For many years, one of the unique selling points of synthetic field systems was a reduction in maintenance when compared with natural turf. However. The latest research from FIFA, who pioneered the push towards 3G synthetic pitches with its “Football Turf” quality programme, now acknowledges that the performance of synthetic fields deteriorates significantly where maintenance is less than optimum.
As the need to protect the environment imposes tighter restrictions on airport operators, Aviation Fibreturf provides a natural low impact alternative.
Global warming is a serious issue that industries all around the world are urgently being forced to address. Carbon dioxide emissions are directly linked to energy consumption, and the global airport industry is responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions each year; UK aviation emissions alone grew by 11% in the last year. There is growing pressure to curb this trend.
The obvious culprit is the combustion of fuel in the aircraft. Less visible is the significant amount of energy involved in the physical construction and ongoing repair and maintenance of the airport infrastructure.
Together with the resultant carbon dioxide emissions, an amazing chain of energy consumption can be tracked for every square meter of concrete or asphalt paved runways, shoulders, taxiways, aprons, perimeter and fire roads, service paths and car parks laid within the airport boundaries.
The chain begins with the production of bitumens and cements to bind the pavement, with the transportation of crude oil in super-tankers amounting to over 39% of the energy used in asphalt production. The production of cement has an even higher “cost” – over 60% of the energy used in concrete manufacture. Add to this the energy consumed during aggregate production and transportation, pre-processing, mixing and storage operations, and finally the ground preparation and installation of the pavement; it can be seen that hard paving is a serious contributor to carbon emissions.
Following on from last year’s plant upgrade programme which saw new electronic weighing equipment fitted to three of the company’s six mobile existing Fibresand mixing units, this year Fibresand International is investing in new fibre feeding and anti-wear technology, designing a more compact unit dedicated to the UK and Irish markets and introducing a seventh bespoke mobile machine to the fleet utilising state of the art mixing technology, providing our customers with further improvements in production efficiency and product quality.
Due to increased activity both in the UK and overseas, new staff have been taken on earlier in the year and once their intensive product and production training has been completed, they will join our production team and help to increase our production capacity worldwide.
Always looking for the next innovation, research is well under way for the third generation of fibre reinforced products, which will come on to the market in 2014.
Fibresand International has established successful business in parts of the Far East over the past 10 years. The famous Fibresand system has been used by the following customers in Singapore – Singapore Turf Club, Singapore Polo Club, Laguna National Golf & Country Club, CAASChangiInternationalAirport and the Clifford Pier Ferry Terminal. Also in Malaysia for the Kuala LumpurInternationalAirport and in Thailand in the following football stadiums – Phuket, Suratthani, Ubonratchathani, Mahasarakham and Chiang Rai.
It has become clear that in order to further develop its potential, Fibresand International require a base in the Pacific Rim which will have access to other products and innovative technologies. An opportunity has arisen in Malaysia within the Iskander Development Region, a short distance from Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. A new company has been formed known as Greenolysis Malaysia Sdn Bhd. This new company has taken over a dormant turf farm which will become supplier of high quality turf to sports amenity sectors throughout the Far East.
Greenolysis Malaysia also offer a range of complimentary turf products, click here to find out more.
