Testing standard
ASTM F963
Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety
Written and technically reviewed by Dak System Inc. engineeringLast reviewed
ASTM F963 is the US toy safety standard. A finished toy is put through a sequence of abuses standing in for how a child of a given age treats it — dropped, tumbled, pulled, twisted, compressed, and for ride-ons driven into a step and overloaded. Nothing here is a material property: every result is a pass or fail against a defined acceptance level.
At a glance
- Test type
- Load–deflection & proof load
- Published by
- ASTM
- Edition
- F963-23
- Runs on
- Series 7200 and Series 9000
What the test does
A finished toy is put through a sequence of abuses standing in for how a child of a given age treats it. It is dropped from a set height onto a hard floor of vinyl composition tile over concrete, and small toys are tumbled too. Projections and components are then gripped and pulled, twisted through 180°, and squeezed, each load ramped on and held. Ride-on toys are driven into a fixed step, loaded on a slope and overloaded until they hold or collapse.
What it measures, and why it matters
Nothing is reported as a material property; the output is a judgement. Did the abuse liberate a small part, expose a sharp edge or point, open access to a hazardous mechanism, or leave the toy structurally unsound? Each maps to a real injury mechanism — choking for small parts, laceration for edges, entrapment for mechanisms — which is why the assessment is made after abuse rather than on the toy as it leaves the line. Because the loads are graded by the intended user's age, a pass says the construction survives foreseeable use and misuse by that age group, not that the toy is durable in general.
The toy as sold
The specimen is the finished product in its retail condition, and the severity of every test is set by the age grade it is sold for.
- Drop test
- From a set height onto vinyl composition tile over concreteThe floor construction is specified because a softer floor is a materially easier test.
- Tumble test
- For small toys
- Tension test
- Projections and components gripped and pulledThe load ramped on and held rather than jerked.
- Torque test
- Twisted through 180°
- Compression test
- Squeezed under a defined load
- Ride-on tests
- Driven into a fixed step, loaded on a slope, overloaded
- AGE GRADE
- Sets the severity of everythingA toy for under-threes faces harder abuse and tighter small-parts rules than the same toy graded for older children.
The purpose of the abuse is not to see whether the toy survives cosmetically. It is to see whether abuse creates a HAZARD — a small part, a sharp edge, a sharp point, an accessible mechanism — which is a different question from durability.
How the loads are applied
- Tension and torque
- Ramped on and heldA held load finds a component that will creep out; a jerk does not.
- Hold period
- Defined by the test
- After each abuse
- Inspect before continuingThe sequence matters — a component loosened by the drop may then fail the pull it would otherwise have passed.
How the sequence runs
- 01Establish the age grade the toy is sold for; it sets the severity throughout.
- 02Inspect and record the toy's condition as received.
- 03Perform the drop test onto the specified floor construction.
- 04Tumble small toys as required.
- 05Inspect for liberated small parts, sharp edges and sharp points.
- 06Apply the tension test to projections and components, ramping and holding.
- 07Apply torque through 180° and the compression test.
- 08For ride-ons, run the step impact, slope loading and overload tests.
- 09Inspect after every stage rather than only at the end.
- 10Assess against the hazard criteria — small parts, edges, points, accessible mechanisms.
What the report has to contain
- Reference to ASTM F963 and the edition
- Toy identification and the AGE GRADE claimed
- Condition as received
- The sequence of abuse tests performed
- Loads, heights and hold periods used
- Observations after each stage, not only at the end
- Any small part liberated, and its dimensions against the gauge
- Sharp edges or points created
- Pass or fail against each acceptance level
What the machine must be capable of
Precision matters far more than capacity. Tension is of the order of 45 N for the youngest children and roughly 65 N above 18 months, applied along and across the component's major axis. Compression and torque are graded the same way across three age bands, compression in the region of 90 to 135 N and torque well under half a newton metre. Against numbers that small the gauge governs the result: force to about ± 2 N, torque to ± 0.02 N·m. Only the ride-on clauses call for real load: the overload test applies three times the tabulated 95th-percentile weight for the top of the intended age range, roughly 1.1 kN at eight years and about 2.05 kN at fourteen, judged on whether the toy collapses within a minute.
Loads are ramped rather than run at a rate: tension, torque and compression are applied evenly over five seconds and held a further ten, and torque is turned until 180° of rotation or the tabulated value is reached, whichever comes first. The flexure test for wire skeletons is genuine low-cycle fatigue — thirty slow cycles through ± 120°, with a rest period every tenth — but it is run in a bench vice fitted with formed steel shields, not on a fatigue machine. Ride-on toys are driven into a non-resilient 50 mm step at 2.0 ± 0.2 m/s, and stability, checked on a roughly ten-degree slope and steeper in two clauses, is required only for ride-on toys aimed at the youngest children, unlike the overload test.
Strain is never an output, so no extensometer appears in the method and no force-accuracy class of the ISO 7500-1 kind applies. The demand is fixtures: clamps that hold a projection without themselves damaging the attachment, a drop floor of the specified construction, a tumble rig, a shielded vice and an inclined plane. Nothing in these sections calls for a universal test frame.
What goes wrong in practice
The clamp is the commonest source of a false result. Grip a soft or hollow projection too hard and the clamp starts the failure, so the component detaches at a load that says nothing about the attachment; grip it too gently and it slips first. Age grading is the second trap: the loads, and in some clauses whether a test applies, follow the age range on the packaging, so a toy relabelled for a wider range needs retesting, not a rewritten report. The ride-on clauses make this sharpest, since stability is tied to the youngest users while the overload test follows the top of the range instead. Assessing hazards too early is the third. An edge that is smooth on the shelf may be exposed only after the drop and torque sequence; inspecting before that sequence ends misses what the method exists to find.
F963 and the other toy safety regimes
| ASTM F963 (US) | EN 71-1 (Europe) | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Mandatory in the US | Harmonised to the Toy Safety Directive |
| Approach | Abuse then assess for hazards | Abuse then assess for hazards |
| Age grading | Central to severity | Central to severity |
| Interchangeable | No | No |
The two regimes share their logic and differ in detail, and a toy sold on both sides of the Atlantic is generally tested to both. Compliance with one is not evidence of compliance with the other.
Questions we are asked about this test
What is ASTM F963?
It is the US toy safety standard. A finished toy is subjected to a sequence of abuse tests — dropping, tumbling, pulling, twisting, compressing, and for ride-ons impact and overload — and then assessed for whether that abuse has created a hazard. It is mandatory for toys sold in the United States.
Is F963 a durability test?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The question is not whether the toy still works after the abuse but whether the abuse has produced a hazard: a liberated small part that a child could swallow, a sharp edge, a sharp point, or access to a mechanism. A toy can be visibly damaged and still pass, or look intact and fail.
Why does the age grade matter so much?
Because it sets the severity of everything. A toy graded for under-threes faces harder abuse — younger children mouth, drop and pull more indiscriminately — and much tighter rules on small parts. The same physical toy can pass at one age grade and fail at a lower one, which makes the grading claim part of the compliance.
Why is the floor construction specified for the drop test?
Because the energy absorbed by the floor changes the test. Vinyl composition tile over concrete is a hard, repeatable surface; dropping onto a softer floor makes the test materially easier and the result no longer comparable. Specifying the construction is what makes a drop test mean the same thing in two laboratories.
How does F963 relate to EN 71-1?
They share the same logic — abuse the toy, then assess for hazards — and differ in the detail of the tests and the acceptance criteria. F963 is mandatory in the US and EN 71-1 is harmonised to the European Toy Safety Directive. A toy sold in both markets is generally tested to both, because compliance with one is not evidence for the other.
Does F963 cover chemical hazards as well as mechanical ones?
Yes — the standard is broader than the mechanical abuse sequence it is best known for. It also addresses heavy elements in surface coatings and substrates, flammability, and specific hazards such as sound pressure and magnets. The mechanical testing is what a testing machine contributes, but a toy has to satisfy the whole document to be compliant.
What happens after the abuse tests?
The toy is examined against the hazard criteria, and that examination is the actual result. The drops, impacts, torque and tension tests are not scored in themselves; they exist to create the condition a child might create. What matters is whether the abused toy now presents a small part, a sharp point, a sharp edge or an accessible hazardous component that it did not present before.
Running ASTM F963 on the Series 7200 and Series 9000
Dak verifies against whichever standard the method names, and where a class applies our frames sit a class tighter than it asks.
| The method asks for | Dak supplies | |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Small forces, applied precisely, graded by the age of the intended user. Tension is 44.5 N for toys for children up to 18 months and 66.8 N above that, applied both parallel and perpendicular to the component's major axis. Compression is 89.0 N, 111.3 N or 133.5 N across the three age bands. Torque is 0.23, 0.34 or 0.45 N·m. Dead-weight pulls of 44.5 N and 66.8 N remove tyres and snap-in axles. Only the ride-on tests are large: the overload test applies three times the 95th-percentile weight for the top of the intended age range, about 1.1 kN for a toy rated to eight years and roughly 2.0 kN at the fourteen-year top of the table. Gauge accuracy matters more than capacity — ± 2 N on force, ± 0.02 N·m on torque. | Load cells from 1 kg to 60 ton on the Series 7200, and 0.5 to 100 kN on the Series 9000 |
| Gripping | Age-graded abuse rig: a vinyl-composition-tile-over-concrete drop floor, torque and tension clamps, a compression platen, a shielded flexure vice, a six-step tumble flight and an inclined plane for ride-on stability. | Our a fixture built for this method or compression anvils, built to the specimen |
This page describes the method as practised. The governing text is the current edition from the issuing body. Tell us what you are testing and we will answer with the machine, the fixture and a quotation.