K-Grip, the cartridge gun applied slip resistant material developed by Kievel Stone and launched in the autumn last year, has proved an overwhelming success.

Kievel Stone, of Romsey, Hampshire, set up a separate company, K L Chemie Ltd, with the chemist who developed the material, Sˆnke Lucht, to perfect and market the product.

K-Grip is a two-part material supplied in a cartridge with a static mixing nozzle. It is squeezed on to the edge of a step or on to a floor between two self adhesive strips, smoothed off and three or four hours later (depending on the conditions) the surface has a slip resistant strip on it.

The material is durable, requires minimal preparation of surfaces to be coated and costs less than £30 a tube.

Interest in K-Grip developed rapidly after it was featured in this magazine in October last year.

It has already been specified for Vision Express, Bar Meds and GAP stores throughout the UK. But it is in the USA where it has caused the biggest stir.

In that litigious country the second largest number of insurance claims come from people who trip or fall - and 40% of the claims are paid out.

There K-Grip has been used on steel steps from garages in the One Allen Center in Houston, Texas, in the Lobster Bar Restaurant in Atlanta, Cheesecake Factory Restaurants throught the US, Tiffany\'s in New York, the Walter Reed Medical Centre in Washington, G E Medical Centre in Milwaukee and even in the parliamentary buildings in Washington. The New Jersey Transit Authority has specified it for its subway steps and the New York Transit and Port Authorities are expected to place an order shortly.

The Disney Corporation and other major companies in America are also showing an interest in K-Grip and with slip resistance ever on the minds of designers in the UK and throughout Europe when they are thinking of hard flooring, the potential would seem to be enormous.

Orders or enquiries have also come from Germany, Spain, Israel, Portugal and New Zealand.

Robert Kievel, a director of Kievel Stone and K L Chemie, said when he launched the product: The idea is so simple, although the product isn\'t. It took seven years to develop and the process is not straight forward.

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