Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Three dimension imitation or 'treated' natural product – Flora
Patent
1995-06-05
1997-02-11
Epstein, Henry F.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Three dimension imitation or 'treated' natural product
Flora
428 85, 428 95, 273DIG13, A41G 100
Patent
active
056018860
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to an artificial turf.
BACKGROUND ART
Recently, artificial turfs are often used to cover courts or playgrounds on which sports activities such as tennis, baseball, football, rugby and the like are played. These turfs have a tendency to have their filaments folded by compressive load applied by players' walking, running, jumping or the like. To prevent this problem, short lengths of filaments of about 10 to 15 mm have been tufted at a high density. Alternatively, long lengths of filaments have been used with their lower parts buried in an amount of sand which forms a support layer. However, the former product differs in appearance from natural turf, and the sand layer of the latter has a tendency to solidify by being repeatedly stepped on during long continued use, resulting in loss of softness suitable for use on courts and playgrounds.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an artificial turf which overcomes the problems associated with the prior art and comprises filaments difficult to fold. It is another object of the invention to provide an artificial turf provided with a sand layer which can maintain desirable softness for a long period of time.
The above objects of the invention can be accomplished by an artificial turf comprising tufts of artificial grass filaments implanted on a backing structure to form a pile surface and tufts of assist filaments of shorter length implanted between the tufts of artificial grass filaments.
The term "filament" as used herein includes yarns called as tape-yarn supplied as a continuous ribbon, slit yarn, split yarn, film yarn and the like.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side elevation in vertical section illustrating an artificial turf as one embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of artificial grass filaments used for the artificial turf of FIG. 1; and
FIGS. 3 to 5 are side elevations in vertical section illustrating examples in which a sand layer is provided respectively in different artificial turfs embodying the invention.
BEST MODES OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Now, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
An artificial turf 1 shown in FIG. 1 is constructed such that longer lengths of artificial grass filaments 3 and shorter lengths of assist filaments 4 are respectively implanted on a backing material, i.e., a backing cloth 2 so as to form respective tufts. A plurality of the synthetic resin artificial grass filaments 3 and assist filaments 4 are respectively bundled and then tufted to form alternate rows of the tufts of the respective filaments. On the underside of the backing cloth is provided a backing resin layer 5 for preventing the filaments from slipping off.
To closely resemble the appearance of natural turf, the artificial grass tuft 6 is usually cut. However, it may be of a loop type depending on applications. It should be noted that a cut pile construction has advantages of enhancing sliding characteristics of a turf and therefore reducing the generation of frictional heat. In the case of using specially long lengths of artificial grass filaments 3 to eliminate unnatural directionality in a pile surface caused by tufting, these filaments are preferably subjected to a crimping process. The assist filaments 4 are preferably loop-shaped to increase their supporting force, but the loops of the filaments may be cut depending on applications. Furthermore, the assist filaments 4 are preferably subjected to a crimping process in order to prevent compressive load from concentrating on the base portions of the filaments and to therefore maintain their resiliency for a long period of time. This embodiment uses the artificial grass filaments 3 constituted by crimping a wide tape-shaped film and then plying it to have a spiral cross section as seen in FIG. 2. Inside the spiral cross section, there is a void space formed which can hold water which penetrates into the space by sur
REFERENCES:
patent: 3565742 (1971-02-01), Stephens et al.
patent: 3940522 (1976-02-01), Wessells
patent: 4389435 (1983-06-01), Haas, Jr.
patent: 4444815 (1984-04-01), Friedrich
patent: 5462778 (1995-10-01), Ishikawa
Fukumoto Hiroaki
Ishikawa Yoshio
Epstein Henry F.
Otsuka Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha
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