Designing a floor with the right slip resistance is a complex task.  There are multiple factors that make a contribution and no amount of slip resistance in isolation will make any floor impossible to slip on.

Designers have to contend with two separate Handbooks making recommendations, and 6 different methods of testing procedures.   In addition a designer must make a subjective judgement as to what  general recommendation best fits their application and it follows that they must also consider not only the test result that they feel most relevant, but also other test method results that others may claim are relevant.

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The pendulum test apparatus measures  friction (CoF) and provides results as BPN (british pendulum number). The pendulum test is portable and therefore is frequently used on site as well as in laboratory conditions. It is one of the approved test methods under the Australian Standards AS4586 :2013  & AS4663:2013

The test has a number of advantages  over other test methods.

Wet barefoot ramp slip resistance testing is used for applications where it is expected that the majority of users will be in bare feet.  This test is carried out on the same ramp apparatus as the oil ramp test except the test panel has a stream of water (no oil) and with the test operator not wearing any shoes.

As with the oil-wet ramp test, a panel of the tiles to be tested are inclined to the point where the barefoot operator slips, and the angle of the panel / ramp is measured.  The angle results are then classified as either A, B or C (highest).

The Tortus test is conducted with a simple mechanical apparatus that measures the coefficient of friction (CoF) created between the tile and the device. The tortus test is conducted on clean dry surfaces only and results are classified as either D1  (if friction was > 0.4 Cof) or a D0  (if friction was > 0.4 Cof).

The Oil-wet Ramp Test (commonly referred to as just the “Ramp test”) provides scores that are widely recognised by most designers from their R – rating results  R9, R10 etc.  The mechanism of achieving these results however is often poorly understood, as are the limitations of this test method.  There are very significant limitations to the ramp test and the creation of designs and specifications using ramp test results alone has lead to many problems for designers, their clients and indeed users and operators of facilities.

An investigation of slip resistance following an accident will almost certainly not involve the ramp test results, but rather will consider on-site pendulum testing.  It therefore follows that to design a floor without knowledge of the pendulum results of the floor surface selected is a significant risk.

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The Displacement Volume test essentially measures the amount of surface profile of the tile or flooring product. It is intended be an indicator for deliberately patterned products with raised dots, pyramids, squares, circles, ribs, ridges etc.  Flat textured surfaces will generally not achieve a result on this test however some extremely coarse textured surfaces of applied finishes may achieve a score in the lowest V4 category.

Ratings are  V4, V6, V8 or V10 (highest).

The 2013 version of the  Australian Standard 4586 now recommends the application of wear  to the items before  slip resistance testing,  where  there is a requirement for long term durability of slip resistance.

AWT (Accelerated Wear Testing)  provides an indication of how the slip resistance of an item will perform during long term use.  The most common wear application is 500 wear cycles (or scrubs) by the laboratory wear apparatus as shown. The application of 500 wear cycles is an excellent method of rejecting poorly performing products that loose too much of their initial slip resistance following installation and the initial handover period.

Modern manufacturing techniques have allowed the production of large format porcelain tiles with a high degree of accuracy in size and shape. This has enabled tiles to very effectively mimic the appearance of other materials such as large stone slabs and timber planks.

Such products provide the benefits of porcelain tile performance and durability with almost all of the character of the original material.

Kitchen Floors provide the most demanding of workplace environments.  Metz has undoubtedly supplied many more commercial kitchen floor tiles than any other company in Australia. There are thousands of commercial kitchens with tiles supplied or supplied and installed by Metz.