Planning For Your Artificial Turf Sports Field: Safeshell’s Cooling Solutions

Are you building a new athletic turf sports field?

Or maybe you’re replacing an existing field?

Either way, you need your new artificial turf system to protect your athletes and boost performance — without requiring excessive time and effort to maintain.

And then there is sustainability, which is top of mind for many parents and other stakeholders involved. You’ll want a system that’s not only durable and long lasting, but is also recyclable and biodegradable.

Sound daunting?

It doesn’t have to be.

Let’s walk through why Safeshell, Motz 100% organic turf infill checks all those boxes — and more. Because your athletes deserve the best.

Modern, Innovative Turf Solutions

For decades, sand and crumb rubber infill have dominated artificial sports turf as the infill of choice. But performance and safety of this traditional type of turf system depends on several factors: continual maintenance, the amount of rubber installed, turf height, whether there’s a shock pad, and more. 

These traditional types of infill also tend to compact and degrade over time, which means continually reinvesting time and money on upkeep.

You can easily see why many sports field owners are seeking modern alternatives that are much easier and less time consuming to maintain, while also providing superior performance, safety and sustainability.

Infill is Essential, so Choose it First

Did you know your artificial turf’s infill impacts performance more than any other component of a synthetic turf system? That’s why we recommend selecting your infill first and designing your system around it.

Why Choose a Natural Infill for Your Sports Field?

Innovating is one of our core values at Motz, and we’ve always loved the intention behind organic infills. They can offer cooler surface temperatures and a natural feel underfoot — and of course, they’re meant to be environmentally responsible as well.

And like many of you, we’ve been monitoring the merit and performance of organic infills as they’ve gained popularity.

We noticed that unfortunately, many organic infills come with tradeoffs: floating away, heavy migration with play, needing to be frequently topped off, requiring added moisture to keep the system cool and hydrated for optimal performance and safety.

The natural turf market needed a better solution. And we realized that with our experience, expertise, and research capabilities, we were in an excellent position to address these shortcomings. So we set out to create a product that offered the sustainability and natural qualities that people are requesting more and more these days… but that didn’t require sacrificing performance and safety.

After three plus years of R&D, we developed Safeshell: the 100% natural, high-performance infill for your artificial turf athletic system.

Our Infill Solution: 100% Natural Safeshell

Lead Your Community With Natural Infill

Our vision: a truly sustainable infill developed from a rapidly renewable resource, grown right here in the US. A tall order. Eventually we discovered the ideal blend: US-grown english and black walnut shells. Yes, it’s actually just walnut shells! And we never use any chemicals in the creation of our all-natural infill, ever.

Using Safeshell for your artificial sports turf helps you stand out as a community leader in sustainability.

Safe and 100% USDA Certified BioPreferred

Beyond choosing all natural ingredients to blend our infill, we believe in backing up our claims with testing. That’s why we routinely send Safeshell off to multiple third party, food-grade labs as part of our ongoing quality assurance efforts. After rigorous testing, our organic synthetic turf infill has been added to the government registry of approved and preferred infills by the USDA.

Safeshell is the only 100% USDA certified BioPreferred infill on the market, so you’ll know your athletes are playing on a proven safe, natural foundation.

Organic Infill That Stays Put

No matter how natural a product is — if it doesn’t meet your performance needs, what’s the point?

Durability is a common frustration with organic infill, a challenge we took to heart when we set out to develop our proprietary blend. Enter black and english walnut shells: not only are they a sustainable resource, they’re also some of the densest nutshells in the world.

In fact, Safeshell’s bulk density is three times that of most other organic infills on the market. The weight means our infill won’t break down over time, and it won’t migrate across the field. If you’re looking for the lowest maintenance organic infill on the market, we’ve got you covered.

You can depend on Safeshell for long-lasting performance for your athletic field, without constant maintenance. Which means you’re free to focus on supporting your players in the ways you know best.

Cool the Field

Keeping players cool tops the priority list when designing a new athletic field. Some artificial turf fields can reach temperatures 35º to 55º F hotter than natural grass fields. Which is one reason choosing the right infill is so crucial in designing a high performance synthetic turf sports field.

Safeshell’s natural properties excel at evaporative cooling. In the same way that soil keeps natural grass cool, Safeshell absorbs water with minimal expansion… and then releases moisture slowly over time. Which means Safeshell’s organic infill keeps surfaces from heating up too quickly.

And while artificial turf with Safeshell performs best when wet — delivering results up to 55℉ cooler than crumb rubber — it doesn’t actually require water to cool the field, unlike other organic infills.

Here is a Sneak Peek of the Cooling Performance Offered by Safeshell Synthetic Turf Infill

Location of the Heat Images: Hallandale Beach, Florida Parks and Recreation, Peter Bluesten Park

Field Conditions the Day of Images: 95 Degrees Fahrenheit. Heavy rain event the night before, so the field was still wet.

As shown in the images above, the 98° sidewalk image had the most water remaining in the system and this was where Safeshell significantly lowered the heat. On the flipside of that, the 134° mid field image was where the water dried out of the field the quickest, and the safeshell infill was almost dry. Safeshell provides peak cooling benefits when fully saturated, but will still provide heat relief when dry.

For comparison, to the heat gun images above, test results conducted by a third party lab, Firefly Sports Testing, show the lab simulated heat for other infills on the market place.

Want more specifics? Check out our Hallandale Beach Peter Bluesten Park case study, which shows how Safeshell is keeping athletes cool, even in the Florida heat.

Nothing to Lose With Safeshell’s 8-Year Warranty

Bottom line: if you’re looking for a sustainable infill for your artificial turf for your sports field — without sacrificing safety and performance, Safeshell could be the solution you’ve been looking for.

And with Safeshell’s 8-year warranty, what are you waiting for?

Learn more by getting in touch with our experts today.