With 8 hours or more spent sitting at your workstation, it’s important to make sure your office chair works for you!
Office chairs are one of the most used pieces of furniture in the workplace, so it makes sourcing a generic operator chair that is suitable to service all your team’s requirements a hard task to fill.
A good office chair should provide everything you need to support your posture, including lumbar and pelvic support including gas height adjustment, castors or glides, and suitable arms. By providing a comfortable office seat solution you will help to improve productivity and performance, and reduce the symptoms of back discomfort and pain.
The following useful guide helps explain the mechanism functions available on most operator and task chairs, offering users extra comfort and flexibility, whilst meeting any ergonomic requirements:
Permanent or Fixed Contact
It’s pretty standard that the seat of your chair will move up and down and the back of the chair can be raised or lowered, however with a permanent or fixed back chair the backrest angle can be fixed or set to free-float i.e. permanent contact with your back is fixed.
Lock Tilt
A chair with a lock tilt action can be tilted and locked, or set to free float.
Synchro
A synchronised mechanism is a torsion control knob that can be adjusted to match body weight. The synchro mechanism allows the back and seat of the chair to move automatically in sync, keeping the seating position consistent to provide the best support.
Knee Tilt
A knee-tilt mechanism allows the chair to be fixed in various positions. Like the synchro mechanism, the knee tilt is actioned with a torsion control knob.
Ratchet Back
A chair with a ratchet back can be raised or lowered independently of all other chair functions.
Lumbar Support
A lumbar support backrest enables you to change the shape of the backrest and provides support for the natural ‘S’ shape of the spine and prevents slumping (filling the gap between the lumbar spine and the seat), which in turn reduces stress on the spine and pelvis.
Seat Slide
With a seat slide, the seat depth of a chair can be increased or decreased independently of chair functions. A seat slide feature will enable the user to move easily and freely and encourage better back support whilst helping to relieve pressure from the back of the knees.
Try before you buy
If you’re looking to buy the best-matched chair for you or your teams ergonomic requirements, we recommend visiting a showroom to demo a variety of operator and task chairs suitable for your height, weight, and any special back requirements.
Here at Combined Office Interiors, we can offer showroom appointments in Kimbolton, Ipswich, and Leicester including complimentary DSE assessments to ensure you are sitting comfortably. Contact us today to arrange a showroom visit or to request a workplace consultation.
Last Updated on May 12, 2022
