How Artificial Grass Is Made

When it comes to artificial grass, it’s all in the plastic. This includes the intricate combination of white plastic pellets and green plastic pellets that hold the colors, U.V. stabilizers, and additives. This creates the nice green colored grass you typically think of when artificial grass comes to mind. There are, however, other colors that have been developed, which have added a vibrant and unique touch to different types of spaces. These colors stay true over the years due to U.V. inhibitors that are built into the grass.

Today’s “third-generation” grass is comprised of polyethylene, polypropylene, and nylon material. That may sound like a mouthful, but you commonly use these plastics in water bottles and plastic bags. Let’s break down the creation process of artificial grass into 10 simple steps:

1. Plastic is melted by special equipment.
2. The plastic is then pushed through a perforated steel plate.
3. This creates strands which are then placed in water to solidify the plastic mixture.
4. The strands are moved through a pulley while separation is maintained
5. The strands are then stretched by rollers as thin as possible in order to create the blades you are familiar with.
6. These blades are then held by a spool which works to combine them and create different yarns.
7. A “tufting” machine essentially sews these yarns to a combination of mesh fabric/synthetic sheeting.
8. During tufting, small knives cut the ends of the yarn to make them appear even more like grass blades.
9. An adhesive is applied to the turf’s backing. The turf is then dried in both open and closed air spaces. Drainage holes are created after it has dried using hot pins.
10. After durability and multiple inspections, the turf is ready for its new home!

You may ask, how do all of the fibers stay intact for so many years, while undergoing different climate changes? This requires a 2-layer backing system that uses top of the line material in order to keep the grass a durable as it’s known to be. The primary backing, which is what the turf is looped through, has many types. These are known as K29 (the most widely used), D12, 13 PIC, and 15 PIC. The coating is what locks everything together and is extremely crucial! Some common components of the backings are polyurethane, latex, and hot melt. Here in Los Angeles and America in general, we use polyurethane to deliver the best quality artificial grass in the world!