Innovation

The value of a patent

In 2011, Dr. Niko Sarrisidentified the solution that would soon change the way sports fields were and are built. Despite his twenty years of experience in the field of natural and artificial grass fields, he had to face countless problems and overcome numerous challenges to arrive at the POWERgrass hybrid system.

Dr. Sarris, aware of the value of his achievement, will present the first application for a European patent at the beginning of 2012 in the EPO (European Patent Office).

A year later he will submit patent application to WIPO (World International Patent Office) for the extension to the rest of the World introducing new features and an alternative solution with the Woven grass production method, also re-registered at the EPO.

At the beginning of 2014 he will present a third patent, son of the first, to protect a further feature that he discovered during his research.

Towards the end of 2017 it presented the fourth patent for welding fibers to the mesh with the innovative LC-HM (Linear Coating Hot Melt) method which will subsequently also be used for the production of recyclable synthetic grass. In November 2020 Sarris will present the fifth improvement patent which also includes the machinery developed for this purpose.

Patents certify that an idea is new and that it solves a technical problem but successful installations are the proof of effectiveness. Disseminating this solution is our mission but, often interests are conflicting and the competition, in the absence of equivalent solutions, tends to denigrate the novelty or copy without having the know-how but, when there is proof of effectiveness of the systems being compared it is difficult to deny the evidence.

Sarris has always embraced those who want to understand how his innovation works and recently, in a public debate on Linkedin, at the provocation of an internationally renowned competitor, he made himself available to any comparison or test as long as it is done objectively with the "double blind" method, but he did not want to risk it.

Sarris is not motivated by the speculative exploitation of his inventions but would like to see them become a beacon for doing business in a more equitable way among the various social classes, in balance with the environment, emulating nature. Much of his know-how is published on this site and is available free of charge to anyone.

The state of the art of hybrid systems and how they compare to synthetic grass

Hybrid lawns are nothing new. The first system was patented in 1990 in Holland and soon after in 1993, another was patented in the United States. In Italy they were used several times in the San Siro stadium, in Novara, in Genoa and in the Bergamo stadium as well as in some training fields of important teams such as Milan at the beginning of the century.

By developing the POWERgrass hybrid lawn system we had to compare ourselves with the state of the art of other existing systems, understand the limitations, propose a new solution and evaluate the technical advantage it produces. Consequently, in our research we had to study the characteristics of all the systems already present which, from a theoretical point of view, would be suitable for strengthening natural grass.

The main objective of hybrid systems is to increase the resistance to wear and tear of natural grass turf. In our research we have identified 3 hybrid systems which have had some success, but limited to clubs with high spending budgets because the cost of installation and subsequent maintenance is high.

One of the most obvious aspects, yet underestimated by many, is thatgrass does not willingly grow on traditional synthetic turf. It would seem like an impossible symbiosis and for this very reason there is the belief that hybrid systems do not keep what they promise and in some cases are real "rip-offs". Some hybrid systems work in the early period, but the advantages quickly fade. In other cases, the lawn goes into crisis as soon as it reaches the desired density and the weather conditions are no longer favorable for growth. Very often, the surface becomes too hard or asphyxiated for the grass which struggles to grow because it encounters high mechanical resistance or because the root does not breathe. The density of the surface thins out quickly and the cushioning effect is lost: players complain about the hardness of the pitch which causes ligament problems.

Maintaining the balance to encourage the growth of the lawn within the synthetic grass often becomes an arduous and complex job, causing the spending budget to increase drastically. Technicians are forced to often use the Verti-Drain to break up the sandy plant layer, reseed and fertilize repeatedly.

Experience has taught us that in past systems, with the same maintenance, the growth conditions of the lawn are less favorable so the grass tends to give way quickly precisely because the bottom quickly becomes hard. However, the stability of the surface is greater and the planarity is very often impeccable because no dangerous holes form. These are the reasons that arouse interest in further research and development of more effective solutions.

The reinforcement of natural grass has been studied by only a few subjects in the world because it requires in-depth skills from two opposite worlds, that of natural grass and that of synthetic grass. The scientific community is disinterested because excessive specialization in a specific topic often causes us to lose the overall vision of the whole.

Finally, the exponential expansion of synthetic turf fields from 2004 to today has not aroused an economic interest in thinking of something different. In the common imagination, synthetic grass would have provided a definitive answer regarding intensive use, player safety and reduced maintenance.