Effect of Floor Coatings on Slip-Resistance of Safety Shoes

Abstract

Slippery flooring often leads to unintentional slips and falls, which results in traumatic injuries. To reduce slipping risks, adequate traction at the shoe and flooring contact is essential. In addition, viscous slippery contaminants like water or oil reduce a floor’s traction performance and increase slipping hazards. In this work, the effect of commonly available protective floor coatings on the traction performance of safety-labelled shoes was extensively studied. The study included three floor coatings, namely acid-based etchant coating, epoxy floor paint, and polyurethane, which were tested across five safety shoes. The coated floorings were tested using a robotic slip-testing device in dry and in the presence of water and machine oil—as separate contaminants. The application of floor coatings produced varying surface roughness for the flooring. Significant traction was generated by the etchant coating for the dry flooring, epoxy coating for the wet flooring, and polyurethane coating for all flooring conditions. A comparison of uncoated and coated floorings showed a high effectiveness of generating traction with epoxy coating on wet flooring and polyurethane coating on both wet and oily conditions. The study results are novel and are anticipated to provide valuable guidelines for the selection of slip-resistant coatings for different slippery floorings, and to reduce risks related to slips and falls.