Board grade carb phase 2 furniture

A practical guide to board grade CARB phase 2 furniture: what to check on site, what a photograph cannot establish, and what to write in your purchase specification.

Engineered board appears in most furniture that has a flat panel in it, and its compliance is almost always a certificate question rather than an inspection question.

The grades

Grade	What it refers to
E1	European standard, ≤0.124 mg/m³ formaldehyde emission
E0	Stricter European grade, ≤0.05 mg/m³
CARB Phase 2	California, TSCA Title VI compliant composite wood
TSCA Title VI	US federal requirement for composite wood products

What inspection can and cannot do

Emission is measured in a climate chamber over weeks. No portable instrument on a factory floor produces a valid result. what we can and cannot test states this explicitly.

What inspection can do is verify that:

• the product carries a grade marking, and the marking matches what your specification requires
• the factory holds a current test report, and the report names the standard, the values, the product model and the issuing laboratory
• the board used in your units is the board named on the report — which is a documentation question more than a physical one

The question to ask the factory

Ask for the current report and read three fields: the standard, the product model or board type, and the issuing laboratory's accreditation.

A report for a different board product does not cover your order. This is the single most common gap we find when reviewing certificates.

What to write in your specification

"All engineered board to be CARB Phase 2 / TSCA Title VI compliant. Factory to supply a current test report. Report to be verified at inspection: standard, board type, product model and issuing laboratory to be recorded."