Polished Floors Are Slippery When Wet – No Matter What Your American-Made Slip Resistance Test Device Says!

Reliable floor slip resistance test devices include the pendulum floor slip resistance tester and the SlipAlert Tribometer (now known as the iAlert), which both measure the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) of floors. In the United States of America, we have in the past (and present) allowed tile manufacturers and people who make their living … Continue reading “Polished Floors Are Slippery When Wet – No Matter What Your American-Made Slip Resistance Test Device Says!”

New Australian Study Shows Sotter Engineering (Safety Direct America) is World’s Top Pendulum Floor Slip Resistance Testing Laboratory

A few years ago Sotter Engineering Corporation’s Safety Direct America (SDA) floor slip resistance testing laboratory participated in a global interlaboratory program that showed SDA to be one of the world’s three most accurate labs in use of the pendulum floor slip resistance tester. The pendulum is a national standard for pedestrian floor and tile … Continue reading “New Australian Study Shows Sotter Engineering (Safety Direct America) is World’s Top Pendulum Floor Slip Resistance Testing Laboratory”

Fool Me Once: The Floor Slip Resistance Testing Misinformation Campaign Fooling the USA

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” The Tile Council of North America (TCNA), who reportedly is “in partnership” with at least one of America’s largest tile manufacturers, spent almost two decades promoting the misinformation that the ASTM C1028 static coefficient of friction (SCOF) … Continue reading “Fool Me Once: The Floor Slip Resistance Testing Misinformation Campaign Fooling the USA”

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 … Continue reading “U.S. Senate Bipartisan Report: Falls Kill an American Senior Every 19 minutes”

Surveillance to Detect Slip and Fall Hazards on Commercial Floors

Surveillance of floors to detect spills, dropped produce, and other hazards is an important part of many safety plans, particularly on floors that have poor wet slip resistance. This includes most floors in customer areas of supermarkets. In one supermarket slip and fall case, a court ruled that inspections every 12 minutes were necessary in … Continue reading “Surveillance to Detect Slip and Fall Hazards on Commercial Floors”

Floor Slip Rating: SCOF vs. DCOF

Static coefficient of friction (SCOF) was formerly used to measure the slip resistance of a wet floor in the USA, but the test method (ASTM C1028) was withdrawn by the ASTM in 2014. Experts in the USA now know to use dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF), as the rest of the world has been using … Continue reading “Floor Slip Rating: SCOF vs. DCOF”

DCOF Rating for Floors

The latest American slip test for floors is the DCOF rating test method specified in ANSI A326.3. Although this test is a much better test than the now-withdrawn ASTM C1028 that was previously included in the International Building Code, the new test method comes with a great deal of “disclaimers”, including the warning that a … Continue reading “DCOF Rating for Floors”

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     … Continue reading “Floor and Tile Slip Resistance Testing Lab: Fast Turnaround AND Low Prices”