A International standard will provide safety and risk management professionals with an aid in measuring the slip resistance of footwear in a wide variety of flooring situations.
F2913, Test Method for Measuring the Coefficient of Friction for Evaluation of Slip Performance of Footwear and Test Surfaces/Flooring Using a Whole Shoe Tester, is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F13.30 on Footwear, part of ASTM International Committee F13 on Pedestrian/Walkway Safety and Footwear
It determines the dynamic coefficient of friction between footwear and floorings under reproducible laboratory conditions for evaluating relative slip performance. The method is applicable to all types of footwear, outsole units, heel top lifts and sheet soling materials, also to most types of floorings, including matting and stair nosing, and surface contaminants on the flooring surface, including but not limited to liquid water, ice, oil and grease. The method may also be applied to surfaces such as block pavers, turf and gravel.
F2913 quite simply allows for testing of the whole shoe against a myriad of flooring surface under both dry and contaminated conditions," says Bill Ells, vice president, component sales, Vibram USA, and vice chairman of F13. This test method provides the user with a practical comparative set of footwear, flooring and contaminant combinations, allowing for prescreening of product prior to recommended human subject wear trails.
In such environments, one could envision stainless steel flooring, wet or oily contaminants and perhaps a cold climate. Using this method, a safety professional could propose testing footwear that has been preconditioned at a given temperature against stainless steel flooring with an oily contaminant to be applied, says Ells.
F2913 is derived from TM144, Friction (Slip Resistance) of Footwear and Floorings, a well-established and widely used standard developed by SATRA Technology Center in Kettering, England.
As many regions of the world have a need to adapt test methods and performance requirements to their particular industry and government regulations, qinsun adopts a test method rooted in science and physics that also allows for adaptation of particulars that can better suit the end user's needs.
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