Analysis of the slider force calibration procedure for the British Pendulum Skid Resistance Tester

British Pendulum Skid Resistance Testers are being used for the determination of the slip/skid resistance of surfaces by laboratories all around the world in different fields. The instrument itself can give reproducible results; however, the comparison of results obtained by different instruments can show large deviations. This paper presents a comparison of the performance of four pendulum testers, the investigation of requirements in international standards and the analysis of the calibration procedure for the determination of the slider force/deflection characteristics. The slider force/deflection characteristics were measured manually and also automatically with a uniaxial tensile/compression testing machine using different techniques. The results highlight the importance of the slider force/deflection characteristic shape and its influence on the results indicated by the pendulum tester and outline inconsistencies in different international standards describing the same device and its requirements. Presented results show good reproducibility and comparability of the pendulum test results when calibration is performed with the assembled pendulum either manually or automatically, provided the stricter slider force characteristic envelope requirements are taken into consideration. The actual slider force should be stable from 1.5 mm deflection onwards.