Today, after decades of further material and design development, artificial turf is a recognised and accepted alternative to natural grass, above all for hockey pitches but also increasingly, for football fields. The advantages of synthetic turf only can be seen at their best, however, when quality is given top priority in product selection and installation of the turf. The sports flooring expert BASF has developed a new artificial turf adhesive, which is more wear resistant, easier to process and has a significantly higher yield than conventional products, while being just as reliable: Conipur 106.
Advantages of artificial turf are plain to see. Maintenance work is much lower, the pitches are much more resistant to wear and they can be used in bad weather conditions where natural grass pitches must be closed. When installing artificial turf a correctly laid base layer is important, but just as decisive is bonding of the turf and, therefore, the turf adhesive: Unthinkable if a player trips on a loose piece of turf …
Conipur 106 is the new solvent-free, two-component adhesive based on polyurethane liquid resin, for bonding of artificial turf seams and line markings. “With the development of Conipur 106, we wanted to kill several birds with one stone,” explains Jürgen Widler, Product Manager with BASF Construction Chemicals Europe AG in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the headquarters of the BASF sport flooring products marketed under the trade name CONICA. “We considered it important that the new adhesive shows optimal performance at both extremely high as well as extremely low temperatures, and that it is clearly more efficient i.e. small amounts go a longer way, than conventional products on the market. We have been successful in both points with this new development.”
Synthetic turf is usually laid in three to five metre wide strips which must then be bonded securely to each other, but not to the sub-base. This is carried out using so-called seaming tapes: The back of the turf strips is bonded accurately, joint by joint, to these tapes to create a homogenous surface. The properties of the adhesive play a major role here as they determine both the quantity required by the processor as well as the quality and durability of the finished product. Coniput 106 provides decisive advantages over conventional products. “Thanks to our newly developed formula, good shape-retaining strength of the adhesive bead is also provided under extreme temperatures and with air high moisture levels”, explains Jürgen Widler further. “The specially adjusted reactivity levels enable the product to be used in installation of artificial turf under extreme climatic conditions.” In plain text this means that Coniupur 106 lengthens the installation season and makes installation less dependent on weather. The mixing density of Conipur 106 is especially low which means that around 20 percent more volume, i.e. more adhesive, is available for the same weight. This enormous yield provides the advantages not only of an excellent price-performance ratio, but also among others, that significantly less material must be transported to the installation site and mixed – savings of time, money and patience are achieved! The new adhesive also gains points for handling, storage life and reliability. It maintains its hold not only during installation, is easy to process and does not run, but remains permanently elastic and useable at least for as long as the turf itself.
Hockey and football games are played increasingly, professional hockey games practically exclusively, on synthetic turf pitches where the even playing surface allows significantly more precise play. Professional players from successful European football clubs also use synthetic turf for training pitches and the world football association FIFA has taken on the task of promoting high-quality synthetic turf pitches with their own certificate of approval.
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