Development of a Method to Measure Wear on Resilient Flooring

Abstract

Abstract Interlaboratory and intralaboratory reproducibility has been shown for a method to measure wear on resilient flooring. The work was done by the ASTM F06.33 Task Group on Abrasion and Wear, using a loose-grit feeding device as an attachment on the Taber abraser. Otto F. V. Frick, National Institute for Material Testing, Stockholm, Sweden, developed the original feeding device, now called the Frick-Taber Attachment. This prototype feeder was modified and subsequently manufactured in sufficient quantity to carry out this program. The coefficients of variation of volume loss between six cooperating laboratories using five different resilient floorings were found to be no greater than 20%. Within any one laboratory, the coefficients of variation were approximately 10% or less. A ranking of equivalent flooring materials according to the wear expected from wear tests reported in the literature corresponds with the loss results found in this effort. The F06.33 Task Group has concluded that the technique has sufficient precision to be recommended as a method to measure wear on resilient flooring.