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The
Prototype
With Hank's
suggestion in mind, Keith returned to his office in
Enon, OH and began work on a prototype for a machine
which could be used to score grooves into the surface
of the tile floors commonly found in restaurant
kitchens. After several failed attempts, a unique and
extremely effective tool was developed. Unlike the
diamond saws used to cut long parallel grooves in
highways and airport runways, Keith created a rotary
tool which could cut a concentric circular pattern
into individual floor tiles. By grooving each tile
separately, he was able to precisely position and
control the depth of each cut, an important
requirement since the grooved floors had to remain
easy to keep clean. The circular pattern also offered
improved traction enhancement properties since it was
omnidirectional and therefore effective from any
angle of approach. A patent was obtained for the
Safety Grooving tool. It then became time to test the
process in the restaurant environment.
The Wendy's Test
The theory
behind Safety Grooving was solid. The grooves would
work like treads on a tire to channel liquids away.
This would minimize the hydroplaning effect and allow
the shoe to remain in full contact with the floor
surface, improving traction. Wendy's commissioned the
first major test of the Safety Grooving process,
ordering its installation in the kitchens at
forty-five company-owned stores in the Dallas, TX
area. These stores all had a history of an excessive
number of slip/fall accidents. Following the Safety
Grooving installations, accident statistics would be
recorded for six months and compared to the six-month
period prior to the Safety Grooving installations.
The Statistics
The Wendy's
study showed that slip/fall accidents in the Safety
Grooved stores were substantially reduced. During the
six-month period prior to Safety Grooving, these
forty-five Wendy's stores had a total of 23 slip/fall
accidents which resulted in injuries. During the
six-month period following the Safety Grooving
installations, these same stores had reduced the
total number of slip/fall accidents to ten, a
reduction of 57%. As a self-insured organization for
Workers Compensation claims, Wendy's saw an immediate
return on its Safety Grooving investment. Many
thousands of dollars were saved as a result of the
reduction in accident claims and associated Workers
Compensation payouts.
The Test is
Successful
The Wendy's
test was so successful that the process was
immediately made available to Wendy's stores
throughout the United States. Wendy's adopted Safety
Grooving as the preferred traction enhancement
process to be used in restaurant kitchens. Soon, word
about Safety Grooving began to spread throughout the
restaurant industry. Over the next few years, Safety
Grooving would become an important weapon in the
battle to improve workplace safety, as it was adopted
by many of the leading restaurant organizations in
the United States.
The First Few
Years
During its
first few years, Diamond Safety Concepts offered
Safety Grooving to its customers nationwide, from a
single office in Enon, Ohio. Installation crews were
sent to customer sites from coast to coast. As demand
for Safety Grooving grew, the company decided it
needed to expand as well. In 1991 a territorial
license was granted to Bob Van Epps of Olivenhain,
CA. Bob's company, which shares the Diamond Safety
Concepts name, was authorized to market and install
Safety Grooving in the Western United States and
Canada. Today, both companies work together as one
and are able to provide service virtually anywhere in
the continental US and parts of Canada.
By the end of
1993, Safety Grooving had become widely accepted in
the restaurant industry. Safety Grooving had been
installed in thousands of restaurants and other
commercial kitchens in nearly every state. Today, our
customer list includes nearly every major fast food
restaurant chain and many smaller regional restaurant
organizations. KFC is currently the company's biggest
customer with nearly 3,000 installation sites across
the country.
The Applications
Although the
food service industry remains one of Diamond Safety
Concepts' primary markets, Safety Grooving's
usefulness is certainly not limited to the restaurant
environment. Today, Safety Grooving is used for many
other applications. It has become very popular in the
Grocery industry. Lucky Stores in California has
turned to Safety Grooving as a way to reduce slips
and falls in their meat departments, bakeries, delis
and produce departments. Safety Grooving has also
been used by Marriott Hotels on exterior walkways,
sidewalks and building entryways. Correctional
Institutions from coast to coast have used Safety
Grooving in their kitchens as well as other wet areas
such as shower and laundry facilities.
In 1997, the
fastest growing market for Safety Grooving involves
the recreational and aquatics industry. Safety
Grooving has been used with great success in this
environment, around swimming pools and in locker
rooms. On the golf course, Safety Grooving has been
used to make cart paths and concrete walkways safer
for those wearing spiked golf shoes.
Some
interesting potential new applications for Safety
Grooving are emerging as well. For example, one of
the world's largest banking institutions is looking
at using Safety Grooving as a means to discourage
skateboard use on its ramps and entryways. Safety
Grooving is also being tested by several Park and
Recreation organizations as an economical and
permanent way to improve traction on outdoor
basketball courts.
AST/95 added to
product line
As effective as
Safety Grooving has proven to be, it is not the
perfect solution in all situations. Safety Grooving
changes the appearance of the floor surface to which
it has been applied. In some environments and on
certain types of floor materials, changing the
appearance of the floor surface is not desirable. For
years, Diamond Safety Concepts searched for an
additional floor safety solution which was effective,
long lasting and invisible. Until recently, no such
product was available.
In 1998 a
unique new chemical floor safety product known as AST/95 was
discovered and added to the company's product line.
AST/95 dramatically improves the slip resistance of
tile and other hard floor materials, without changing
the appearance of the floor. With AST/95, Diamond
Safety Concepts now has a floor safety solution for
every situation.
Anti-slip Step Covers
Both Safety
Grooving and AST/95 are designed to improve the slip resistance of
flat surfaces such as floors and walkways. Recognizing that steps
and stairways can also be slippery places, we felt that we needed to
be able to offer anti-slip solutions that targeted this environment
as well. After carefully researching the available product options,
we entered into distribution relationships with the two leading
manufacturers of slip resistant step covering materials. For
interior applications, we selected
Musson Rubber,
manufacturers of the highest quality rubber products for this type
of application. For exterior applications we felt that we needed a
fiberglass product that could withstand the harshest environments.
Safeguard Technology
filled this niche perfectly with their highly slip resistant step
and landing covers made from fiberglass composites.
Rubber Flooring... the new focus
With the new
millennium and the emergence of the Internet as an efficient method
to market products and services worldwide, Diamond Safety Concepts
began refocus its efforts in a new direction. We recognized that
recycled rubber flooring materials were inherently slip resistant
and felt that they might be the perfect type of companion products
to go along with anti-slip treatments such as Safety Grooving and
AST/95. In 2000 we began the search for rubber flooring materials
which we could offer to our customers.
We quickly
discovered that there are many potential applications for these
kinds of materials and that the feature set offered by these
products extends far beyond their anti-slip properties. There are
rubber flooring materials designed to offer impact protection for
use in playgrounds and athletic applications. Other rubber flooring
products are designed for use as decking and walkway surfacing.
Still other applications include equine flooring in barns and horse
stalls as well as a wide range of similar applications such as dog
daycare facilities.
Over that past
several years, Diamond Safety Concepts has become one of the leading
suppliers of rubber flooring products. We currently represent over
25 manufacturers producing a very wide range of products. For
Playground Applications, we offer
recycled rubber
playground tiles from most of the top manufacturers including
SofTile, EarthScape and RB Rubber. We also represent nearly all the North
American manufacturers of
recycled
rubber playground mulch. This material offers the impact
protection of the playground tiles at a lower material and
installation cost. Rubber mulch is also used extensively in
landscape application where it offer superior durability compared to
organic materials such as wood chips or bark.
For
Athletic Flooring
applications we currently offer a variety of products made from both
recycled and virgin rubber. With products from companies including
Humane, Pawling, Mitchell Rubber, EarthScape, RB Rubber and Kraiburg, we
offer the widest selection available anywhere.
Rubber tiles
and pavers are rapidly gaining popularity for use as an alternative
to hard materials in
Patio,
Decking and Walkway applications. The combination of slip
resistance, durability, attractiveness and all-weather performance
makes recycled rubber the ideal material for this kind of usage.
Manufacturers, including Eco-flex, SofScape, SofTile and EarthScape offer
materials is a variety of sizes, shapes, thickness and colors. There
are products available for installation over an existing concrete,
wood or asphalt surface as well as thicker materials that can be
installed over a prepared soil subsurface just like traditional
bricks or stone pavers.
Our Plans for the Future
When Diamond Safety
Concepts was established in 1989, we offered a single service,
Safety Grooving. Today, anti-slip solutions such as Safety Grooving
and AST/95 account for less than 20% of our overall business. The
various rubber flooring materials that we now offer make up the
other 80%, and that number is growing. Diamond Safety will
always be a market driven company. We are constantly on the lookout
for new and innovative products that fall within our broad focus on
floor safety products and services. We have developed very close
relationships with most of the manufacturers that we represent and
often become involved with new product development. We welcome
feedback from our customers and regularly pass on these product
enhancement suggestions to our manufacturing partners.
Our goal at Diamond
Safety Concepts is to offer the best selection of top quality
products available anywhere. We will continue to focus on providing
our customers the best combination of quality and value. We are also
pursuing a number in international relationships that will involve
both the import and export of some new and exciting products. If a
hot new product hits the market, you can be certain that we will
attempt to add it to our growing list of products and services.
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