Leading artificial turf design firm, Byrne & Jones, posted a great article recently pertaining to the importance of shock pads in field design and how the HIC Testprovides a much more encompassing look at field safety than using the G-Max test alone. Here is a little snippet, but you can read the full article at byrneandjones.com.
As one of the premier builders of athletic playing fields in the Midwest, Byrne & Jones Sports is always working to stay on top of the latest research and developments in the sports field industry so that the facility owners and designers we work with can make informed decisions regarding their sports facility projects.
It’s our goal to help our clients build safe, high quality playing surfaces that enable athletes to compete at the highest level. So when there are suggested changes in how best to measure impact attenuation, we’ll be ready to implement. And when companies develop new shock pad systems that deliver better shock absorption as well as field stiffness, we want our customers to know what’s out there in the on-going efforts to reduce head injuries resulting from head-to-ground impacts.
This past spring, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) agreed that the hemispherical E-Missile is the appropriate device to use for the development of a new test standard for synthetic turf sports surfaces. HIC testing will soon replace G-Max testing as the new standard for measurement.
The reason is simple. The E-Missile, a hemispherical “head-form” missile that produces HIC or Head Injury Criteria, more adequately represents the head-to-ground impact than the flat, cylindrical missile currently used in G-MAX testing. So new standards will soon…
