Standard synthetic materials that are currently used in the development of
artificial grass manufacturer fibres are polypropylene, polyamide and/or polyethylene. The advantage of such materials is that they can be produced at low cost and are easy to process, and that said synthetic materials can be readily processed into artificial grass fibres by stretching. Said fibres having a specific length are attached to a carrier, for example by tufting or another manufacturing technique. A drawback of the present artificial grass fibres in comparison with natural grass fibres is that the risk of injury resulting from the higher frictional resistance between the players' skin and the artificial grass fibres is much greater.
The object of the invention is therefore to provide an improved
artificial grass manufacturer fibre which on the one hand can be produced by means of the existing techniques and which on the other hand reduces the number of injuries on the field by integrating the functionalities of multiples system layers and can thus replace the infill material. According to the invention, the artificial grass fibre to that end furthermore comprises at least one additional material component, which additional material component imposes a permanent volume increase on the artificial grass fibre under the influence of an external stimulus after the artificial mat has been provided with the artificial grass fibre. Thus it is possible to create an artificial mat for a lawn, which can be produced by means of the standard production techniques and wherein the
artificial grass manufacturer fibre in question foams and transforms into, for example, a dampening layer after the manufacture of the artificial mat, which layer improves or influences the playing characteristics of the sports field, such as the absorption of shocks, the restition of energy, the vertical deformation, grip and ball bounce and which furthermore reduces the number of player injuries.
More specifically, the foam material has a closed cell structure after the permanent volume increase, which is preferable to an open cell foam structure. A closed cell structure has a longer life in relation to, for example, the weather conditions (for example dirt, sub-zero temperatures and moisture), so that the playing characteristics of the
artificial grass manufacturer sports field will remain the same, irrespective of the season and the presence of dirt and also irrespective of the weather conditions. According to the invention, a crosslinked artificial grass sports fibre is a more durable artificial grass sports fibre, which will furthermore not easily wear out rapidly or split as a result of being played on. On the other hand, the carrier may be formed of a crosslinked fibre as well.
