FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 24, 2023
(Clemson, SC)— The Tile Council of North America (TCNA) Product Performance Testing Laboratory is changing its name to International Product Assurance (IPA) Laboratories. Transition to the new name will begin immediately and a full branding reveal will take place at Coverings in Orlando, Florida April 18–21, 2023.
“Our broad growth in services initiated the search for better ways to communicate our diverse range of international testing services,” said Katelyn Simpson, TCNA’s Director of Laboratory Services. “The new name and branding will be our first steps in a comprehensive communications plan.”
The TCNA laboratory has provided independent internationally-trusted testing services for over 60 years. Today, these services encompass testing all surface coverings, installation materials, tile substrates, sustainable building materials, and raw materials to national and international standards. The laboratory also has a long history of microbiological testing and research on ceramic tiles and other floor and wall coverings, including ground-breaking research on photocatalytic antimicrobial surfaces and the antimicrobial effects of various metal oxides in glazes. In response to concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic, antiviral testing was added to the lab’s services to determine the survival rates/duration of viruses on different surface materials and the efficacy of common household cleaners to disinfect these surfaces. The lab’s expansion into antiviral and microbiological testing has led to new opportunities outside of the ceramic tile and hard surface industry as well as more growth in custom testing and research for any product.
“As consumers and specifiers continue to seek safe, durable, and healthy products, International Product Assurance Laboratories will continue to provide the independent and trusted testing needed to evaluate these products and support our clients worldwide,” said Eric Astrachan, TCNA’s Executive Director.
A full list of testing services can be found at www.ipalaboratories.com. For assistance or to discuss custom testing with the lab team, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 864-646-8453.
About Tile Council of North America (TCNA)
TCNA is a trade association representing manufacturers of ceramic tile, tile installation materials, tile equipment, raw materials and other tile-related products. Established in 1945 as the Tile Council of America (TCA), it became the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) in 2005, reflecting its membership expansion to all of North America.
The Tile Council is recognized for its leadership role in facilitating the development of North American and international industry quality standards to benefit tile consumers. Additionally, TCNA regularly conducts independent research and product testing, works with regulatory, trade, and other government agencies, and publishes installation guidelines, tile standards, economic reports, and promotional literature.
About International Product Assurance (IPA) Laboratories
International Product Assurance Laboratories (formerly the TCNA Product Performance Testing Laboratory) offers unparalleled third-party, ISO 17025 accredited, independent laboratory services including testing of ceramic, glass, and stone tiles and panels, concrete products such as pavers, all countertop surfacing materials, composite materials such as LVT, LVP, and rigid core products, materials used in the installation of hard surface floor and wall coverings, and related raw materials. IPA Laboratories also offers antiviral, antibacterial, and other microbiological testing and research. The lab is located adjoining the Clemson University Innovation Campus and Technology Park with access to a broad spectrum of equipment including SEM, TEM, GCMS, FTIR, ICP-EMS, and more.
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Contact:
Roxanne Morris
(864) 646-8453
Friction is the resistance to motion of one surface or object moving relative to another. The frictional relationship between two objects has beneficial effects: when you strike a match, friction lights a flame; when you use your vehicle’s brakes, friction helps bring it to a stop. This same relationship, when leveraged properly, can help prevent slips and falls in the workplace.
Friction is caused, in part, by small features on the two surfaces in contact. Even if a floor may look smooth there is still some degree of topography; however, these roughness features can be difficult to measure, especially on a small scale. The University of Pittsburgh’s Kurt Beschorner and Tevis Jacobs will use an award from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) to measure roughness on the smallest scales ever measured. They will use those measurements to build a model of friction performance with the long-term goal of innovating high-friction flooring to prevent occupational slips and falls.
“More than 140,000 workers1 suffer from fall-related injuries each year, and about half of them result from a slip,” said Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering. “Designing specific, high-friction flooring could mitigate these injuries, but we need a better understanding of the flooring factors that lead to friction.”
“To date, despite research worldwide, no one has yet reliably connected flooring topography to friction measurements for flooring,” said Eric Astrachan, executive director of the Tile Council of North America. “This is the ‘Holy Grail’ for flooring design, where an understanding of measurable topography parameters -- parameters that also affect aesthetics and cleanability -- can be used in the design phase to engineer flooring slip resistance.”
Studies suggest that small-scale topography -- raised features resembling a mountain range on the micron or nanometer scale -- is key to managing slips on a surface. Beschorner and Jacobs will measure this type of floor-surface topography and create a predictive model of friction based on the results.
“For this project, we will combine traditional measurements with metrics that can target smaller scales, including scanning electron microscopy,” said Beschorner.
Traditionally, researchers would use stylus profilometry to measure surface topography, but that technique has its limitations, particularly on a small scale.
“Stylus profilometry sort of functions like a record player -- a sharp needle is dragged across the surface, measuring its height as it moves. But this device does not effectively detect the small features that are critical for shoe-floor friction,” said Jacobs, associate professor of mechanical and materials science. “Instead, we are cutting out a cross-section of the flooring and using electron microscopy, which can measure features that are one thousand times smaller. These new measurements will allow us to establish the science behind roughness-dependent friction, rather than just using trial and error to find the best surfaces.”
Slips and falls in the workplace have an annual cost of $10 billion in workers’ compensation. This work is expected to lead to improved high-friction flooring that can help prevent these accidents and save both companies and employees the inconvenience of these injuries.
“Dr. Beschorner and Dr. Jacobs at the University of Pittsburgh are uniquely qualified to conduct this research that can directly impact worker and consumer safety, a key priority of the Tile Council of North America and our member companies,” Astrachan said. “It is our pleasure to facilitate this research through direct connections to the TCNA Product Performance Testing Laboratory and to the research and production departments of our members.”
1: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject (Data from 2018): CSU00X0000006E100, CSU00X42XXXX6E100, CSU00X0000007E100, and CSU00X42XXXX7E100, U.S. Department of Labor, Editor. 2020, Department of Labor.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 7, 2021
(Clemson, SC) — Tile Council of North America (TCNA) announced publication of its Material Ingredient Guide today at Coverings 2021.
This Material Ingredient Guide, the first of its kind by any building product industry, provides information about the material ingredients used industry-wide by North American tile, mortar, and grout manufacturers, provides in-depth health assessments of those materials, and is a resource for manufacturers to use when providing the content and chemical makeup of their products or "material ingredient transparency”.
In developing this guide, 17 manufacturers collaborated on the largest crowdfunded collection of GreenScreen Assessments® to date for the following two purposes: 1) Obtain GreenScreen® Benchmark Scores (listed within the guide) for the vast majority of material ingredients used by ceramic tile, mortar, and grout manufacturers, 2) Facilitate referencing these benchmark scores and associated GreenScreen Assessments® when developing Manufacturer Inventories (MI) and/or Health Product Declarations (HPD) that qualify for contribution to green and healthy building "optimization" credits.
“Product ingredient disclosure is in high demand,” stated Dan Marvin, Sr. Vice President of Operations for Ironrock and Chairman of TCNA’s Green Initiative Committee. “Through development of the Material Ingredient Guide, the tile industry is committed to thoroughness, consistency, and transparency in reporting information about the materials from which our products are made.”
Authored by Tennessee-based WAP Sustainability, they worked with dozens of organizations while creating this guide to bring clarity and structure to the complicated subject of material ingredient transparency. Resulting from TCNA's and its members' investment in disclosing industry-wide material ingredient information, suppliers and users of ceramic tile, mortar, and grout will have a more thorough and uniform understanding when specifying products in accordance with green and healthy building standards.
The following participating manufacturers contributed to this reporting:
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With a consistent, thorough, and transparent approach to material ingredient reporting and the compilation of referenceable GreenScreen Assessment® Benchmark scores on industry-wide materials, TCNA members aim to have the largest number of fully assessed material ingredient reports in the market. These fully assessed reports will make ceramic tile, mortar, and grout products eligible for contribution to LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge “optimization” credits. Never before has an industry provided this level of transparency, leading to an industry-wide spectrum of products becoming eligible for these optimization credits.
According to Bill Griese, TCNA’s Director of Standards Development and Sustainability Initiatives. “Following the Material Ingredient Guide’s suggested steps and referencing industry-wide GreenScreen Assessments® not only facilitates product compliance with green and healthy building certification programs, but also enhances brand trust with customers.”
TCNA’s Material Ingredient Guide initiative amplifies the North American ceramic tile industry’s unified message of health and environmental sustainability already well-established through initiatives such as industry-wide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Green Squared® product certification. As Wes Sullens, Director of LEED for the U.S. Green Building Council commented when the project was announced in 2020, “The result of this collaboration within the tile industry will push the market forward and spark even greater innovation and consideration for healthier indoor environments. This work provides the marketplace with key information needed by those pursuing LEED green building certification as they select products.”
Mark Rossi, Executive Director of the non-profit organization, Clean Production Action, and co-founder of GreenScreen®, praised the project from the onset: “We applaud the TCNA for demonstrating industry leadership in chemical and material health with their sector-wide approach to GreenScreen® Assessments. This is a model for how other industry sectors can effectively pool resources to compile GreenScreen® Benchmark scores of chemicals in their products and optimize products for material health.”
About Tile Council of North America (TCNA)
TCNA is a trade association representing manufacturers of ceramic tile, tile installation materials, tile equipment, raw materials and other tile-related products. Established in 1945 as the Tile Council of America (TCA), it became the Tile Council of North America (TCNA) in 2003, reflecting its membership expansion to all of North America.
The Tile Council is recognized for its leadership role in facilitating the development of North American and international industry quality standards to benefit tile consumers. Additionally, TCNA regularly conducts independent research and product testing, works with regulatory, trade, and other government agencies, and publishes installation guidelines, tile standards, economic reports, and promotional literature.
About WAP Sustainability Consulting
WAP Sustainability provides clients with the information and tools they need to create credible, measurable and attainable sustainability programs. Services are driven by sound scientific data and an in-depth understanding of each client’s core business. Based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, WAP Sustainability has been helping a global roster of publicly traded, consumer product and building product companies as a sustainability resource for nearly 15 years. Learn more at www.wapsustainability.com.
About GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals and GreenScreen Certified™
GreenScreen® is a globally recognized tool designed to assess and benchmark chemicals based on hazard. Companies and governments use GreenScreen® benchmark scores to identify chemicals of concern to human health and the environment, select safer alternatives, and to track and communicate their progress. GreenScreen® criteria and guidance are fully transparent and available for anyone to use.
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Download PDF: Material Ingredient Guide (2021)
Contact:
Kathy Meyer
T: (864) 646-8453
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