As a result of the increased demand in foam and new trends in artificial turf playing surfaces, a brand-new shock pad is to be revealed at this year’s FSB in Cologne, Germany.
Schmitz. Foam Products, which has produced its ProPlay system since the early 2000s, will reveal an updated version to answer and keep up with industry demands.
“ProPlay-Sport20 is produced from foams that the foam industry consider redundant. In the last few years, Schmitz Foam Products has experienced an above-average growth which exceeded the growth of the foam industry. As we foresaw that this could lead to challenges in sourcing our raw materials in the run-up to our peak-season, we decided to review the design of this front runner,” said Jens Ulb, chief commercial officer at Schmitz Foam Products.”
The renewed ProPlay-Sport20 is said to provide similar or even better sport technical performance, robustness and offers a drainage capacity that matches that of the original ProPlay-Sport20. “What differs is that the future edition will consist of an 8mm foam layer that has exclusively been produced for Schmitz Foam Products, combined with 12mm foam flakes sourced from foams which were deemed redundant. It simply combines the best of both worlds”. No additives are involved in bonding the polyethylene foam layer and polyethylene foam flakes to a single sheet. It is done with thermal bonding, similar to the way Schmitz Foam Products produced the ProPlay-Sport20. “As this heat-bonding is done by a state-of-the-art laminator, it is impossible for the foam layers to separate spontaneously. The only time they will come apart is when Schmitz Foam Products recycles these pads by the time they no longer have any meaningful purpose.”
Over the past few months, the renewed ProPlay-Sport20 has been tested by international testing institutes and Schmitz Foam Products has already started producing the new product.
