Wet, bare feet are soft and essentially treadless, and on a slippery hard floor can be treacherous — leading to falls that sometimes cause permanent brain damage or worse. It’s crucial to provide slip-resistant surfaces at swimming pools where people (some of them sober) will be walking, playing or running (even against the rules) with […]
Tag Archives: AcuTest
ANSI Issuing Another Standard Slip Test Method for Flooring Materials
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is issuing a new test method, with minimum dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF rating), for slip resistance of hard flooring materials, wet or dry, laboratory or field testing. No minimum DCOF is provided for exterior applications. The BOT-3000E digital tribometer is used for the testing. The Secretariat for the […]
Fixing Your Slippery Epoxy/Polyurea/Polyaspartic Floor
We are continually amazed at how often contractors will install an epoxy (or polyurea or polyaspartic) floor coating (especially to garages and outdoor walkways) with little or no effort to make it slip-resistant under its known conditions of use — namely, sometimes wet and/or greasy. This happens in commercial, industrial, and household situations. Here’s what […]
Floor and Tile Slip Resistance Testing Lab: Fast Turnaround AND Low Prices
Safety Direct America makes a specialty of floor slip resistance (coefficient of friction) testing, offering both fast turnaround times and low prices. Here’s a comparison with our chief competitor, using ANSI A137.1 dynamic coefficient of friction testing (DCOF AcuTest) as an example: Turnaround time Our price […]
No More Slips in Supermarkets!
Today, over 99 percent of supermarket floor areas are slippery when wet or otherwise lubricated. The lubricants may be water from tracked-in rain and snow; vegetable display sprays or a dripping ice bag; WD-40 from a customer’s test of a spray can; cooking oil; milk; or a very large variety of other liquids and solids. […]
Slip Resistance of Floor Graphics
The September/October 2016 edition of SGIA Journal (Special Graphic Imaging Association), pp 89–92 has an article, “New Slip Resistance Specifications — Are You in Compliance?”, by the Marketing Manager of Mactac Distributor Products (“Technology that Sticks”, including indoor and outdoor floor graphics). He discusses the following about American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standard B101.3: […]
COF vs. Pendulum Test Value (PTV to DCOF conversion table)
Pendulum slip (or skid) resistance data are usually expressed as PTV, Pendulum Test Value (or sometimes BPN, British Pendulum Number, or even SRV, Slip Resistance Value). The question has been asked, “What’s the coefficient of friction?” This number (dynamic COF – DCOF) was calculated decades ago at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, and can […]
Article published in The Construction Specifier magazine talks slip resistance
John C. Sotter and George Sotter of Safety Direct America were published in the July issue of The Construction Specifier magazine with an article talking about floor slip resistance and keeping floors safe for pedestrians. The article talks about the latest International Building Code (IBC) requirements for slip resistance, and its limitations as far as […]
Proposed Federal Rule for Floor Slip Resistance
The U.S. federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is considering a petition requesting rule making to require that manufacturers of floor coverings, floor coverings with coatings, and treated floor coverings label their products’ slip resistance in accordance with an ANSI/National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) standard, B101.5. (NFSI, Safety Direct America and others offer for-fee […]
A bulletproof defense against slip-fall losses
If someone falls, or claims to have fallen, due to a slip on your premises, the key question from a responsibility standpoint is, were you negligent? And did your negligence contribute to the alleged accident? Here’s how to best assure that you won’t be found negligent. You need to do everything a reasonable person can […]