Stunning darker tones of green with amazing cushion under your feet

Namgrass develops and manufactures its materials to the highest specification

Namgrass is the leading supplier of artificial grass components to lawn designers and landscapers all over the world, due to its unparalleled tradition of industry leadership through innovation.

All Namgrass products are manufactured from 100% polyethylene (LLDPE) using C6 – a linear low-density polyethylene which use Hexene as co-monomer. 

Many other suppliers of fake grass use a mixture of polyethylene and polypropylene - leading to an inferior product. The polyethylene being used is often cheaper LLDPE based on C4, or a recycled polyethylene with very poor performance and lack of UV stabilisers.

C6 has many advantages over C4:

• Higher tensile strength which gives you a lower tendency to fibrillation/split.
• Lower elongation at break resulting in higher elastic recovery.
• Less sensitive to high temperature.

100% polyethylene grass is softer and more UV stable than a mixture of polyethylene and polypropylene.

The master batch (color pigment-UV stabiliser and anti-oxidant) has a significant impact on the life span of the material (yarn). The amount of UV-stabiliser we use in our yarn is between 7500 – 8000ppm.

which is the maximum it is possible to apply.

Cheaper Chinese manufactured grass contains a maximum 3000ppm UV stabiliser. A lot of these suppliers are also still using colour pigments which contain high quantities of heavy metals such as lead/cadmium etc. Heavy metals can leech out of artificial grass during acidic rain showers, as well as in high temperatures and direct sunlight.

The table above shows the heavy metal composition of Namgrass, against the new DIN 18035-7 norm.

Namgrass Versus Chinese Manufactured Grass

The goal of this research was to investigate differences between artificial turf carpets made with Namgrass versus those made with Chinese manufactured components.

The two artificial turf carpets were rated on the following variables:

1. Determination of heavy metal content
(Standard: EN71-Part 3 Safety of toy (by Satra).

2. Determination of UV stability
(by ERCAT-University of Ghent).

3. Resistance to heat (IR lamp as source).

1. Determination of Heavy Metal Content

We tested the two artificial turf carpets using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) on the requirements from the EN71-Part 3. The test is designed to measure the migration of heavy metals.

Namgrass showed significantly less migration and heavy metal content when compared to the cheaper product.

2. Determination of UV Stability

Both samples were analysed with a Weather-O-Meter (WOM), as well as subjected to UV-A and UV-B. With this test the UV-stability can be measured to see if material degrades mechanically or the colours fade.

The yarns on the Chinese manufactured turf started fading after 700 hours in the WOM, with the test normally running for 3000 hours. Similar results were seen in the UV-B test. The tensile properties also deteriorate as the colours fade.

Tensile strength after ageing is required be a minimum 50% of the original strength. The Namgrass sample exceeds the criteria for UV ageing, while the Chinese grass does not meet this criteria.

3. RESISTANCE TO HEAT

Samples A and B were placed under an IR lamp for ½ hour. After testing had concluded the sample from the Chinese manufacturer had degraded significantly, while the Namgrass turf had retained its structural integrity.

CONCLUSION

The goal of this research was to analyse two artificial grass products. One product from our Namgrass collection and one product from a Chinese
producer.

The results demonstrate, while the Chinese manufactured turf falls bellow minimum industry standards across all variables, the Namgrass equivalent either meets or exceeds these requirements. Therefore, while the product from the Chinese manufacturer may be available for a cheaper initial price, it is likely to require replacing after a short amount of time. Namgrass however, will hold up to even the most extreme of conditions, meaning it represents a more sensible long-term investment for customers' artificial lawn requirements.