Tendency to artificial turf opens up growing market for textile machinery manufacturers

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, June 20th, 2006 - The international football federations FIFA and UEFA are increasingly allowing matches to take place on artificial surfaces. Due to this tendency, the German Textile Machinery Association of VDMA sees a growing market potential for German textile machinery manufacturers: “Machines for the production of chemical filaments and of fabrics are the basis for an artificial turf”, explains Thomas Waldmann, Managing Director of the Textile Machinery Branch of VDMA. “The potential market for pitches with artificial turf in 2005 is estimated to amount to 1.900 sports grounds world-wide.” With 800 sports grounds, Europe offers the biggest market potential, followed by North America with 600 and Asia with 450. The markets in South America and Africa amount to 40 and 20 sports grounds. The price for an artificial turf is around 350.000 Euro.

One reason for the growing market for artificial turf is the architecture of modern stadiums. Since most new stadiums are completely roofed, natural lawn does not get enough sun and wind and prospers only poorly.

Tomorrow’s pitch is not made of grass but of chemical filaments like polypropylene, polyethylene and polyamide. From these materials filaments are spun in monofilament plants. These filaments become the piles of grass of the artificial turf later. In contrast to natural lawn, the blades of grass are not rooted in the earth but embedded in a backing fabric: During the so called tufting process, the filaments are inserted into the backing fabric in form of loops. In the next step the loops are cut, thus building the hassocks. To avoid the hassocks to slip, the back of the artificial turf is coated with a special material.

;Artificial turf is a good example of how innovations in textile machinery are reflected in our daily life. With their solutions, the German textile machinery manufacturers cover the whole process chain of producing artificial turf: From the monofilament plant for spinning the filaments via the weaving machine for the backing fabric to the tufting machine and coating line”, Waldmann informs.

To make sure that the rolling and rebound manner of the ball on artificial turf is the same as on natural lawn, FIFA has set up a quality concept. Besides the ball/surface interaction, the interaction between player and surface as well as the durability of the turf are crucial criteria. One important category concerns for instance skin abrasions. On artificial turf of the first and second generation, players risked skin abrasions and even skin burnings when they undertook a sliding tackle. With the help of criteria concerning the abrasiveness of the surface, these negative aspects are minimised today.

The new stadiums in Salzburg, Austria and in Bern, Switzerland are already equipped with artificial turf. A tendency that will go on, especially regarding costs: A natural lawn can stand 600 hours of football – an artificial turf has no time limit and is independent of the weather conditions.