seated position, like is the case with IT employees. The concept of movable armrests whose height can be adjusted is a good one, although they may take some time to be fully implemented, on account of their cost. In chairs designed for waiting areas, armrests are necessary in order to help the individual get up by supporting its weight on them.