DIN Testing apparatus used by ASET Services, who certifies safe gym flooring systems.
The DIN Standards were developed in Germany and are recognized worldwide as the best method for evaluating sports floors. The standards were developed to ensure that aerobic athletes received the greatest degree of safety and performance from a flooring surface when participating in aerobic exercise. Dr. Peter Francis, a member of the Board of Advisors for IDEA and a researcher in the field of exercise safety at San Diego State University advises, “the German DIN Standards are the only known criteria for safe aerobic floors.” We were the first aerobic flooring company to introduce the DIN Standards to the United States. Now virtually every sports flooring provider evaluates their flooring using the DIN Standards.
For more information about the DIN Standards, visit the DIN website.
| Floor Test | DIN Standard | Exterra Floor | Meets/Exceeds | Explanation |
| Shock Absorption | Minimum 53% | 63.7% | ✔ | Insufficient shock absorption causes activity related injuries to ankle and knee joints. Correct shock absorption reduces fatigue and significantly lowers the risk of injury. |
| Resilience | Minimum 2.3mm | 2.3mm | ✔ | Inadequate energy return in a floor causes sore ankles and a surface too “hard” for safe, strenuous activity. Excessive energy return creates a trampoline effect and potential for injury. |
| Surface Friction | Minimum 0.5 Maximum 0.7 | 0.5 | ✔ | Rotating and pivoting motions create strain on joints without the proper friction coefficients to minimize stress. On a friction scale of .1 (ice) to .9 (fly paper), .5-.7 is the DIN Standard. At .5, Exterra is perfect, even providing for the demands of platform and other high impact routines. |
| Impact Isolation | W500 Maximum 15% | W500 13.2% | ✔ | Without proper impact isolation, participants’ movements can interfere with each other, creating the possibility of injury. The standard allows for 15% deflection, 20″ from the point of impact. Exterra exceeds that by providing over 86% isolation at 20″. |
| Surface Stability | Minimum 1500N | 1500N | ✔ | Proper foot stability is essential to reducing foot roll-over and other injuries to participants. This is a fundamental advantage of the Exterra floor system compared to carpeted or vinyl aerobic surfaces |