CEN/TR 17519:2020

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-december-2020
Podloge za športne dejavnosti - Umetne travnate podloge športnih objektov -
Navodilo za zmanjšanje razprševanja polnila v okolje
Surfaces for sports areas - Synthetic turf sports facilities - Guidance on how to minimize
infill dispersion into the environment
Sportböden - Kunststoffrasenflächen - Leitfaden zur Minimierung des Austrags von
Verfüllgut in die Umgebung
Sols sportifs - Installations sportives en gazon synthétique - Recommandations pour
limiter la dispersion des matériaux de remplissage dans l'environnement
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TR 17519:2020
ICS:
97.150 Talne obloge Floor coverings
97.220.10 Športni objekti Sports facilities
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

CEN/TR 17519
TECHNICAL REPORT
RAPPORT TECHNIQUE
July 2020
TECHNISCHER BERICHT
ICS 97.150; 97.220.10
English Version
Surfaces for sports areas - Synthetic turf sports facilities -
Guidance on how to minimize infill dispersion into the
environment
Sols sportifs - Installations sportives en gazon Sportböden - Kunststoffrasenflächen - Leitfaden zur
synthétique - Recommandations pour limiter la Minimierung des Austrags von Verfüllgut in die
dispersion des matériaux de remplissage dans Umgebung
l'environnement
This Technical Report was approved by CEN on 12 July 2020. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 217.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2020 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TR 17519:2020 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 6
4 Sports performance . 7
5 Infill migration routes . 8
6 Means of minimizing infill migration . 8
6.1 General . 8
6.2 Types of synthetic turf surface . 8
6.3 Field design . 9
7 Installation of infill . 12
8 Field maintenance . 12
9 Snow clearance . 13
10 Changing rooms . 13
11 End of life disposal of synthetic turf surfaces . 14
12 Retrofitting existing fields . 14
Annex A (informative) Figures showing typical design details . 15
Bibliography . 21

European foreword
This document (CEN/TR 17519:2020) has been prepared by Technical Committee
CEN/TC 217 “Surfaces for sports areas”, the secretariat of which is held by AFNOR.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the
subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such
patent rights.
Introduction
General
Synthetic turf sports surfaces provide attractive, hard–wearing and safe playing areas that
can accommodate high levels of use and be used in far more diverse climates than natural
turf. The development of these surfaces has led to significant demand with over 16 000 full
size sports fields now being used in Europe, and approximately 4 000 new fields being built
each year.
Synthetic turf sports surfaces take four generic forms:
— non-filled short pile;
— sand filled or sand dressed short pile;
— long pile with infill (typically rubber and/or sand);
— long pile non-filled.
Infill is applied to the synthetic turf surfaces for three reasons:
— it is used to stabilize the carpet to prevent dimensional expansion and contraction and
movement through use i.e. it acts as a ballast. This type of infill is often described as
stabilizing infill;
— it contributes or provides the sports performance and impact attenuation
characteristics of the sports surface. This type of infill is often described as
performance infill. The performance infill is a key component of the surface as it
provides comfort and protection to players as they run and fall on the surface;
— it helps control the way the ball interacts with the surface, supporting the pile of the
surface so it remains upright.
Short pile synthetic turf surfaces typically have pile heights of between 10 mm and 30 mm
and normally only have one layer of infill. This is often a rounded sand. Sometimes the sand
has a polymeric coating to change the colour of the infill (i.e. it is coloured to match the
synthetic turf colour).
Figure 1 shows the typical cross section of a short pile synthetic turf sports surface.

Key
1 synthetic turf carpet pile, may be curly
2 infill
3 shockpad (optional depending on intended sports use)
4 base (or foundation)
Figure 1 — Typical cross section of short pile synthetic turf surface
Long pile synthetic turf surfaces typically have pile heights of between 30 mm and 60mm.
Most contain two layers of infill, the lower layer (normally sand) is installed to provide
ballast and stability to prevent the synthetic turf carpet moving. The upper layer is the
performance infill.
There are a number of different granulated materials used to form this layer including
various rubbers and thermo-plastics and natural materials such as cork, timber, nut husks,
etc.
Figure 2 shows the typical cross section of a long pile synthetic turf sports surface.

Key
1 synthetic turf carpet pile, might be curly
2 performance infill
3 stabilizing infill
4 shockpad (optional)
5 base (or foundation)
Figure 2 — Typical cross section of long pile synthetic turf surface
Most infills are in the particle size range 0,5 mm to 2,5 mm with some occasionally being
larger.
Environmental concerns
Increasing public concern about microplastics has led the European Commission, to
investigate ways of reducing the quantities released into the environment. They have
defined a microplastic as any solid particle made of a non-biodegradable polymer that is
5,0 mm or less in size. They can be unintentionally formed through wear and tear or
deliberately manufactured and intentionally added to products for a specific purpose.
As many infill materials used within synthetic turf sports surfaces are either made from
non-bio-degradable polymers that are less than 5,0 mm in size, or incorporate some form
granule (e.g. sand) that has a polymeric coating, it is important that the design and
maintenance of sports fields having these infills is undertaken in a way that minimizes the
possibility of the infill migrating from the sports surface and being dispersed into the
environment. This document describes ways of containing infill materials within the
footprint of the synthetic turf field during its construction, operation and end of life
removal.
1 Scope
This document describes ways of containing infill materials used in many types of synthetic
turf sports fields within the confines of the sports field, so they are not dispersed into the
surrounding environment.
The options described are based on examples of best practice identified by members of
CEN/TC 217.
This document is intended to be of practical use, to create awareness amongst field
designers, venue owners, installation companies and those maintaining synthetic turf
sports fields. It is applicable for all forms of synthetic turf sports field, from those used for
community activities to those used by professional and elite level athletes.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/ui
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
synthetic turf surfacing system
all components of the surface that influence its sports performance or bio-mechanical
characteristics including the synthetic turf carpet, infill and shockpad
3.2
filled synthetic turf
synthetic turf surface, whose pile is either totally filled or partly filled with an unbound
particulate material
3.3
infill
particulate materials used within the synthetic turf surface to provide support to the carpet
pile and to aid the provision of the required performance characteristics of the surface
3.4
performance infill
granulated materials used to form the upper layer of infill that help provide the required
sports performance and player welfare characteristics of the surface
3.5
polymeric infill
granular infill material formed from non-biodegradable rubbers or plastics, or an infill
material that has a coating formed from non-biodegradable rubbers or plastics (e.g. coated
sand)
3.6
stabilizing infill
particulate materials used to infill the lower portion of the synthetic turf surface to provide
support to the carpet pile and ballast to hold the carpet in place and help prevent
dimensional movement
3.7
shockpads
elastic material placed beneath a synthetic turf sports surface that is designed to aid the
provision of the performance properties of the sports surfacing system
Note 1 to entry: Shockpads are also known as elastic layers.
3.8
stitch rate
number of tufts per square meter, which is a function of the number of stitches per linear
length multiplied by the spacing (gauge) of the tufting needles
3.9
field
playing area including the perimeter margins or run offs
Note 1 to entry: Field is also known as the pitch.
3.10
base
all elements of construction beneath the synthetic turf sports surfacing system
4 Sports performance
The performance of a synthetic turf sports surface is provided by the interactions of the
synthetic turf carpet, the infill materials and, if part of the system, the shockpad.
Occasionally some synthetic turf systems also utilize characteristics of the base
construction to achieve the required performance.
EN 15330-1 specifies the properties required of synthetic turf surfaces used for football,
rugby, hockey, tennis and multi–sports applications. The requirements of EN 15330-1 are
intended to apply to surfaces used for community, educational and recreational sport. For
professional and elite levels of competition, many sports governing bodies have published
their own specifications.
NOTE The requirements of the sports’ governing bodies differ from those detailed in
EN 15330-1 and facility developers are advised to ensure that they select surfaces offering the
correct performance for the level of competition to be played on the field.
5 Infill migration routes
Experience has shown that infill materials can be transported from a synthetic turf field by
a number of different actions including:
— being carried by players (caught in and stuck on clothing and footwear);
— snow removal;
— being carried by maintenance equipment;
— inappropriate maintenance procedures;
— inappropriate installation procedures;
— poor storage of spare material;
— surface water run–off from the field;
— wind dispersion.
6 Means of minimizing infill migration
6.1 General
By incorporating appropriate design features into a synthetic turf sports field and
undertaking its construction, operational maintenance and end-of-life removal in
environmentally sensitive ways the risk of infill being dispersed from within the field to the
surrounding environment can be minimized.
The following clauses describe examples of good practice that have been shown to be
effective in ensuring infills are not dispersed into the surrounding environment. Many of
these design features work best when used in collectively and it should not be assumed that
only incorporating one feature will achieve the desired containment.
6.2 Types of synthetic turf surface
...