Understanding Slip Resistance Of Tiles
Categorising tiles according to the need of the placement of tiles is an important aspect to think about. The decision of selecting new tiles either for your home or for commercial usage involves understanding of various factors. Sowing these seeds now will bear you the fruit of safety, satisfaction and value for your money. Or else you might end up buying tiles which will make you vulnerable to accidents and putting more money into buying new sets of tiles.
Slip Resistance is a force that is required to keep an object in motion when it slides over the surface. Technically, it is the ratio of the force that the sole of the shoe exerts on the floor and the force pushing the sole across the surface.
Although Slip Resistance provides relief from the slippage over the tiles, it does not guarantee that a person will never slip on it as it depends on factors like : dry floor, wet floor, soapy floor.
Textured floor tiles provide some level of friction making them less slippery, making them an intelligent choice for high traffic areas in your house or commercial property and also if you have children in your house or your grandparents. Glazed or polished tiles have a very smooth surface hence it becomes necessary to have eyes on the Slip Resistance metric. Although more the tiles are anti-skid, it becomes difficult to keep them clean.
COF stands for coefficient of friction and measures the slip resistance. It is a frictional force between two objects and depends on the nature of the materials and surface roughness. Materials with COF smaller than 0.1 are slippery materials. COF is calculated by 4 methods according to ASTM (American Society For Testing And Material).
Method A:
This method measures the dynamic coefficient of friction which is a measurement of the level of friction there is on wet, level floors when walked upon. The method involves three tools to begin with viz, portable movable equipment, a moveable device with an electric motor that moves at a continuous speed over the surface of the tiles to be tested. The results of this test help us to govern whether a tile surface could promote slipping or falling.
Method B
This method measures the static coefficient of friction which refers to the force required to just start moving on a tile surface from idle position. The method involves the use dynamometer covered in 4S rubber and loaded with unknown weight on a dry and wet tile surface to determine the slip resistance.
Method C
This method involves a person walking on an inclined test area made of ceramic tiles. The angle of inclination of the test panel is increased in stages, till he begins to slip.
Method D
This method measures the energy absorbed when a slippery element covered in 4S rubber connected to a pendulum is made to swing on a wet and dry tile surface.
