A Comparison of Slip Resistance Between the Grinded Outsoles and New Ones of Fire Fighter's Shoes

Abstract

Abstract Firefighters are at an increased risk for slip-trip-fall(STFs) injuries since they are exposed to the extreme working conditions. The origins of STFs injuries were diverse. Therefore, the fire fighter's shoes may be only controllable origins of STFs injuries. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is significant variation of slip resistance when the shoes are consecutively rubbed onto the rough steel plates (worn state). Four different brands of firefighter's shoes, all sold specifically for firefighters, and one type of safety shoes were tested. The firefighter's shoes and safety shoes were tested under two different wear states. The test devices used in this study were the surface roughness checker and AVIT, which was newly developed by KOSHA. The grinded outsole shows lesser COF value than fresh ones and change of COFs value also lesser than fresh ones. The maximum difference of Ra for each shoe was 0.24 μm. The maximum difference of Rz for each shoe was 2.79 μm. After the tests, the roughness Rz for fresh and grinded outsoles was varied respectively. Each shoes showed different trend with the number of trials, irrespective of the wear states of shoes. Of the new shoes, the boot “B2” showed the highest COF and the safety shoe shows the lowest COF value among the tested footwear. Of the grinded shoes, the rank order of mean COF value calculated from two test results showed that boots “B2” and “B3” had a better slip resistance value than the others.