The humble office filer scarcely attracts very much thought in today’s hectic office environment but a decent filing cabinet should provide many years of trouble free service. Even with the current trend towards the paperless office, filing cabinets remain in great demand as the inescapable fact is that most offices still produce huge amounts of documents that have to be filed away.

Filing cabinets are usually constructed from either metal or woodgrain effect melamine faced chipboard. Of the two common materials used, metal filing cabinets are lighter, stronger, more durable and usually are supplied with a manufacturer’s guarantee of between 5 and 15 years dependant upon the quality of the filing cabinet supplied. Wooden filing cabinets are often extremely functional but usually are supplied with a warranty of between 1 and 5 years.

Filing cabinets are designed to store tab files that hang on runners inside each drawer. One critical design option to watch out for when choosing a filing cabinet is full drawer extension. This is where the internal drawers can be pulled out 100% so that the files located at the very back of the drawer are able to be reached without having to reach back into the cabinet to retrieve files. Another necessary requirement is the anti tilt device which functions by stopping more than one drawer being opened at once otherwise the weight of two drawers of files could possibly cause a cabinet to topple over. Files should be loaded into the lowest drawers of the filing cabinet initially to assist with stability of the unit.

There are two standard 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 runner tracks 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 both foolscap or A4 sizes to be stored. It is important to note that the drawer bottoms in filing cabinets (and particularly in wooden filing cabinets) are not usually designed to support heavy box files and so the filing cabinets should not be used as standard drawers.

Bisley filing cabinets are undoubtedly the leading brand for steel filing cabinets and their flagship BS range of cabinets are designed with durability in mind and are usually delivered with a 10 or 15 year manufacturer’s guarantee. The BS series features fully welded construction with twin skinned drawer fronts. Drawers are mounted on roller ball bearing drawer mechanisms which deliver extra-smooth action and 100% extension. The Bisley BS range offers five, four, three and two drawer cabinets and will accept either foolscap or A4 filing. The BS4E 4 drawer unit provides 2.2 linear meters of suspension file storage.