Filing cabinets for suspension files

Filing cabinets for suspension files, folders and case records

The format decides everything else

Check which format your suspension files are before choosing a cabinet. It is the most common reason a filing cabinet turns out to be unusable once it is standing in the room.

The file hangs from two rails, and what has to match is the distance between them:

• A4 - the file is 316 mm wide and the rails sit 330 mm apart. The common format in Sweden.
• Folio - the file is 365 mm wide and the rails 390 mm apart. Common in older archives, and known internationally as foolscap.
• Swedish Folio - an older format with 400 mm between the rails. No compatible cabinets are made for it today.

The Number of Folders filter shows the capacity, and the product page which format the cabinet is built for. Some cabinets take both formats, others only one. If your archive is in Swedish Folio, call us before you order.

How much fits

Allow roughly five millimetres per file. That is the rule of thumb that works for a normally filled archive. A drawer rated for a hundred files therefore takes about half a metre of file spine.

Look at both figures. The product page gives both how many files each drawer takes and how many the cabinet holds in total. The drawer figure decides whether a case fits in a drawer of its own; the total decides whether the archive fits in the cabinet.

Allow for growth. An archive that fills the cabinet today is overfull next year, and an overfull suspension file drawer is hard to flick through - which is the whole point of the construction. The Number of Folders filter is the quickest route to the right size.

Number of drawers: working archive or deep storage

The drawers start at the floor however many there are. Someone always has to crouch for the bottom one - the number of drawers decides how high the cabinet ends, not how low it begins. Put what you rarely need at the bottom and that drawer stops being a daily problem.

A working archive stands close to the person using it and is opened every day. Two or three drawers are often right there. The cabinet ends at about bench height, which does two things: you look down into the top drawer rather than into it from the side, and the top becomes a surface to sort on while standing at the cabinet.

Deep storage is visited rarely and should hold as much as possible on the least floor area. Four drawers are right there. The cabinet ends above bench height, so the top is no longer a work surface and the top drawer sits at chest height - but per square metre of floor it is hard to beat.

The Number of Drawers filter takes you straight there. If you have a whole archive room to furnish, mobile shelving is the next step: the shelving runs on rails set into the floor and closes up against itself, so only one aisle needs to be open at a time instead of one between every row. That roughly doubles what fits in the same area.

Fire protection, when the records must not burn

Not every filing cabinet has fire protection, and not everyone needs it. The Fire Protection filter states in plain words what each cabinet saves and for how long, and it has an explicit value for the cabinets that have none. So you never have to guess which category means what.

Ninety minutes goes further than people expect. Where there is no formal requirement in your records management policy, that is the level we usually land on. A hundred and twenty minutes is right when the requirement is written down, or when the material cannot be recreated at all.

If digital media has to survive the fire too, a cabinet tested for paper is not enough. Paper only starts losing information above 170 degrees; a hard drive is damaged at 70. Some of the cabinets here are tested for both, and the Fire Protection filter shows which. The full reasoning is on data media safes.

Fire protection shows up in the weight. The insulation sits in the walls, so a fire rated filing cabinet weighs several times what an unrated one of the same size does. That affects both the floor structure and the way in.

Tipping, and why only one drawer opens at a time

A filing cabinet with a drawer pulled out is unstable. A full A4 drawer weighs a good deal, and when it comes out the centre of gravity moves past the front of the cabinet. Pull two drawers out at once on a tall cabinet and it can go badly.

That is why the cabinets have a drawer interlock which allows only one drawer open at a time. It is not a fault but a safety feature, and it is worth knowing before you stand there wondering why the second drawer will not move.

On fire rated cabinets the top drawer often has to be opened first. It releases the interlock, and the cabinet's own weight then works as a counterbalance. If the manual says so, that is the construction and not a quirk.

Filing cabinets cannot be bolted down, unlike safes. It is the construction that keeps them upright: the interlock, the weight, and on several models an anti-tilt device. If the cabinet stands on a sloping floor or somewhere children move about, call us and we will go through what that particular model has.

Locks

A key lock is the most common and goes a long way: the cabinet usually stands in a room that is already locked, and the key stays with whoever is responsible for the archive.

A code lock is right when several people need access during the day, or when the cabinet stands somewhere people move about. No key to keep track of, and the code can be changed when someone leaves.

Code locks come in two versions, and the difference is worth knowing. A battery powered keypad lock is independent of any socket and works wherever the cabinet stands - but the batteries need replacing, and they should be good quality alkaline, Duracell or Energizer. An electronic code lock is fed from the mains instead: no batteries to keep track of, but the cabinet needs a socket nearby. The Lock Type filter tells them apart.

Central locking secures every drawer with one turn. If the cabinet has a lock per drawer instead, different people can be given access to different parts of the archive. The product page says which.

The filing cabinets here are burglar-deterrent but not theft rated. They keep out curiosity and opportunity, not a burglar who came prepared. If the archive has to be protected against break-ins, a safe is what you want.

Measurements and placement

Measure the space in front of the cabinet, not just the cabinet. An open drawer takes up nearly its own depth in front, and whoever is flicking through it needs to stand there. Allow about a metre of clear floor.

Height and width can be filtered under Outer Height (mm) and Outer Width (mm). The depth is on the product page.

Weight is a placement question. A full four-drawer filing cabinet weighs a great deal more than its empty self, and fire rated cabinets weigh most of all. If it has to go up a staircase or stand on an older floor structure, ask us first.

Using the filters

Start with Number of Folders if you know how big the archive is, or with Number of Drawers if you know how you want to work with it.

Then Fire Protection, which decides most of the rest: price, weight and size all follow from the fire rating. Lock Type, Outer Height (mm) and Outer Width (mm) narrow down what is left.

Not sure? Call us on +46 770 22 01 22. Tell us how many shelf metres of records you have today, what format the files are in, and whether the archive will stand next to the workplace or in a room of its own. Then we will tell you which cabinet fits.