History of artificial grass

Although the first models of Artificial Grass were woven during the 60’s and 70’s in the USA to allow games on grass surfaces in covered stadiums, one of the main advantages of this product responded to the demand to increase the number of use hours. Nowadays, synthetic grass, already commonly introduced  in sports fields, is also installed in a habitual way as decorative pavement in residential, educative, commercial and landscape areas.

SPORTS ARTIFICIAL GRASS

The Artificial Grass started to be known after the installation of this product in 1966 in the stadium Astrodome in Huston, Texas. A very short height grass manufactured from polyamide fibrillated threads (PA) and installed on an elastic base. This stadium decided to use this product because it was a covered space, without sun or air, with the aim of turning it into a multi-use facility. Since then, Artificial Grass started to evolve, with more intallations of baseball and American football appearing every time in the USA and football in Europe.

At the beginning of the 70’s, products based on polypropylene fibers (PP), less resistant than polyamide but also less abrassive were developed, which reduced considerably the risk of burns in the players. During this period, sports artificial grass kept on been installed on a flexible base to improve the impact absortion. This type of system is what is known today in the sector as the first generation of Artificial Grass.

The second generation, settled by the end of the 70’s and beginning of the 80’s in the Olympic Games of Hockey and in highlighted clubs such as Queens Park Ranges, Stirling Albion and Luton Town, among others, for football. It consisted on a system very similar to the first one, differing in an increase in the height of the carpet pile (up to 30mm), which was ballasted or filled with silica sand to improve the footware slide and avoid in this way, the flattening of the fibers.

In spite of the aparent success of synthetic grass, the 80’s was almost crucial, since the stay of artificial grass in the oficial football leagues was questioned. The fans and players of this sport started to show their discontent towards that type of pavement for different reasons: the bounce of the ball was unpredictable, the players should use an alternative footware, the fatigue was higher in comparison with natural grass, injuries due to the hardness and abrasivity of the pavement were suffered and the dimensional estability of it was not the appropriate one.

The reputation of Artificial Grass was deteriorated in a question of months.

The sector, upset by the prestige achieved by synthetic grass, was obliged to look for new alternatives and to invest in the development of new materials and constructive systems to try to be reborn. And it was like this, since at the beginning of the 21st century, the Artificial Grass reappeared, appearing in 1997 the so called third generation, which has been evolving and still persists today. It is the safest, most resistant Artificial Grass today and with characteristics closer to natural grass.

With fibers of up to 60mm of height, the third synthetic grass generation now differenciates from its predecesors by the incorporation of polyethylene fibers (PE) of very low abrasion and higher durability than polypropylene (PP), because it has threads of a unique structure -the monofilaments-, and what is more, on the silica sand, it has granulated rubber as additional filling.

This new system has provided several improvements on the game field: Less abrasion, greater cushioning and impact absortion capacity, higher durability and, in consequence, a higher approximation to natural grass. The perfeccionism of design and structure of Artificial Grass has supposed marked advances for the players’ health (reduction of the number of injuries, less fatigue sensation…) and a considerable saving for the managers of sports facilities.

Lastly, the introduction of texturized monofilaments in the weaving of Artificial Grass is worth mentioning, which combined with the rest of fibers (fibrillated or monofilaments) offer the product a greater amortiguation  and contribute to the sand filling and/or sand and rubber to displace with greater difficulty.

DECORATIVE ARTIFICIAL GRASS

As regards the use of decorative artificial grass in residential and landscapes areas, the Decorative Artificial Grass has also suffered important changes in its evolution, more than the sports grass. These changes have been produced so recently that it is still habitual to find people who are suprised when contemplating the last products that have appeared in the market.

The Decorative Artificial Grass had its origin at the beginning of the 80’s, decade in which the use of this product went into fashion. It was commonly installed in pool curbs, nurseries, shop windows, plays, etc.

This type of grass was composed of thin threads of polypropylene (PP) knitted, through the tufting manufacture system, of about 7mm height. The guarantees of this carpet were almost null and its price was considerably cheap in comparison with the actual products. This green carpet only caused a visual natural sensation due to its color, but it was not comparable to grass to the touch, structure or comfort. Its aim was just decorative and its installation was very basic: the pavement was glued or it was just laid down.

After the boom of Sport Artificial Grass in the 90’s, several manufacturers decided to bet for the introduction of the product into the world of landscape and gardening, using the same manufacture system, but without the need of a rubber filling. But Decorative Artificial Grass had still a long way to go because the fibers existing were still rough and did not have the natural aspect  that any owner would want in his garden.

Nowdays and since the year 2000, with the appearance of the new types of softer, more resistant and less abbrasive polyethylene fibers (PE) and the appearance of new manufacturers in the sector, the Artificial Grass has been evolving to simulate almost perfectly natural grass, offering guarantees of more than 5 years of life.