The humble office filer scarcely attracts a great deal of thought in today’s hectic office environment but a first rate filing cabinet should provide many years of trouble free service. Even in these days of the supposed paperless office, filing cabinets remain extensively used as the inescapable fact is that most offices still produce large amounts of written documentation and paperwork that needs to be filed away.
Filing cabinets are invariably manufactured from either metal or woodgrain effect melamine faced chipboard. Of the two materials frequently used, metal filing cabinets are lighter, more robust, more durable and usually come with a manufacturer’s warranty of up to 15 years depending on the quality of the filing cabinet supplied. Wood filing cabinets are still very functional but generally are supplied with a warranty of 5 years or less.
Filing cabinets are designed to store suspension file folders that hang on runners inside each filing drawer. One key design option to look out for when deciding upon a filing cabinet is 100% drawer extension. Basically this is where the internal drawers have the facility to pull out 100% so that even the files at the extreme rear of the drawer are able to be easily accessed without the need to reach back into the cabinet to find the required files. Another important requirement is the anti tilt device which functions by preventing more than a single drawer being opened simultaneously otherwise the weight of two drawers of files could easily cause a cabinet to fall over. Files should be loaded into the lowest drawers of the filing cabinet first to aid stability of the cabinet.
There are two common sizes of tab file in Europe, foolscap and A4. Foolscap is by far the most commonly used size used in Britain and Ireland, whereas A4 is the most common size in continental Europe. The runners that support the suspension files are usually built into the top of the drawer sides in a standard filing cabinet so the suspension files are usually designed to run from front to back. Some filing cabinets are supplied with fittings to allow either foolscap or A4 sizes to be stored. It is important to note that the drawer bases in filing cabinets (and particularly in wood filing cabinets) are not generally designed to support great weight and so the filing cabinets cannot be used as standard drawers.
Bisley filing cabinets are without doubt the leading brand for metal filing cabinets and their top of the range BS series of cabinets are designed with durability in mind and are usually supplied with a long manufacturer’s guarantee. The BS series features fully welded construction with double skin drawer fronts. Drawers are fitted onto roller ball bearing drawer mechanisms which deliver ultra-smooth action and 100% drawer extension. The Bisley BS range offers five, four, three and two drawer versions all of which accept both foolscap and A4 filing. The BS4E four drawer filing cabinet provides more than 2 metres of suspension file storage.
