Polymers in Sport and Leisure

Polymers in Sport and Leisure
as well as for top competition. Hence, in many areas
the sports market is potentially very lucrative. This
situation can be seen in sports footwear with leading
manufacturers developing technically advanced and
complicated designs, often for specialised purposes,
which are sold far more widely than to the professional
sports person. However, there are also strong markets
for higher volume but lower value products such as the
fibres in basic hiking and camping clothing.
The introduction of new materials can have very
significant and even dramatic effect on the performances
achieved. This has been the case with for example
vaulting poles, golf clubs and tennis rackets. Improved
performance has had effect on the rules of some sports
but generally rules have not prevented quite radical
material developments being accepted.
A second reason for the introduction of polymers is
the convenience of use that they can provide. This may
be in comfort, improved consistency over natural
materials or extended product lifetime. A notable
example is seen in artificial surfaces which can stand
very concentrated usage in all weather conditions.
A further important reason for the use of polymeric
materials is for improving safety, where cellular
materials in particular are very effective. Considerable
effort has been expended in developing materials for
such applications as equestrian protective jackets,
gymnastics mats and children’s playground surfaces.
In many cases, the reasons for the success of polymers
are complementary. Modern vaulting poles improve
performance and are inherently less likely to break,
whilst artificial surfaces can offer advantages of
performance, consistency, safety and cost.
As mentioned, the range of materials that find
applications in sport is very wide. In 1998,
polyurethanes and engineering plastics were said to
make up 58% of advanced materials used in sporting
goods with fibre reinforced materials accounting for
14%, although it was thought that the latter together
with metals would increase market share (82). For
moulded sports products, polypropylene accounts for
3 times the share of the next nearest plastic,
acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (171). This article also
comments on the diversity of sports mouldings and
considers that new and interesting applications are still
being found. Tyre crumb is an important constituent of
artificial surfaces and playgrounds but the total tonnage
is not huge (40,000 tonnes per annum in the UK
including use in carpet underlay) and is only about 10%
of the weight of tyres scrapped.
The increase in the use of polymers in sport has led to
an increase in testing and specification. This results from
newer materials changing performance, usually for the
better, and the need to supplement the rules of the game
to ensure consistency when a variety of materials and
designs may be in use. Probably the greatest efforts have
been made in artificial surfaces where one factor is the
need to ensure quality because of the large capital
investment needed for an installation.
2 Artificial Surfaces
Artificial sports surfaces have been used successfully
for approaching 40 years (the first synthetic grass pitch
was installed at the Houston Astrodome in 1966) and
rubber-based athletics tracks were widely introduced
in the 1970s. Playing surfaces for both indoor and
outdoor use have utilised a variety of polymers and a
multitude of different designs to cater for a wide range
of activities. In fact there are few sports that cannot be
played successfully on a polymeric surface.
For outdoor surfaces the first attraction is the capability
for sustained use. They can be constructed to be
essentially immune to weather problems and can be
played on 24 hours a day if required. Although a
synthetic turf installation may cost upwards from
£250,000, this concentration of use makes them very
cost effective, particularly in urban areas where land
may be astronomically priced. The number of pitches
and supporting facilities needed can be reduced
compared to turf. The relative lack of essential
maintenance is also attractive and being always
available makes for high convenience. In some parts
of the world, such as the Middle East, they are
effectively the only solution to the desire for sports
facilities because of the difficulty of sustaining grass.
In northern European countries, winter training would
be severely restricted without the synthetic surfaces.
The only criticism that can be realistically levelled
against synthetic turf is that even after decades of
development it is not the same as real turf. That is not
to say it is necessarily inferior, it will always have
advantages of consistency under different weather
conditions and the case of hockey illustrates how it can
be inherently better in playing performance. However,
traditions can be hard to die.
Artificial athletics tracks quickly proved to be superior
in all respects to the cinders used previously. Rubberbased
playground surfaces have a clear advantage in
terms of protection from injury due to falling.
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