PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT WINTER 2013/14
Pioneers of sports surfaces
Tobias Owegeser, CEO of SMG Sportplatzmaschinenbau, discusses the installation and recycling of artifi cial sports surfaces.
What are the important industry developments from your perspective? Would you say that you are pioneers?
We’ve been in the business for more than 38 years and in artifi cial turf from the very beginning. We’ve brought in countless developments for the installation and maintenance of these sport surfaces. By the way, this also applies to equipment for the construction of all synthetic sports surfaces, including athletic tracks, which represent the main business of SMG.
You could say that our whole product portfolio today has developed from the ever-increasing demands of sports stadia for installation technology and the growing requirements of installation fi rms and venue operators.
Of course, we have not only produced many of these new developments as a result of our experience and working daily on-site during construction, but have initiated and designed them. It is certainly no exaggeration when we say that we regard ourselves as being one of the pioneers of the sector.
Over the decades there have been so many important developments in sports surface construction, too many to give justice to here. As an example I’d like to mention our PlanoMatic series. This ingenious technology has signifi cantly made easier the installation of artifi cial tracks, which is why the PlanoMatic- Series is still a world leader in use.
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We presented the fi rst pre-fi nished installation installer for the so called ‘Tartan surfaces’ back in the 1970s.
With many other machines of ours we’ve introduced completely new process technologies into the sector, for example the SandMatic right at the start of the era of long-fi bre, monofi lament, artifi cial turf systems. The SandMatic was, and still is, demonstrably the best solution when it comes to incorporating fi ll materials like sand or rubber evenly and in exact doses.
Or, as most recently, with the TurfMuncher TM2000D. This machine revolutionises the renovation of artifi cial turf surfaces. The TM2000D is highly effi cient and fl exible. And it is constructed so that it doesn’t damage the underlying construction (substructure) i.e. the elastic layers.
Are the club and municipal owners of sports surfaces knowledgeable about the importance of implementing a maintenance programme?
It’s really very simple. If you want your artifi cial turf surface to have maximum life and optimum surface quality, you’ve got to maintain it regularly and appropriately. In principle there is no surface – including artifi cial turf – that doesn’t need maintenance. The current FIFA study supports this wholeheartedly. The wrong type of care and maintenance can actually have negative effects on the operating life
Johann and Monika Owegeser, founders of SMG, welcome their guests at the latest FSB show in Cologne.
and surface performance. The regular use of recommended equipment on the other hand doesn’t just keep the area clean, it preserves the sports- physiological features e.g. the roll of the ball. Otherwise the investment is very rapidly put in jeopardy.
Sporadic basic cleaning by the service contractor – which often is only carried out once or twice a year – is almost worthless in respect of the desired parameters. Especially if the artifi cial turf hasn’t had any maintenance in the period between. We do a lot to inform sports venue operators about the guidelines and standards recommended by UEFA and FIFA; we publish, for example, maintenance instructions and we organise on-site workshops. Installation companies receive intensive on-site instruction about the handling and the operation of our maintenance and cleaning machines. And – last but not least – our range of cleaning and maintenance machines is unparalleled worldwide.
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