Filing storage in the modern office workplace
The humble office filing cabinet scarcely attracts a great deal of thought in today’s hectic offices but a first rate filing cabinet should give 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 constructed from either steel or melamine faced chipboard. Of the two common materials used, metal filing cabinets are lighter, more robust, more durable and usually come with a manufacturer’s warranty of between 5 and 15 years depending on the build quality of the filing cabinet that has been purchased. Wood filing cabinets are often very durable but usually are supplied with a guarantee of between 1 and 5 years.
Filing cabinets are designed to store suspension file folders that hang on tracking inside each drawer. One key feature to look out for when choosing a filing cabinet is 100% drawer extension. This is where the internal drawers can be pulled out 100% so that the files located at the extreme rear of the drawer are able to be reached without the need to reach back into the cabinet to retrieve files. Another necessary feature is the anti tilt device which operates by preventing more than a single drawer being opened simultaneously otherwise the weight of drawers full of files could possibly cause a cabinet to tip over. Files should be loaded into the lowest drawers of the filing cabinet first to aid stability of the unit.
There are two common sizes of suspension file in Europe, foolscap and A4. Foolscap is by far the most popular 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 tab files are usually designed to run from front to back. Some filing cabinets include conversion fittings to allow either foolscap or A4 sizes to be stored. Users must note that the drawer bottoms in filing cabinets (and particularly in wood filing cabinets) are not generally designed to support heavy box files and so the filing cabinets cannot be used as normal drawers.
Bisley filing cabinets are undoubtedly the leading brand for metal filing cabinets and their flagship BS range of cabinets are built to last and are usually supplied with a 10 or 15 year manufacturer’s warranty. The BS range features fully welded construction with twin skinned drawer fronts. Drawers are mounted on roller ball bearing slides which deliver ultra-smooth action and 100% drawer extension. The Bisley BS range includes two, three, four and five drawer cabinets all of which accept either foolscap or A4 susension files. The BS4E four drawer filing cabinet delivers 2.2 metres of filing storage.