Prevent Slips and Falls with Epirez® Safe Step® 100
According to Safe Work Australia, within the period of 2023-2024, 22% of serious claims were because of falls, trips and slips of a person. The median compensation paid for the overall serious claim category being $16.6k, and median time lost being 8.8 weeks.
Slips are defined as “Slips occur when a person’s foot loses traction with the ground surface due to wearing inappropriate footwear or when walking on slippery floor surfaces such as those that are highly polished, wet or greasy".
It’s the last few words in that last statement, "slippery surface” and in particular “polished, wet or greasy”, where engineers can and do play a pivotal role to ensure that designs not only functionally perform well, but are also designed with the safety of the personnel operating in those areas, or on that machinery, squarely in mind.
What sort of areas should we be thinking about? Any infrastructure, such as exposed mezzanines, walkways, ramps, stairs, machine access points and/or other trafficable areas; particularly where unintentional spills or areas exposed to weather, moss, rain and/or ice can cause a reduction in traction. Continual maintenance and monitoring must also be considered.
AS 4586-2013 – Slip Resistance Classification of New Pedestrian Surface Materials, defines four classifications and a range of performance within each, for slip resistance based on frictional characteristics:
Appendix A - Wet Pendulum
Appendix B - Dry Floor Friction
Appendix C - Wet-Barefoot Inclining Platform
Appendix D - Oil-Wet Inclining Platform
Further, the NCC (National Construction Code) mandates this in its Performance Requirements DP2 (Volume One) and P2.5.1 (Volume Two): “So that people can move safely to and within a building, any stairways and ramps must be provided with slip-resistant walking surfaces on ramps; and stairway treads or near the edge of the nosing”.
Epirez Safe Step 100 is designed to not only meet the highest frictional levels within each of the four appendices, but is also a one coat, non-settling aggregate, single component, high durability epoxy and highly chemical resistant roll or trowel on coating system.
Single component means there is no mixing because the aggregate and colour pigment are already included in the mixture. Simply open and roll/trowel on and being an epoxy, it gives you confidence of high chemical resistance and long-term durability, such as is used in Government buildings throughout Australia.
For more information on Epirez Safe Step 100, follow this link.