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Floor Coverings Testing

SATRA’s floor coverings testing facility, working to ISO 17025, offers a wide range of furniture testing including resistance to slip, chemicals and artificial light as well as flammability and light reflectance testing. We can also test to a variety of UK, European and International standards and are an Approved Body to assist with UKCA mark certification. We are also a Notified Body for the CE mark through our subsidiary SATRA Technology Europe Ltd.

SATRA also offers a variety of testing and assessment against industry product specifications, such as ISO 10582, EN 651, EN 16511, EN 13845 and EN 1307, among others, which allow manufacturers to ensure that their products are safe to use and fit for purpose.

Businesses in the Furniture and Floor Coverings sector can now become members of SATRA, giving them access to a range of benefits, such as access to technical support from our team of industry experts, access to specialist training, seminars and events, as well as testing discounts. Find out more here.

Slip resistance testing

Floor safety management is obligatory in health and safety regulations and an integral part of sound overall business practice. It is important to understand the performance of a floor surface in terms of slip resistance, in the UK the pendulum test is an important measurement in this respect. SATRA are able to offer pendulum testing, to BS 7976-2 and other methods, in-situ or in the laboratory, alongside a range of other slip resistance tests including SATRA TM 144, EN 13893, DIN 51130, DIN 51097 and BS 8445 (for in-bath and shower mats).

Flammability

Under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), manufacturers must test floor coverings for ‘reaction to fire’ which is carried out in accordance with methods specified in EN 13501-1. For products classified up to a Bfl-s1, EN ISO 9239-1 and EN ISO 11925-2 are the key test methods. For textile flooring products, particularly for rugs which are excluded from CPR, testing may also be conducted against BS 4790, determination of effects of a small source of ignition (hot metal nut).

Pedatron testing

The SATRA STM 528 Pedatron provides accelerated wear simulation under realistic conditions and can be used as an effective means of assessing the wear characteristics of floor coverings. It is applicable to many flooring surfaces and also flooring hardware such as stair nosings. SATRA can also assess the long-term effects of wear on the slip resistance of a floor covering, by undertaking pendulum tests in accordance with BS 7976-2 on a specific area of the specimen after subjecting it to the a number of footfalls (normally every 250,000) using the Pedatron.

Carpet testing

SATRA can test carpet, rugs and matting for a variety of applications including carpet intended for on-stair use, in both domestic and contract installations. Such carpet is subject to some of the most severe wear conditions of any carpet application because the forces imposed by a person going up and down stairs are quite different from those imposed by the same person when walking on a flat surface. Specific testing for carpets at SATRA includes Vettermann Drum, Hexapod Tumbler, Lisson Tretrad abrasion, castor chair test and static electricity testing.

Abrasion testing

SATRA are also able to offer a wide variety of testing which utilises the taber machinery to determine abrasion resistance properties. These tests use either abrasive wheels or an abrasive grit to affect wear on the specimen. The effects of this abrasion can be recorded either through loss in mass and thickness, or by visually determining the point at which the wear layer of a product has been abraded through. A similar test is also utilised for products with particle based enhanced slip resistance, where the reduction of number of particles is used for classification purposes.

Resilient and modular multilayer floor coverings

There are a wide range of products under the resilient floor coverings banner, including vinyl PVC, linoleum, rubber, as well as products which include built in underlays or foam layers which may improve the acoustic properties of the flooring, as well as providing underfoot comfort for users. SATRA can assess a wide variety of these products against their product specification, with testing often including geometrical characteristics, dimensional stability, flexibility, residual indentation, the castor chair test and colour fastness to light.