Slip Resistance Testing: The Pendulum Test (BS 7976)

The “Gold Standard” apparatus for determining slip resistance in Ireland, the UK and nearly 50 countries worldwide is the Transport Road Laboratory (TRL) Pendulum.

In August of 2002, the British Standards Institute (BSI) published BS 7976: 1-3. Part 2 gives the method of Pendulum operation. Further development of the methodology detailed in the British Standard is given in the UK Slip Resistance Group (UKSRG) Guidelines, Issue 4.0 September 2011.

Ireland’s Health & Safety Authority (HSA) and the UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) both recommend this procedure for measuring slip resistance.

The BS 7976 Pendulum Test mimics the way a heel makes contact with a floor and measures the dynamic coefficient of friction. It can test slip potential on clean, dry or contaminated flooring.

The criteria for judging the results of slip resistance tests are based on the work of the Building Research Station (UK) in the 1960s, supported by the experience of investigators and bodies such as the former Greater London Council (GLC) (UK) over the last 40 years. This work suggested that for unencumbered, able bodied, working aged people, a Pendulum Test Value (PTV) of 36 or above represented an acceptably low risk of slipping when walking in a straight line on a level surface. The table below is based on these results, and is used for readings with the different pendulum sliders which represent shod and barefoot pedestrians.

Quin Friction Laboratories use the TRL Pendulum to BS 7976 and UKSRG standards. We will determine the slip potential of your floor in dry, wet or contaminated conditions.

In this video Mr. Steve Thorpe of the Health & Safety Laboratory (UK) demonstrates Pendulum Slip Resistance results from a dry floor, a wet floor and a “cleaned floor”.

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