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USA: Carriages and strollers standard ASTM f833-19 published

APRIL 2019 - Relevant for: Toys and children's products

On 16 April 2019, the ASTM Committee published standard F833-19¹ on safety performance specification for carriages and strollers. The major update to the new standard is to regulate the tray or grab bar protective covering.

Tray or grab bar protective covering is defined as the component designed and intended to prevent exposure of any underlying accessible foam material. The covering materials include woven, knit, coated, laminated, extruded, or calendered textile-based materials and leathers.

ASTM F833-19 requires that the tray or grab bar should not contain foam material. Otherwise, the bar covering should be able to prevent exposure of the underlying foam material when tested in accordance to the newly added removal test method.

In addition, the bar with a removal covering must have a specific warning on the foam as below:
“WARNING Children can choke on foam. Only use with cover installed.”

Apart from adding requirements of protective covering, the revisions also include other changes such as alignment on the unit of static load, amendments for the referenced documents names and editable modifications.

Carriages and strollers are regulated under 16 CFR 1227. In June 2016, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) mandated² the previous standard ASTM F833-15 as mandatory standard and took effect since 2 October 2016. It’s expected that the Commission will replace the old standard with the new one.

[1] ASTM standard portal

[2] U.S. CPSC published direct final rule to mandate ASTM F833-15, June 2016