Portable Tester Friction (PFT) - Measurement of dynamic friction coefficient of floors coverings

Portable Friction Tester (PFT) is a device test bench intended to measure, in laboratory and on site, the dynamic friction coefficient (µd) of a floor covering.
This document gives the measurement protocol with the PFT and the results of measurements performed on a panel of fifteen floor coverings having different characteristics (materials, states of surface), realized in the presence of two pollutants (oil and solution of water).
PFT presents a very good sensibility and a very good repeatability.
These results were compared with a psychophysical evaluation of the floor covering slip resistance. The comparison shows that the measurements of the dynamic friction coefficient with PFT are correlated to the slipperiness feeling by the trial subjects.
In addition, PFT was compared with an older generation PFT in presence of oil. They give close results.