Describes performance, durability, product identification and facility testing requirements for synthetic turf sports surfaces used primarily outdoors.

This European Standard specifies performance, durability, product identification and facility testing requirements for synthetic turf sports surfaces used primarily outdoors. Five categories of surface are covered, each based on the principal sporting use of the surface, as follows:

• surfaces designed primarily for hockey;

• surfaces designed primarily for association football;

• surfaces designed primarily for rugby union for training purposes;

• surfaces designed primarily for tennis;

• surfaces designed for multi-sports use.

The requirements 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; the requirements of the sports governing bodies might differ from those detailed in this European Standard and facility developers are advised to ensure that they select surfaces offering the correct level of performance for the level of competition played on the pitch or court.

NOTE Under the Laws of the Game of Rugby Union, surfaces for rugby union matches need to comply with the International Rugby Board’s IRB Regulation 22 and associated performance specification for synthetic turf surfaces.

This European Standard has two parts. The first part describes the requirements for product testing of products in the laboratory to ensure they are capable of providing the required levels of sports performance and player/surface interaction required for their intended use and that they are manufactured from materials of acceptable quality. The second section describes the requirements for installed surfaces to ensure that the sports performance and player/surface interaction of a facility is suitable for the intended use.

Some of the surfaces covered by this European Standard are designed to allow users to wear footwear fitted with studs. An example of a typical stud is given in EN 15306. For the purposes of this European Standard, multi-dimpled shoe profiles often found on footwear used on sand-filled or non-filled synthetic turfs are not considered to be studs.

When independent third party testing of synthetic turf sports surfaces is required to assess compliance with this standard, it is recommended the laboratory is certified to EN ISO/IEC 17025 for the relevant test methods specified in this standard.