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USA: WCMA announces new window covering safety standard ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2018

January 2018- Relevant for: Hardlines

On 12 January 2018, the Window Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA) announced the approval of a new window covering safety standard, ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2018¹, by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) that will require a vast majority of window covering products sold in the United States and Canada to be cordless or have inaccessible or short cords.

Significant changes:

• The revised safety standard segments the market between stock and custom-order products.
• Product that is classified as a stock window covering will now have to utilize a cordless operating system, a “short cord”, or have operating cords that are made inaccessible.
• Custom-order products can also utilise one of these options above, but if corded option is used, the revised standard imposes new restrictions such as requiring operating cords to have a default length of 40% of the blind height [currently it is unlimited] and a default to a tilt wand instead of a tilt cord.
• The new safety standard also includes a change in warning tags to more graphically depict the strangulation hazard.

WCMA is advising all companies selling window covering products in the U.S. and Canada that the compliance date of the new standard is 15 December 2018.

[1] WCMA announces new window covering safety standard ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2018