An international comparison of test methods for determining the slip resistance of shoes

Co-operative tests were conducted by a working group of the “foot protection” ISO standardizing committee, with the participation of seven countries, using a total of 10 different testing methods for determining shoe anti-slip characteristics.

The friction coefficients, cof, thereby obtained were processed and condensed for statistical evaluation. Ten testing methods were compared, grouped into six testing machine variants, two sole-section methods and two test-person methods.

There are significant inter-relationships between the results of the various testing machines. This is especially true for the steel/glycerine floor/lubricant combination, for which a significant inter-relationship was shown between all testing machines.

No general relationship can be determined between the both sole-section methods on the one hand, and the testing machines on the other.

There are strong indications of a relationship between the test-person methods and the testing machines.