Developments in textile sports surfaces

The use of artificial turf for sport surfaces has seen an enormous increase in recent years. The reasons for this are various and artificial turf is increasingly being used for soccer applications, especially with the development of the so-called 'third-generation' artificial turf consisting of artificial fibres tufted on a backing with an infill of sand and rubber granules.Many good results have already been obtained with fibres of the right geometry, a good behaviour in resilience and resistance to fibrillation. The temperature profile during sliding is very important for the comfort of the player and avoiding bum wounds in combination with other characteristics of the artificial turf, such as shock absorption, energy restitution and quality of the yams.For the future, a better insight will be obtained in the relationship between the fibre structure and resilience and resistance to fibrillation. This will lead to possible developments of polymers with better properties, maybe used in multilayered artificial grass blades, and much better control of the processing of these polymers.The future generation of artificial turf fields will be based on two types of fibres, one that is standing upwards and another that will be constructed of crimped fibres without infill of rubber particles. This will increase the demand for playing on artificial turf fields.The use of artificial turf for sport surfaces has seen an enormous increase in recent years. The reasons for this are various and artificial turf is increasingly being used for soccer applications, especially with the development of the so-called 'third-generation' artificial turf consisting of artificial fibres tufted on a backing with an infill of sand and rubber granules.Many good results have already been obtained with fibres of the right geometry, a good behaviour in resilience and resistance to fibrillation. The temperature profile during sliding is very important for the comfort of the player and avoiding bum wounds in combination with other characteristics of the artificial turf, such as shock absorption, energy restitution and quality of the yams.For the future, a better insight will be obtained in the relationship between the fibre structure and resilience and resistance to fibrillation. This will lead to possible developments of polymers with better properties, maybe used in multilayered artificial grass blades, and much better control of the processing of these polymers.The future generation of artificial turf fields will be based on two types of fibres, one that is standing upwards and another that will be constructed of crimped fibres without infill of rubber particles. This will increase the demand for playing on artificial turf fields.B