Published 04 June 2019 • Inter IKEA newsroom
IKEA launches new family of dressers with updated stability features
GLESVÄR is a new family of dressers/chests of drawers with safety features designed to decrease one of the furnishing industry’s most serious safety issues - furniture tip overs. These new chests of drawers will have stability features such as interlock with unlock function or forced wall attachment.
Earlier this year IKEA developed and tested several stability innovations in collaboration with customer focus groups. Based on the feedback we now launch three solutions called GLESVÄR with limited sales in different parts of the globe. These new chests of drawers will have stability features such as interlock with unlock function or forced wall attachment.
GLESVÄR interlock with unlock function only allows you to open one drawer at the time, until it is attached to the wall. Then the interlock function unlocks and all drawers can be open simultaneously.
“Incident data and statistics tells us that several of the tip over incidents happen when all drawers are pulled out at the same time and the centre of gravity shifts. With the interlock-function we hope to decrease the risk of furniture tip-over. However, we at IKEA still believe that the safest way to prevent tip over incidents is to attach the furniture to the wall”, says Vladimir Brajkovic, Head of Range and Product Engineering at IKEA Range & Supply.
GLESVÄR will also be sold with a forced wall attachment feature that prevents you from opening any of the drawers until it is attached to the wall. The third solution is a two-legged chest of drawers that needs to be secured to the wall to stand upright.
The limited edition sales and subsequent follow up will help IKEA explore customer interaction with these new safety innovations for this type of furniture.
“Product safety is always a top priority at IKEA. It is a precondition to fulfil our vision to create a better everyday life for the many people and it is the core of our democratic design process. With that at heart we have invested heavily in innovation, product development and testing over the years and we have a history of finding innovative solutions to improve safety and health for the customer,” says Vladimir Brajkovic, Head of Range and Product Engineering at IKEA Range & Supply.
UPDATE 25 February 2020: GLESVÄR is planned to sale start in March 2020 in Germany and United Kingdom, and from April 2020 in USA and Canada. More markets will follow.
Please note: If someone intentionally tries to open two drawers at the exact same time it is possible to do so.