Sport Forward: All you need to know about Synthetic Turf

David Chaney together with his team of RTP researchers created the famous synthetic turf also called the Astroturf. However, synthetic turf first came into prominence in 1965, when AstroTurf was installed in the newly-built Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

The use of AstroTurf and similar surfaces became widespread in the 1970s and these surfaces were installed in both indoor and outdoor stadiums used for baseball and gridiron football in the United States and Canada.

The synthetic sports surfaces are made from polypropylene grass of about 5 centimetres long. The grass is lubricated with silicone and tufted into a primary cloth and then latex is applied to the back of the cloth to give it stability by anchoring in the tufts. The whole thing is then infilled with a 4-centimetre layer of sand and rubber granules, which keeps the fibres upright and provides the right level of shock absorbency and deformability

The other type of artificial sports area, typified by Dunfermline's pitch, has a base of expanded polyethylene. The grass used is also made of lubricated polyethylene fibres. These fibres are shorter and more densely packed than an infilled pitch, and are also interspersed with short, curly, spring-like fibres that keep the blades upright.

Artificial sports surfaces are popular because an artificial sports surface can be used for a variety of sports such as football, hockey, tennis, rugby as well as for Multi Use Games Areas. These surfaces are also suitable for use all year round.

The synthetic athletics tracks allow athletes to spend long hours in training without causing them any kind of injury. This is because these tracks are highly durable and are designed to provide adequate cushioning and support to the players.

Synthetic turf requires minimal maintenance and can also be designed to meet the specifications of individual sports. Artificial or synthetic turf is available in a range of pile lengths such as 30mm pile or 20mm ultra soft pile. They are also fire retardant and UV stable.

The best thing about artificial turf surfaces is that they look and feel just like natural grass. So, whether a player plays football or hockey, sliding and falling on the artificial turf is just the same as on natural grass.

Sport Forward

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

All you need to know about Synthetic Turf

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