Saturday, September 13, 2014

Synthetic Grass Calls For Easy Maintenance

By Tanisha Berg


Artificial fibers are sometimes used to create a natural looking grass surface. This synthetic grass has most often been used in areas for sports that either traditionally played on grasses, or still currently do. Lately, however, these artificial surfaces have been used for residential homes and commercial landscapes as well.

The main reason why people prefer artificial grass is for its maintenance needs. These surfaces can withstand a lot of pressure and use that comes with playing sports. They also don't require any irrigation or trimming. Sports stadiums; whether they are domed, covered, or partially covered; use this surface because they usually can't get enough sunlight to their natural grass grounds. This isn't to say that artificial grass doesn't have any downsides, though. The imitation has a limited shelf life, requires specific cleaning, contains petroleum and other toxic chemicals, and there are a few health and safety concerns around it.

The artificial grass is made of plastic granules mixed with coloring agents and UV stabilizer additives. All these ingredients are mixed together and heated, pressed, and pressured through an extruder head of some kind. The type of extruder head determines the specific shape of the product. This entire process creates the individual fibers, either fibrillated or monofilament, which would later be used to create the synthetic lawn.

When making fibrillated fibers, a thin layer of plastic is pushed through the extruder head, which is similar to what you see in a videotape. Then, notches are made in the plastic so that a honeycomb structure can be seen when the film is pulled apart. The plastic is spun around afterwards so it becomes into a round shape. These types of fibers are the more affordable option. However, it does take some time for it to start looking realistic as the notches wear and spread apart. Otherwise, the initial appearance is not natural at all.

Monofilament fibers are more similar to what you see with spaghetti, as they are pressed through extruder heads like ready-to-use fibers. Theses blades are combined into groups and coiled together into a bundle, each one representing a grass pile. This type of fiber is a lot more natural, flexible, soft, and wear resistant.

Suppliers who want a specific end product have the choice to change the ingredient mixtures, but know that the combinations determine the quality of the grass. The individual fibers are afterwards made resistant to fluctuating temperatures between -50 and 50 degrees Celsius. They are also made to resist any wear and pressure they might be met with. The final parts are wrapped around bobbins, or spools and sent to manufacturers.

Machines that are four meters wide are used to fit the fibers of the stools through backings. This act of using needles to push the blades through is called tufting, and is actually similar to what a sewing machine does. The overall appearance and usage of the resulting artificial lawn depends on the machine, fiber quality, and fiber height.

In order to keep these fibers in place, a liquid mixture is poured on the backing and hardened in the oven. After this, the product is finally finished. It is then sent out for sale or installation.




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