Objetivo
Due to strong competition from Asian countries encountered recently, footwear and flooring Manufacturers hope to achieve a high quality product with new performance in order to stand-out from the vast range of products that are currently available on the market. Increasingly important factors with regard to both footwear (professional and for everyday use) and floorings are safety and comfort. Many injuries caused by slipping could be avoided if appropriate sole materials and tread were chosen. Instead, there continues to be many accidents in the work environment most of which, i.e. 44.2%, are caused by slipping, 41.4% by trips and 14.4% are sprains. Currently, sole manufacturers design their models to be anti-slip using basic design criteria, often relying on their intuition and previous experience. The problem resides in the lack of design tools that can be used in the conception of footwear, which would make prototyping much cheaper, quicker and more effective in creating an answer to the friction that the shoe would be subjected to when used. The availability of these tools would lead to a reduction in the design-production time of the footwear as well as a reduction in costs, as unnecessary costs could be avoided, such as those derived from amendments to sole moulds, materials used for the production of prototypes, slip resistance validation tests following prototyping. For this reason, the main objective of the project is to develop guidelines and specific software which could be used as a design tools for soles and floorings to optimise their performance in relation to slipping.
Ámbito científico
Tema(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP7-SME-2010-1
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria
Régimen de financiación
BSG-SME - Research for SMEsCoordinador
03600 Elda Alicante
España