On-site artificial turf/sporting field assembly requires the use of hot melt and hot melt machinery.
Operators typically melt aggressive thermoplastic adhesives in a hot melt tank and pull the tank on wheels across the field gluing the joints of the artificial turf panels together.
This process is generally accepted as the standard for field installations but is not the best. Artificial turf now consists of many synthetic materials and these materials are very difficult to bond together permanently with aggressive hot melt adhesives. These turf materials, once in place, must endure a wide range of temperature extremes – contracting and expanding without joint failure.
Recently, turf producers have used polyurethane reactive hot melt (PUR) to quickly assemble panels to minimize the expense of on-site assembly. This adhesive has proven to provide fast, cure bonds that are far superior to standard hot melts.
Soon, these high performance PUR hot melts will be applied by the on-site installers. Pail unloaders on large wheels will be the standard for this application as they offer far better melt rate and apply PUR hot melt much faster than conventional hot melt systems. 5 gallon hot melt pail unloaders also seal the expensive pail of adhesive and dramatically reduce the maintenance potential.
Finally, PUR’s with their wide range of open times will allow installers to virtually work year round.