Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01C—CONSTRUCTION OF, OR SURFACES FOR, ROADS, SPORTS GROUNDS, OR THE LIKE; MACHINES OR AUXILIARY TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTION OR REPAIR
  • E01C13/00—Pavings or foundations specially adapted for playgrounds or sports grounds; Drainage, irrigation or heating of sports grounds
  • E01C13/08—Surfaces simulating grass ; Grass-grown sports grounds
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B29—WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE IN GENERAL
  • B29B—PREPARATION OR PRETREATMENT OF THE MATERIAL TO BE SHAPED; MAKING GRANULES OR PREFORMS; RECOVERY OF PLASTICS OR OTHER CONSTITUENTS OF WASTE MATERIAL CONTAINING PLASTICS
  • B29B9/00—Making granules
  • B29B9/12—Making granules characterised by structure or composition
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B32—LAYERED PRODUCTS
  • B32B—LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT OR NON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM
  • B32B9/00—Layered products comprising a layer of a particular substance not covered by groups B32B11/00 - B32B29/00
  • B32B9/02—Layered products comprising a layer of a particular substance not covered by groups B32B11/00 - B32B29/00 comprising animal or vegetable substances, e.g. cork, bamboo, starch
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
  • E01C—CONSTRUCTION OF, OR SURFACES FOR, ROADS, SPORTS GROUNDS, OR THE LIKE; MACHINES OR AUXILIARY TOOLS FOR CONSTRUCTION OR REPAIR
  • E01C13/00—Pavings or foundations specially adapted for playgrounds or sports grounds; Drainage, irrigation or heating of sports grounds
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10T—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION
  • Y10T428/00—Stock material or miscellaneous articles
  • Y10T428/23907—Pile or nap type surface or component
  • Y10T428/23921—With particles

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a method for making synthetic turfs for sporting, recreational or ornamental purposes.
• the turf according to the invention can be used as surface on which sporting activities can be played such as football, r ⁇ inisoccer, tennis, hockey, American football, golf, athletics, rugby, baseball and other sports that are played on turfs in general.
• the invention relates also to a method for making infill material for synthetic turfs.
• the invention relates also to an infill material for synthetic turfs.
• synthetic turfs have been developed in the last years, having artificial grass blades and granular filling material, for example sand or resilient material, which presents better performances and steadiness of grip on the ground.
• artificial turfs can be installed on surfaces made of various material, in particular asphalt, and stabilized inert material.
• the synthetic turf in particular, must have physical characteristics and technologic typical of natural turfs such as: the elasticity of the playground, the bounce back properties of the ball or other sport tool, capacity of absorption of hits, tensile and torsion resistance caused by a shoe, resistance against compression and penetration of external bodies, as well as absorption and drainage capacity relatively to meteorological and environmental events.
• the granular infill materials used to provide the substrate of the synthetic field have in general a heterogeneous granulometry between about 500 microns to several millimetres .
• a synthetic turf is described with an infill material formed by a mix of sand, vegetable powdered material and rubber granules, in a first configuration providing a layer of sand, a layer of rubber granules and a layer of vegetable material, and another configuration where the vegetable material and the rubber are distributed above the layer of sand after that they have been already mixed to each other.
• WO2006109110 and WO2007010324 a process is described completely similar to PI2003A000036 to obtain synthetic turfs, which provides the use of vegetable material based on peat and coconut peat as infill material.
• the coconut peat comprises both granular and powder parts.
• the powder part is in a larger quantity than the former and do not exceed 500 micron diameter.
• This infill material has, however, the drawback of requiring frequent watering, because in the presence of wind, the infill material can be and creating discomfort to the users.
• the powder deriving from grinding the coconuts have a high capacity of water retention that, in case of heavy rain, causes flooding of the turf.
• raining the powder parts of the coconut peat follow and plug the drainage holes made of the mat to which the synthetic grass blades are fixed.
• the rainwater can cause the powder to compact thus affecting the drainage of the turf and the technical performances thereof.
• synthetic turfs comprising the steps of: providing a mat, or primary layer, on which a plurality of blades of synthetic material are woven so that blades are created that protrude from one side of the mat creating a turf; - laying down an infill material among said blades, said infill material comprising a measured amount of a loose product obtained from raw material based on ground coconut; whose main feature is that said loose product comprises substantially the sole granular and fibrous part contained in said raw material based on ground coconut, said granular and fibrous part being obtained causing said raw material based on ground coconut to undergo a step of separation of said granular and fibrous part from a powder part .
• the granular and fibrous part contained in said loose product is obtained by sieving said raw material based on ground coconut, said granular and fibrous part having a granulometry larger than 500 micron ( ⁇ m) for 90% by weight.
• the granular and fibrous part has the following granulometry: between 20% and 40% by weight set between 0.8 mm and 1.25 mm; between 15% and 35% by weight set between 1.25 mm and 1.60 mm; between 50% and 70% by weight larger than 1.6 mm.
• the infill material can comprise, in addition to said loose product comprising substantially the sole granular and fibrous part contained in said raw material based on ground coconut, a further material selected from the group comprised of: - selected sand, preferably ventilated sand having controlled granulometry, in particular set between 0,4 and 1,25 mm; a bulk of the raw material of natural vegetable origin, in particular, cork, preferably with granulometry set between 1,0 and 2,0 mm; a synthetic resilient loose material in elastomeric granules, in particular with granulometry set between 0,8 and 2,5 mm and preferably between 1,0 and 2,0 mm.
• the infill material may have a content of granular and fibrous part of the loose ground product based on coconut set between 20% and 90% in volume, preferably between 30 and 80%.
• said synthetic resilient loose material is selected from the group comprised of: rubber granules of first use; rubber granules of recycled use.
• said woven blades of synthetic material comprise: a first group of blades with longer extension, in order to protrude from the infill material, a second group of blades with shorter extension, in order to result in the infill material without protruding from it.
• the step can be provided of adding a measured amount of a surfactant agent on the infill material, said surfactant being adapted to assist the water to percolate through the synthetic turf.
• a synthetic turf is provided as above defined.
• a method for making an infill material for synthetic turfs comprises the steps of: feeding to separating means a raw material based on ground coconut comprising a granular and fibrous part and a powder part, separating by said separating means the granular and fibrous part from the powder part of the raw material .
• said raw material based on ground coconut is obtained by milling a raw material based on coconut through grinding means obtaining said loose product comprising a granular and fibrous part and a powder part.
• the separating means comprises sieving means selected from the group comprised of: a mechanical sieve, in particular, a rotating screen, an electromagnetic sieve.
• the granular and fibrous part of the loose product represents the portion of the raw material based on ground coconut for making the infill material for synthetic turfs according to the invention.
• the powder part, instead, of the loose product represents a secondary product of the process for applications in gardening to be used as such or mixed with peat, to provide growth substrates.
• FIG. 1 shows diagrammatically a perspective view of a partially cross sectioned coconut that can be used as a starting material for the method for making a synthetic turf, according to the invention
• Figure 2 shows diagrammatically a plant that achieves a preliminary step of the method, according to the invention, to provide a synthetic turf
• FIGS 3 and 4 show diagrammatically two successive steps of the method for making the synthetic turf starting from the infill material obtained from the plant shown in figure 2.
• a coconut 100 comprises, in summary, a thin, smooth epicarp 101, of grey-brownish colour, a fibrous mesocarp 102, normally 4-8 cm thick, and an wooden endocarp 103.
• the latter represents the actual fruit of the coconut that is useful for the food field.
• the epicarp 101 and the fibrous mesocarp 102 hereafter generically indicated as material based on coconut 10, are, instead, sent, sometimes with parts of branches and leaves of coconut trees, to a plant for making infill material for synthetic turfs according to the invention.
• the method for making a synthetic turf can provide a starting step operated by the plant shown in figure 2.
• This provides feeding raw material based on coconut, for example collected as bales 10, to means for milling such as a hammer mill 11.
• the latter mills material 10 obtaining, on the one hand, longer fibres that are gathered and used for example for making ropes and mats, and on the other hand a certain amount of fibres of shorter and medium length, hereafter indicated generically as raw material based on ground coconut 15.
• the raw material based on ground coconut is ground in places of production and packaged as compressed bales.
• the raw material based on ground coconut 15, having a heterogeneous granulometry that extends from a few micron to several mm, and with a powder part having a granulometry less than 500 micron, is loaded by a hopper 12 on a conveyor belt 20 for being fed to a sieve.
• the latter can be for example a rotating screen 30 comprising an external jacket 31 in which a cylindrical sieve 32 is arranged.
• the cylindrical sieve 32 is subject to a controlled vibration to assist the motion of the powder part 16 of the loose ground product 15 through the apertures thereof.
• Such apertures have size corresponding to the desired sieving size.
• an Archimedean screw can be mounted, diagrammatically shown in figure 1 with dotted line 38, adapted on the one hand to move forward the whole mass assisting the powder part 16 to pass through the sieve 32 and on the other hand to push the granular and fibrous part 17 towards the outlet 35 of the rotating screen, located opposite to an inlet 34.
• the powder part 16 of the bulk of the raw material, once in sieve 32 hits against the inner wall of the jacket 31 and falls by gravity in a conveyor belt 40 arranged below sieve 32. From conveyor belt 40, the powder part 16 is sent, by a conveyor belt 21, to a storage reservoir 41 for being then used in the gardening field as such, or mixed to peat, to provide growth substrates.
• the granular and fibrous part 17 of the bulk of raw material which represents the main product of the process, is, instead, sent by a conveyor belt 22 to a storage reservoir 43 and from here sent towards the process for laying down the infill material for synthetic turfs, according to the methodology described hereafter.
• the granular and fibrous part can have the following granulometry: between 20% and 40% by weight set between 0.8 mm and 1.25 mm; between 15% and 35% by weight set between 1.25 mm and 1.60 mm; between 50% and 70% by weight larger than l. ⁇ mm.
• the mat 1 consisting of a primary mat 2 on which a plurality of blades 3 of synthetic material are woven (figure 3)
• the granular and fibrous part 17 of the loose product based on coconut is arranged on mat 2 as infill material 18 (figure 4) .
• the turf may have blades of two or more different heights (3b or 3c)
• the granular and fibrous part 17 can be mixed with other vegetable material, as well as with inert material and/or plastic material.
• the infill material can comprise, in addition to the loose product comprising substantially the sole granular and fibrous part contained in the raw material based on ground coconut, also one or more of the following materials: selected sand, ventilated sand having controlled granulometry set between 0,4 and 1,25 mm; cork or other loose product of natural vegetable origin, with granulometry set between 1,0 and 2,0 mm; elastomeric granules or other synthetic resilient loose material, such as rubber granules of first use or of recycled use, with granulometry set between 0,8 and 2,5 mm and preferably between 1,0 and 2, 0 mm.
• the final infill material may have a content of granular and fibrous part of the loose ground product based on coconut set between 20% and 90% in volume, preferably between the 30 and the 80%.
• the infill material 18 has as main advantage, which derives from using substantially the sole granular and fibrous part 17 of the loose product based on coconut, to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art such as raising of powder from the turf during its use and compacting the powder in the presence of water.
• the possibility can be provided of adding a measured amount of surfactant agent on the infill material, said surfactant being adapted to assist the water to percolate through the synthetic turf.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Road Paving Structures (AREA)
• Cultivation Of Plants (AREA)
• Combined Means For Separation Of Solids (AREA)
• Processing Of Solid Wastes (AREA)
• Road Paving Machines (AREA)
• Transplanting Machines (AREA)
• Pretreatment Of Seeds And Plants (AREA)

Priority Applications (14)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

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ID=38904723

Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (10)

Families Citing this family (21)

Citations (3)

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• 2007
  • 2007-04-12 AU AU2007350969A patent/AU2007350969A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2007-04-12 US US12/091,348 patent/US9388535B2/en active Active
  • 2007-04-12 MX MX2009010975A patent/MX2009010975A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2007-04-12 KR KR1020087014628A patent/KR20100029001A/ko not_active Ceased
  • 2007-04-12 WO PCT/IB2007/000955 patent/WO2008125895A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2007-04-12 CA CA002639586A patent/CA2639586A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2007-04-12 JP JP2010502586A patent/JP5341063B2/ja active Active
  • 2007-04-12 DK DK07734274.9T patent/DK2142705T3/da active
  • 2007-04-12 AT AT07734274T patent/ATE545735T1/de active
  • 2007-04-12 EP EP07734274A patent/EP2142705B1/en active Active
  • 2007-04-12 PL PL07734274T patent/PL2142705T3/pl unknown
  • 2007-04-12 BR BRPI0721596-7A patent/BRPI0721596B1/pt active IP Right Grant
  • 2007-04-12 CN CN200780001325XA patent/CN101384773B/zh active Active
  • 2007-04-12 ES ES07734274T patent/ES2334632T3/es active Active

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