Product Overview
The FieldTurf concept is simple. The best surface for athletic contests - American football, soccer, rugby, lacrosse, baseball, and softball - is good natural grass. And synthetic turf should be like grass, not carpet. FieldTurf's inventors were sportsmen - not carpet makers. Former players and coaches, not turf salesmen. They approached the challenge from a completely different perspective. They wanted to develop a synthetic system that offered the beneficial biomechanical properties of natural grass, combined with the best attributes of a durable synthetic system: all-weather playability, low maintenance, and unlimited playing time.
The idea was simple. Looks Like Grass... Feels Like Grass... Plays Like Grass. But the technology to make it happen was not simple at all. After several years of hard work, after trials, tests, consultations with players, coaches, trainers and doctors, sample plots, equipment modifications, and countless formulations, FieldTurf was born.
FieldTurf is fundamentally different from all others. Stable, firm not spongy, non-abrasive and uniform in traction, FieldTurf is engineered to play and feel like natural grass. On FieldTurf, players perform with confidence - and never experience the accelerated fatigue and muscle / joint stress associated with lightweight, rubber- filled systems. Like blades of natural grass, FieldTurf's fibers are soft and easy to slide on. They are surrounded and stabilized by FieldTurf's patented, heavy fill - the «artificial earth» that so clearly sets FieldTurf apart. Composed of smooth, rounded silica sand and cryogenically frozen and smashed rubber particles, FieldTurf's patented infill is engineered to stay «in suspension» providing years of proper biomechanics, shock absorbency and durability. A patented process of precision layering ensures infill uniformity. The result is a stable, resilient, predictable place to play - grass-like performance of the highest quality.
FieldTurf revolutionized the turf industry, and in many ways, the entire world of sport.
Innovation So Valuable We Patented It
FieldTurf's patented system is the first choice for elite athletic venues worldwide: Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets and Giants, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, St. Louis Rams, and New England Patriots to name a few. 21 out of the NFL's 32 teams play and/or practice on FieldTurf. In addition, more than 50 NCAA installations, including Ohio State, Nebraska, Kansas State, Oregon, Oregon State, Syracuse, Washington and Washington State.
In the ever growing sport of Soccer, in the US and around the world, top leagues and teams practice and play on FieldTurf, including: English and Scottish Premier Leagues; Germany's Bundesliga; Spain's Primera Liga; Japan's JFA; Russia's Lokomotiv and CSKA, along with over 10 professional soccer teams from the MLS and USL in North America.
Bio-Mechanical Properties for Safety and Performance
The design of the FieldTurf fabric is radically different. FieldTurf is the original wide gauge, tall pile fabric, and this design is also patented. The distance between the rows of fibers tufted into the backing is very wide, and related directly to the height of the pile fibers.
The taller the pile, the wider the distance between the fibers. This patented formula means the special filling or «synthetic earth» that is layered into the pile fibers is carefully controlled in terms of weight, density and thickness. There are approximately nine pounds of infill per square foot compared to less than half of that for any other infilled turf company in the industry. Why is this so important? The designers at FieldTurf discovered that the only way to truly emulate natural grass is to combine all these elements into an integrated system. The tall pile, wide gauge design, and increased infill mass allows cleated shoes to penetrate the fibers, plant into the special sand/rubber infill, twist easily and release (with minimal torsional resistance).
This design accounts for the documented reduction in lower extremity injuries and significantly reduced neural injuries of players who compete on FieldTurf, even compared to natural grass!
The FieldTurf Effect
Our strongest supporters are sophisticated clients who care the most about player performance and safety. Early on, key sports experts grasped the revolutionary impact of the FieldTurf concept. Today our list of worldwide supporters is the most prestigious in the industry. We encourage prospective clients to call our references, to visit our sites, compare and educate themselves on their options. There are many artificial turf manufacturers but only FieldTurf has stood up to the test of time.
The Engineered System
Unlike imitations, FieldTurf is an engineered system. This means FieldTurf has been carefully and thoroughly designed, not just thrown together for the purpose of a sale. To control quality at this high level, FieldTurf has invested heavily in modernizing its plants with the latest technologies, top manufacturing talent and specialized installation equipment for its experienced install teams. FieldTurfÕs fully staffed CAD-based design department complements the companyÕs «full service» commitment, delivering superior design and engineering for each project.
FieldTurf Tarkett's plant is an impressive site by anyone's standards. Located in Dalton, GA, it is a 110,000 square foot facility with 35 employees totalling well over 300 years of experience in the artificial turf industry. The plant features 8 tufting machines with a capacity to produce 600,000 square feet of turf each day. That is an annual production of 219,000,000 square feet of quality assured turf - enough to supply just under 3000 fields per year (assuming an average of 75,000 square feet per field).
To ensure FieldTurf Tarkett's standards are unmatched, a rigorous quality control process (based on extensive testing and inspections) is undertaken with every field that is put into production.
First, yarn testing is performed, which includes tensile strength, elongation, tenacity, denier, shrinkage, and twist (turns per inch). Testing continues throughout the entire tufting process until all rolls for a field are complete.
FieldTurf Tarkett is the only company in the synthetic turf industry to own and operate its own manufacturing plant. From the beginning, FieldTurf Tarkett's founders recognized that quality control, customer protection, and product satisfaction could only be guaranteed by being masters of their own destiny.
The state-of-the-art plant located in Dalton, Georgia is a big reason why FieldTurf Tarkett is the number one choice of professional teams, high schools, colleges and facility managers around the world. FieldTurf Tarkett's ability to ensure the quality of its raw materials and its manufacturing from start to finish is the reason why it enjoys the best record for on-time delivery of its projects, even though it enjoys a market share that is greater than all its competitors combined.
The Standard By Which All Products Are Measured
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but as in many things, no guarantee of quality. FieldTurf is a superior investment. That's why we are seldom are the “low bid». Our educated clients understand that FieldTurf engineering delivers a superior cost and performance ratio, especially in terms of established quality of play, durability, installation experience, and after-sale service and warranty. We are usually the first choice, regardless of price, and FieldTurf is the standard by which all products are measured.
Cold Weather and Snow
No weather can stop FieldTurf. Not rainstorms. Not snowstorms. Our fields are made to be plowed without any damage. From Minneapolis to Moscow, our fields perform in the most extreme conditions.
FieldTurf Philosophy
Only FieldTurf's selected components, patented formulation, and construction and installation methods allow us to succeed in emulating the best natural grass fields. Cutting corners, reducing the price of components at the expense of performance are not part of the FieldTurf philosophy. Each and every FieldTurf customer, whether an NFL stadium, Premier League Club or high school multi-purpose facility, gets the identical FieldTurf system, service and warranty.
