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Slips and Trips

11.08.06

July 05 saw the revision of the UK HSE Guidelines in preventing slips in the food and drink industry. Acrylicon is pleased to announce that Acrylicon Decor Slip Resistant System exceeds the new criteria - giving you peace of mind in specifying flooring in areas of likely contamination.

The publication of Food Information Sheet 22 updates HSE Booklet "Slips and trips - guidance for the food processing industry HSG156" by giving additional technical factors in specifying flooring.

It details among other things -

  • The measurements that can now be used for measuring slip resistance.

  • Confirmation that measuring the coefficient of friction using manually dragged or self-propelled sleds can give misleading results

  • The importance of considering the viscosity of expected contamination before floor specification.

    • Because of this, Acrylicon commissioned Slip Test UK to carry out tests using the calibrated Pendulum slip resistance tester, as used by the Health and Safety Laboratory in Sheffield.

    Using this method on a dry or wet surface, values of 36 or more (equivalent to a CoF of 0.36) are currently accepted to indicate satisfactory slip resistance. Further tests are carried out after contamination of the test surface with any expected contaminant (in this case we used Margarine). This allows insight into the actual CoF experienced in everyday working situations. Further details may be found in the UKSRG Guidelines.

    Independent results for Acrylicon Decor System (Slip resistant) - based on commercial kitchen areas

    Dry CoF - 78
    Wet CoF - 66
    Contaminated CoF - 46

    As you can see, Acrylicon not only meets these recommendations, but also exceeds them. Because Acrylicon is completely non-porous, it remains fully cleanable as well. Due to our unique chemical bond, we can lay the slip resistant surface only in areas of likely contamination, i.e. walkways or in front of food prep areas, leaving areas under equipment smooth and easier to clean whilst maintaining a seamless, joint free surface.

    Please contact the UK Head Office for more details.

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