JP2012117305A - Filler for artificial turf and artificial turf structure - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an artificial turf structure capable of maintaining a comfortable play by suppressing a rise in temperature over a long time.SOLUTION: A surface of a filler 5 for an artificial turf, which is infilled among piles 4 of the artificial turf 3, is coated with a hydrophilic material as a water retention treatment. Additionally, dimpling and/or siping are/is applied to the surface of the filler 5 for the artificial turf. Thus, a water-holding capacity is increased.

Description

  The present invention relates to an artificial turf filler filled between piles of artificial turf, and more specifically, relates to an artificial turf structure that suppresses the temperature increase of the artificial turf and reduces the burden on the player.

  For example, as shown in Patent Document 1, a long pile artificial turf is made by filling a filler between piles of a base fabric in which a pile longer than a normal artificial turf is planted, and has an elasticity characteristic close to that of natural turf. As an artificial turf surface, it is widely used in various sports facilities such as soccer, rugby and baseball fields.

  As this type of artificial turf filler, for example, rubber chips (crushed products of industrial rubber such as waste tires and EPDM) and thermoplastic elastomers (such as PE-based elastic resin) are used. .

  By the way, since the rubber chip using the waste tire is colored black by carbon, the rubber chip easily absorbs sunlight, and the surface temperature of the artificial turf may be 60 ° C. or more under the hot weather such as summer. .

  For this reason, exercise on artificial grass in the summer is a heavy load on the player and the comfort is deteriorated. Therefore, for example, in Patent Documents 2 and 3, the temperature of the artificial turf surface is increased by reflecting light by coloring the filler in a color that hardly absorbs heat or adding titanium oxide having light reflection characteristics. I try to suppress it.

  However, the method of coloring the surface of the filler or adding titanium oxide provides a slight temperature rise suppression effect than when a black rubber chip is used, but the temperature rise can be sufficiently suppressed. Is hard to say.

  In addition, as a method other than this, in Patent Document 4, a part of the artificial turf base fabric contains a water-absorbing material, water is stored in the water-absorbing material, and temperature rise due to vaporization heat is suppressed for a long time. A method is disclosed.

  According to Patent Document 4, the surface temperature is lowered by spraying water on the artificial turf before play so that the water-absorbent resin contained in the base fabric sucks and vaporizes the water. However, watering is only a temporary treatment, and a sustained effect of several hours was not obtained. Furthermore, since the base fabric contains the water-absorbent resin, the effect of suppressing the temperature rise on the surface of the filler layer that is the highest temperature is not so much obtained.

JP 2007-138644 A Japanese Patent No. 4417903 JP 2010-59659 A JP 2007-126850 A

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an artificial turf structure that can suppress a temperature rise over a long period of time and can maintain a comfortable play. is there.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the present invention has several features described below. The invention described in claim 1 is characterized in that in the artificial turf filler comprising granular materials filled between piles of artificial turf, a water retention agent is applied to the surface of the granular materials.

  A second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first aspect, a hydrophilic material is coated on the surface of the granular material as the water retention agent.

  The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the first or second aspect, in addition to the water retention agent, dimples and / or sipes are applied to the surface as a treatment for increasing the surface area of the granular material. Yes.

  A fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first, second or third aspect, in addition to the water retention agent, a hollow portion is provided as a process for increasing the surface area of the granular material.

  A fifth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to fourth aspects, an average particle diameter of the granular material is 2 mm or less.

  A sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to fifth aspects, the granular material is made of rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer.

  The present invention also includes an artificial turf structure formed by filling at least the surface layer of the artificial turf filler according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the water retention agent is applied to the surface of the artificial turf filler so that the filler itself can store water, and the temperature rise is suppressed by the heat of vaporization. The effect can last for a long time, and the burden on the player can be reduced.

  According to the invention described in claim 2, since the surface of the artificial turf filler is coated with a hydrophilic material as a water retention agent, water is absorbed into the coating layer, so that the performance of the artificial turf itself is degraded. Without increasing the water retention capacity.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, since the surface area is increased by applying dimples and / or sipes to the surface of the artificial turf filler, the water holding power can be further increased.

  According to invention of Claim 4, since water is stored in a hollow part by forming a hollow part as a means to increase the surface area of the filler for artificial turf, water retention ability can be improved more.

  According to the invention described in claim 5, by setting the average particle size of the filler to 2 mm or less, it is easy to fill between piles, and scattering due to wind and rain can be effectively suppressed.

  According to the inventions described in claims 6 and 7, the effect of suppressing the increase in the temperature of the artificial turf by applying the water retention treatment of the present invention to the filler used as a base material for rubber or thermoplastic elastomer used in many existing products. Can be obtained.

The principal part sectional view of the artificial turf structure concerning one embodiment of the present invention. (A) Sectional drawing of the filler for artificial turf, (b) Sectional drawing which shows the modification of the filler for artificial turf.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited thereto. As shown in FIG. 1, the artificial turf structure 1 has an artificial turf 3 laid on a base 2, and a granular filler 5 is filled between piles 4 of the artificial turf 3. . In this embodiment, the base 2 uses a simple pavement surface that leveles the ground flat, but in addition to this, gravel or the like may be spread, or an existing pavement surface paved with asphalt or the like may be used. Also good.

  Furthermore, an elastic pavement or the like may be provided on the base 2, or the artificial turf structure 1 may be newly laid on the artificial turf structure while leaving the existing artificial turf. In the invention, the configuration of the base 2 can be changed according to the specifications and is an optional matter.

  In the artificial turf 3, piles 4 are planted on a base cloth 31 at a predetermined interval. For the base fabric 31, for example, a thermoplastic resin such as polypropylene or polyethylene is preferably selected. In consideration of recyclability, low-density polyethylene with good meltability is more preferable.

  In this example, the base fabric 31 is a plain woven fabric made of synthetic resin such as polypropylene or polyethylene, but in addition to this, even if a cotton fabric of synthetic resin is planted on the plain woven fabric by punching Good. In addition, although the color of the base fabric 31 is arbitrarily determined according to a specification, when it is remade to a filler, it may be colored in colors other than black so that it may be hard to absorb the heat of the sun. preferable.

  The pile 4 is preferably a so-called long pile in which the pile length H1 from the surface to the tip of the base fabric 31 is as long as 40 to 75 mm. The pile 4 is preferably selected from thermoplastic resins such as polypropylene and polyethylene, but in view of recyclability, low-density polyethylene with good meltability is more preferable. The pile 4 is colored green, but any color other than black is used.

The pile 4 may be a bundle of a plurality of monotape yarns or monofilament yarns, or a strip-like split yarn. In this example, the pile 4 has a thickness of 8000 to 16000 dtex and is planted on the base fabric 31 at a planting amount of 1000 to 2000 g / m ³ .

  Further, a backing material 32 (backing material) is uniformly applied to the back surface of the base fabric 31 in order to prevent the tufted pile 4 from falling off. For the backing material 32, for example, a thermosetting resin such as SBR latex or urethane is used. If necessary, an extender such as calcium carbonate is added.

In this example, the backing material 32 is uniformly applied so that the application amount is 600 to 800 g / m ² (during drying). The backing material 32 is preferably colored in a color other than black in consideration of the color at the time of regeneration of the filler to be regenerated.

  In the present invention, the base fabric 31 and the pile 4 are made of a thermoplastic resin such as polypropylene and polyethylene that can be easily heated and melted in consideration of recyclability, but may be made of other materials. The backing material 5 is made of a thermosetting resin such as SBR latex in consideration of workability and the like, but this can be arbitrarily changed according to the specifications.

  A filler 5 is filled between the piles 4 of the artificial turf 3 thus created. The filler 5 is preferably an elastic granular material such as a thermoplastic resin or a rubber chip. The material is not particularly limited as long as it can be filled into the pile 4.

  As shown in FIG. 2 (a), the filler 5 is formed in the above-described granular form, and the surface thereof is coated with a hydrophilic material 6 as a water retention treatment agent. The hydrophilic material 6 as referred to in the present invention refers to a material that can impart a property of being easily wetted to water to a base member made of a hydrophobic material that is difficult to wet with water.

  A commercially available hydrophilic coating agent can be used for the hydrophilic material 6. The coating agent is a polymer having both a lipophilic group and a hydrophilic group in a molecular structure mainly composed of a so-called surfactant. For example, a commercially available dew agent for window glass is used. In this example, a glass window dew condensation inhibitor is used as the hydrophilic material 6, but any other material exhibiting hydrophilicity and superhydrophilicity may be appropriately selected according to the specification.

  The coating method of the hydrophilic coating agent includes a spray coating method by spraying a liquid hydrophilic coating agent on the surface of the filler 5, and a method of immersing the filler in the hydrophilic coating agent. These may be selected as appropriate depending on the specifications and the formation conditions of the coating layer.

  The thickness of the coating layer may be arbitrarily selected according to the purpose such as the water retention amount and time, but it is preferably formed to be at least about 20 μm so that it does not easily peel off due to impact such as play.

  In this example, the filler 5 is formed in a granular shape, but more preferably, a treatment for increasing the surface area is preferably performed. As a method for increasing the surface area of the filler 5, the surface area can be increased by performing dimple processing (fine concavo-convex processing) or sipe processing (fine grooving). Such an embodiment is also included in the present invention.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2B, it may be formed in a cylindrical shape having a hollow portion 51 around the filler 5. According to this, since water enters and is stored in the hollow portion 51, the water retention capacity can be further increased. Furthermore, since the hydrophilic material 6 is also coated on the surface of the hollow portion 51, the water retention capacity can be increased accordingly.

  The filler 5 has an average particle size of 2 mm or less. That is, when the average particle size is 2 mm or less, it is easy to fill between the piles and fits well.

  The layer thickness of the filler 5 is arbitrarily selected depending on the required elasticity, but in order to prevent the filler 4 from flowing out and scattering, the pile protrusion height H2 (from the surface of the filler layer to the tip of the pile) It is preferable that the thickness is 10 mm or more. In the present invention, the configuration of the filler 5 is an optional matter.

  In this example, the filler 5 consists only of so-called elastic granular materials such as rubber chips, but may include hard granular materials such as mesh sand. Furthermore, although the filler 5 is filled with a single layer structure, different types of elastic granular materials may be laminated, or a laminated structure of elastic granular materials and hard granular materials may be used.

  In the present invention, the above-described filler 6 coated with the hydrophilic material 6 is filled from the surface of the base fabric 31 to the entire layer, but may be filled so as to be at least 10 mm thick from the surface. That is, if the surface layer of the filler layer having the highest temperature is filled with the filler 5 having the hydrophilic material 6, a high temperature suppression effect can be obtained.

  Next, specific examples of the present invention will be examined together with comparative examples. First, a filler and artificial turf were prepared by the following method.

(Production of filler)
High-density polyethylene (“Nipolon 5700A” manufactured by Tosoh Corporation) is 60 phr, high-functional olefin-based elastomer (“Santoprene 8201-60” manufactured by AES Japan Co., Ltd.) is 40 phr, calcium carbonate (“Calpet” manufactured by Nippon Flour Industry Co., Ltd.) A ”) 100 phr and a coloring agent (“ EPP-G25370 ”manufactured by Polycol Kogyo Co., Ltd.) 1 phr as a base resin, this was extruded by a predetermined extruder, and the outer diameter was 2 mm, the inner diameter was 1 mm, and the length was 2 mm. Molded into a cylindrical tip. “phr” refers to parts by weight of each compounding agent with respect to 100 parts by weight of rubber.

[Application of hydrophilic material]
Next, a hydrophilic material is coated on the surface of the filler prepared as described above. As the hydrophilic material, a hydrophilic coating polymer (“For condensation water droplet prevention coated window glass” manufactured by TOTO) was used, and sprayed evenly over the filler by spraying. Moreover, the thing which does not perform a coating process as a comparative example was prepared.

[Measurement of water retention]
Prepare a wooden frame (200 mm long x 200 mm wide x 30 mm high) with a mesh on the bottom, and after filling it with 700 g of filler in three layers, spray 1000 g of water evenly from above. After watering, hold for 1 minute, and after confirming that the water drops have dropped, measure the weight of each layer filler after watering. Moreover, the difference with the weight before watering of each layer is calculated, and the amount of water retention is calculated | required. Furthermore, the water retention increase rate was calculated by an equation consisting of [total water retention amount (g) / water sprinkling amount (1000 g) × 100].

(Measurement of temperature suppression effect)
After a T-type thermocouple is installed on the surface of the filler filled in the wooden frame, the surface of the sample is warmed by irradiating light from above with a projector. When the surface temperature exceeds 70 ° C., 1000 g of water is uniformly sprinkled from above, and light is continuously irradiated for 3 hours under the same conditions, and the temperature change is measured. The evaluation was performed by assuming that the temperature after 3 hours was less than 60 ° C., and x if the temperature was 60 ° C. or more.

  Below, the measurement result of an Example and a comparative example is shown.

"Example"
[Weight before immersion] 700.0g
[Weight after immersion] 959.5 g
[Total water content] 259.5 g
[Water retention amount (upper layer)] 76.1 g
[Water retention amount (middle layer)] 79.7 g
[Water retention amount (lower layer)] 103.7 g
[Water retention increase rate] 26.0%
[Temperature suppression effect] ○

<Comparative example>
[Weight before immersion] 700.0g
[Weight after immersion] 812.8 g
[Total water content] 112.8g
[Water retention amount (upper layer)] 43.8 g
[Water retention amount (middle layer)] 43.9 g
[Water retention amount (lower layer)] 39.5 g
[Water retention increase rate] 11.3%
[Temperature suppression effect] ×

    A summary of the examples and comparative examples is shown in Table 1.

As mentioned above, according to this invention, the following knowledge was acquired. That is,
(1) By coating the surface of the filler with a hydrophilic material, it is possible to obtain a water retention amount that is twice or more than when no coating is applied.
(2) By temperature-coating the hydrophilic material, the temperature rise suppressing effect lasts for 3 hours or more.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Artificial grass structure 2 Base 3 Artificial grass 31 Base cloth 32 Backing material 4 Pile 5 Filling material 51 Cylindrical part 6 Hydrophilic material

Claims (7)

In the artificial turf filling material consisting of granular material filled between piles of artificial turf,
A filler for artificial turf, wherein a water retention agent is applied to the surface of the granular material.   The artificial turf filler according to claim 1, wherein a hydrophilic material is coated on the surface of the granular material as the water retention agent.   The artificial turf filler according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the surface is dimpled and / or sipeed as a treatment for increasing the surface area of the granular material in addition to the water retention agent.   The artificial turf filler according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein in addition to the water retention agent, a hollow portion is provided as a treatment for increasing the surface area of the granular material.   The artificial turf filler according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the granular material has an average particle diameter of 2 mm or less.   The artificial turf filler according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the granular material is made of rubber or a thermoplastic elastomer as a base material.   An artificial turf structure formed by filling at least the surface layer of the artificial turf filler according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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