Slips on stairs can be very serious and sometimes fatal. Our self-adhesive anti-slip tapes on stair treads or SparkleTuff™ transparent anti-slip floor coating on stairs can make them slip resistant and can protect against foot slips, but self-adhesive, non-abrasive grip tape on the handrail can provide valuable “insurance” against slips in high-risk areas at a very […]
Archive | Slip and fall prevention
RSS feed for this sectionSparkleTuff™ Transparent Anti-Slip Floor Coating Has Outstanding Chemical Resistance, Zero VOCs
We are sometimes asked if SparkleTuff™, our long-lasting transparent anti-slip floor coating with excellent wet slip resistance, has good resistance to chemicals and cleaning/sanitizing agents. It does! It even stands up well to concentrated sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, ethanol, and sodium and ammonium hydroxides! SparkleTuff™ Anti-Slip Floor Coating is a polysiloxane, a type of coating […]
Suggested Specifications for Lifetime Slip Resistance of Flooring
When we’re buying new automobile tires we’d like to know not only that the tires are good at the time of purchase, but that they will have a reasonably long lifetime for us. Michelin, for instance, offers models with mileage warranties (within a time limit) from 36,000 to 80,000 miles. When buying slip-resistant flooring, customers […]
CoatingsPro article: How to Specify a Slip-Resistant Floor Coating
An article in the March 2020 edition of CoatingsPro™ Magazine details how to specify an anti-slip floor coating, specifically a transparent one. (A printable version of the article is also available.) After establishing a reliable method to determine wet slip resistance, the article discusses initial slip resistance safety criteria; durability testing of the coating’s slip […]
U.S. Senate Bipartisan Report: Falls Kill an American Senior Every 19 minutes
Lest we think that the U.S. Senate is capable only of partisan wrangling, the bipartisan Senate Aging Committee has published a report on falls prevention in efforts to protect those 65 and over from injury and premature death. Every 11 seconds an older American is treated in an emergency room for a fall. Every 19 […]
Germany’s DIN 51130 Slip Test: What’s it Good For?
In Europe, a slip resistance test for flooring is prescribed by German Institute for Normalization (DIN) standard DIN 51130. A person wearing industrial-type treaded shoes walks, facing down slope, on a variable-angle ramp which has the flooring to be tested on it. The flooring is coated with motor oil. The walker (without holding the handrails) […]
SparkleTuff Outdoors on Level Surface and Stairs: 30-second video
The video below shows an outdoor level surface and stairs at a large mall, coated with transparent SparkleTuff™ Anti-Slip. A pedestrian walks down the stairs, which are partially wet from the previous day’s rain. With a material cost of about a dollar a square foot, SparkleTuff™ has excellent wet slip resistance by all respected test […]
SlipAlert Dynamic Floor Friction (DCOF) Test Instrument for $2380!
The SlipAlert dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) tester has been in wide use for many years but now is offered by Safety Direct America for a limited time at close to half of its previous price! A roller-coaster type of dynamic floor slip resistance tester, SlipAlert’s (now known as the iAlert – same tribometer with […]
A Review of Standards for Pedestrian Slip Resistance Testing
There are a number of floor slip test methods established by standards-setting organizations that assess pedestrian slip resistance. Here we’ll review the most widely known and current ones. They are distinguished by the devices used in the testing. Terms such as DCOF rating, coefficient of friction, slip coefficient, slip resistance rating, and friction coefficient all […]
Beware of Slippery Finished-in-Place Floors Installed by Clueless Contractors
Some floors are covered with premanufactured stuff, such as marble, granite or ceramic tiles, wood, or vinyl composite tile. Other floors are created in place — including epoxy, terrazzo, and concrete. Topical sealers added to premanufactured floors also constitute a finished-in-place surface — the pedestrian is not walking on the flooring, but on the sealer. […]