This Standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee CS-003, Safety Requirements for Children’s Furniture to supersede AS/NZS 4220:2003. The original edition was motivated by concern expressed by the then South Australian Department of Human Services and Departments of Fair Trading about the number and severity of injuries suffered by children falling from or otherwise injured by bunk beds. Similar concerns had been expressed overseas.

The objective of this Standard is to provide regulatory authorities with safety requirements and to provide manufacturers with functional, durability, stability and performance criteria to meet these safety requirements, in order to reduce the likelihood of deaths or injuries to children.

The following were the major objectives for this revision:

(a) To increase the minimum vertical distance between the upper surface of the guardrail and the upper surface of the mattress base to a minimum of 360 mm from the 260 mm specified in the 2003 edition.
(b) To discourage the creation of large gaps in guardrails in order to prevent the inadvertent formation of dangerous smaller gaps that may arise when a mattress is fitted. Of particular concern were gaps formed where the top, outside edge of the mattress forms the bottom edge of an entrapping space.
(c) To place a maximum limit on the number of permissible access openings in guardrails.
(d) To expand and improve the section on climbing access.
(e) To reduce from 800 mm to 700 mm the maximum height above the floor of the upper surface of the mattress base, i.e. the minimum height at which the provisions of this Standard apply.
(f) To increase the severity of load testing of guardrails.
(g) To improve both the accuracy and clarity of the figures used in the Standard.

The term ‘normative’ has been used in this Standard to define the application of the appendix to which it applies. A ‘normative’ appendix is an integral part of a Standard.