Filing storage in today’s busy office workplace
The humble office filer scarcely attracts a great deal of thought in our busy offices but a first rate filing cabinet should provide many years of trouble free usage. Even with the current trend towards the paperless office, filing cabinets remain in great demand as the inescapable fact is that most offices still generate huge quantities of written documentation and paperwork that needs to be filed away.
Filing cabinets are mainly manufactured from either metal or woodgrain effect melamine faced chipboard. Of the two materials frequently used, metal filing cabinets are lighter, stronger, longer lasting and usually come with a manufacturer’s guarantee of up to 15 years depending on the build quality of the filing cabinet supplied. Wood filing cabinets are often very functional but generally are supplied with a warranty of 5 years or less.
Filing cabinets are designed to store tab files that hang on tracking inside each filing drawer. One key design option to watch out for when deciding upon a filing cabinet is 100% drawer extension. This means that the filing drawers can be pulled out 100% so that the files located at the back of the drawer are able to be reached without having to fumble about inside the cabinet to retrieve files. Another important feature is the anti tilt mechanism which operates by stopping more than a single drawer being opened simultaneously otherwise the weight of two drawers of files could possibly cause a cabinet to fall over. Files should be loaded into the lower drawers of the filing cabinet initially to aid stability of the unit.
There are two common sizes of tab file in Europe, foolscap and A4. Foolscap is definitely the most popular size used in the United Kingdom while A4 is the most common size in continental Europe. The runner tracks supporting the hanging files are usually located on top edge of the drawer sides in your standard filer and therefore the hanging files are typically running from front to the rear of the drawer. A few filing cabinets are supplied with further runners to allow either foolscap or A4 tab files to be stored. It is important to note that the drawer bases in filing cabinets (and especially in wood filers) are not usually intended to carry heavy box files and therefore these filing cabinets cannot be utilized as normal drawers.
Bisley filing cabinets are without doubt the leading brand for steel filing cabinets and their flagship BS range of cabinets are designed with durability in mind and are usually supplied with a long manufacturer’s warranty. The BS series features fully welded construction with double skinned drawer fronts. Drawers are fitted on roller ball bearing drawer mechanisms which deliver extra-smooth action and full extension. The Bisley BS series offers 2 to 5 drawer cabinets and will accept both foolscap and A4 susension files. The BS4E four drawer filing cabinet gives 2.2 metres of filing storage.
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