Tag Archives: skid test

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 […]

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How to Get Reliable and Useful Floor Slip Resistance Test Results

Slip and fall injuries can carry total liabilities that are often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or even more. Investment in flooring is long-term and often involves appreciable capital, whether you are an individual homeowner or have a string of large office buildings and shopping centers. Though the charges for floor slip resistance […]

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Pendulum: The Most Widely Used Slip Resistance Test Worldwide

The pendulum skid tester, known in the U.S. as the “British pendulum” although it was invented at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, is the most widely used floor slip resistance tester worldwide for measuring the slip resistance of pedestrian surfaces (DCOF rating). It is a national floor slip test standard in at least 50 […]

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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 […]

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Slip Resistance of Basketball and Volleyball Floors

Floors for indoor sports (basketball, volleyball, gym, etc.) need careful attention to their dry slip resistance. Players must have enough traction to start and stop quickly, yet not so much that they can’t pivot rapidly. Fortunately, there are well-defined and long-accepted standards for the slip resistance of these floors, using the pendulum skid testing instrument […]

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 […]

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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 […]

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New Anti-Slip Floor Design Guidelines Aid in Safe Floor Selection

After consulting with many experts in the USA and abroad, including Safety Direct America, Specialty Architectural Products (SAP) in Toledo, Ohio has distributed four-page design guidelines (Design Guide – Anti-Slip) for floor slip resistance testing. The Slip Resistance Test Guidelines are intended to help building owners, architects, interior designers, specification professionals, and graphic designers, mainly […]

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Natural Stone with Sustainable Slip Resistance Wet

Flooring that gets high foot traffic and can get wet or greasy in use needs slip resistance (or skid resistance) that stands up well under wear rather than losing its wet slip resistance after a few weeks. McDonalds Restaurants spent years in research and devised a laboratory slip test that assesses how well the wet […]