Artificial Surfaces
anticipated that the findings of this research will assist sports governing bodies in developing their official guidance for groundcare maintenance programmes for top-level and
“It is also community use”
with input from SAPCA in its capacity as the trade association. The Framework Contract, as it became known, will be assessed in more detail later, but essentially it was introduced here as a means of providing a performance- backed warranty for AGPs. Crucially, under the terms of this framework, the client would be required to monitor and record ongoing maintenance in order to safeguard the performance warranty of their AGP. More recently, academic research has
centred on the maintenance processes themselves, in an effort to attach a scientific grounding to industry practice, which had previously been formed through years of experience and observation. Projects such as the collaborative study between Loughborough University and Technical Surfaces aim to present an objective evaluation of the accepted practices and conventional wisdom behind the
maintenance of AGPs. This may well have consequences for all of us in the AGP industry, as our own knowledge and understanding of AGP maintenance continues to develop.
It is also anticipated that the findings of this research, titled ‘Artificial Turf: Integrating Maintenance and Sport Surface Science’, and due to be published in 2014, will assist sports governing bodies in developing their official guidance for groundcare maintenance programmes, for top-level and community use AGPS - which brings us neatly back to the Framework Contract. The Framework Contract for the
provision of artificial grass pitches for the Rugby Football Union, the Football Association and the Football Foundation, to give it its full title, is a document that encapsulates much that we have already discussed here: the need for manufacturers to ensure that their AGPs
are maintained for the first twelve months as a minimum, to be followed up with a suitable aftercare programme that ensures the AGP continues to satisfy the performance requirements of the appropriate sport's governing body; the requirement to produce a site-specific Maintenance Report and Programme for each AGP installed; and the importance of keeping an updated maintenance log in order to comply with the manufacturer's warranty. Significantly, an entire section of the
Framework Contract is devoted to monitoring hours of use on an AGP, and how this links in with both the warranty period and the frequency of testing that must take place on all AGPs installed under the scheme. For example, a FIFA One Star AGP used for community football requires testing every four years if it receives up to fifty hours of use a week, but every three years if it is used for more than fifty hours a week. (AGPs
■ Regular Sweeping ■ 3G Decompactions ■ Infill Top-Ups ■ Vegetation Treatments ■ Machinery & Equipment ■ Demonstrations & Training ■ Specialist Deep-Cleaning ■ Infill Extraction & Replacement ■ Line Marking ■ Repairs
64 PC APRIL/MAY 2013
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