Floor slip resistance testing is an essential process for ensuring safety in public spaces, workplaces, and homes. It helps to identify the level of slip resistance (or COF) of a floor surface, which is crucial in preventing injuries resulting from avoidable slips and falls. The most common floor slip resistance testing technique around the world […]
Tag Archives: coefficient of friction test
America’s Floor Slip Resistance Testing Experts
We’ve tested flooring for the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) and slip resistance all over North America and beyond for around 1,000 individual clients so far as America’s leading independent third-party certified floor friction test lab. We don’t lie in court for slip and fall lawyers (like those who mainly use the Brungraber Mark IIIB, […]
ASTM E303-22 Revolutionizes Floor Slip Resistance Testing in the USA
Floor slip resistance tests in the USA have historically been written by the members of the ASTM F13 committee. Comprised mostly of expert “liars for hire” that exclusively work for slip and fall attorneys, and representatives of the flooring industry, these tests have been based on either no science, or very little shady science. The […]
ADA Slip Resistance Requirements
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that floors accessible to disabled persons be “slip-resistant”, but does not define what that means. Apparently it’s up to property owners and the courts to decide. But there is a reliable way of assessing slip resistance that is recognized the world over to help comply with ADA slip […]
Safety Direct America Calibrates Pendulum Skid Testers from Far and Wide
Like any scientific or engineering instrument, the pendulum skid tester (also sometimes called the British pendulum or pendulum slip tester) should be calibrated at least once annually. Safety Direct America, a subsidiary of Sotter Engineering Corporation, is the leading calibrator of pendulum skid testers in the Americas. We calibrate the pendulum using the latest British […]
2022 Revised ANSI A326.3 Has Five Situation-Specific DCOF Minimums — And Crucial Caveats
In February of 2022, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) issued a revised version of their “Test Method for Measuring Dynamic Coefficient of Friction of Hard Surface Flooring Materials.” The test method is called ANSI A326.3, and it sets a very low bar for DCOF in various flooring areas. Slip and fall accidents will likely […]
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 […]
Maximum Coefficient of Friction is not Limited to 1.00
It’s sometimes assumed that coefficient of friction (COF) has a maximum theoretical and practical value of 1.00. This isn’t true; there is no maximum. It is true that values exceeding 1.00 are so slip-resistant that their actual value is often of little interest. Some COF measuring instruments, such as BOT-3000E and English XL, are not […]
New Study Shows Sotter Engineering to be one of World’s Most Accurate Pendulum Floor Slip Test Labs
A recent global interlaboratory program “Slip Resistance Proficiency Testing — Pendulum Friction Tester,” showed Sotter Engineering Corporation’s Safety Direct America (SDA) floor slip resistance testing laboratory to be one of the world’s most accurate in use of the pendulum skid tester. The pendulum is a national standard for pedestrian floor and tile slip resistance testing […]
Financial losses from slip and fall accidents
Slip and fall accidents are the #1 reason Americans show up at emergency rooms, according to data from the CDC. Slippery floors are a silent epidemic in America, and lawsuits are filed daily across the nation involving major injuries and deaths from slippery floors. Unless the negligent party is the victim’s employer, the victim of […]