STMA Commercial Vice President Rene Asprion, Diamond Pro/TXI, presented the 2012 STMA Award for Commercial Innovation to g2 turftools during trade show hours at last month’s STMA Conference. The award was for their 84-inch Turfplaner, a product judged by the STMA Awards Committee to substantially enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Sports Turf Manager, and make playing surfaces safer and more playable for athletes.
Lindsay Merkt of g2 reported:
“g2 turftools, inc. was incorporated 5 years ago to develop and manufacture precision turf equipment to enhance the ability of turf managers to produce and maintain high quality playing surfaces. This year we added the Patent Pending 84-inch turfplaner to our existing patented product line of turfrollers, turffloat and turfslicer, and turfrack.
”The number one problem all turf managers have is how to deal with high spots on their fields. All fields seem to suffer from high spots, whether caused by infield washes on baseball fields that create lips, topdressing and redistribution of aerification cores, or just poor construction from the beginning.
“The low spots have been relatively easy to manage, since they just need to be filled in, but high spots have been a completely different problem. High spot removal requires removing the turf, removing the excess soil, re-grading, re-compacting, and finally replacing the turf. After many hours of operating a flail mower set to zero to remove minor high spots after new construction, we decided to manufacture a device that would automatically remove high spots while automatically adjusting to grade, through the use of laser or AutoGrade controls. When the recession hit in 2008, we decided to take the chance that a better, faster, cheaper alternative to surface renovations would be accepted by turf managers.
”In January 2008 we started designing the 84-inch turfplaner and by April 2008 we had developed our Patent Pending prototype to start testing. By November 2011, we had turfplaned more than 3 million square feet and produced 2 more BETA versions for additional testing. Other advancements made to the turfplaner have included integrated controls that include Manual, AutoGrade, and Laser Controls. In December 2011 we sold our first production to our Licensed Service Provider in Louisiana.
“With such new technology we decided early on that the best way to guarantee quality work and the best service possible to the turf managers was to create a network of Licensed Service Providers that would be trained and supported by g2 turftools. These Licensed Service Providers are regional turfplaning experts that can provide all of the necessary equipment and personnel to remove and restore existing turf to a pre determined grade or simply remove surface irregularities to increase the playability and safety. Turfplaning has been performed on baseball, softball, soccer, football fields, polo fields, golf tees and fairways, and has even been used to remove lips from cart paths and roadways. Whether preparing an existing turf surface for new sod, restoring grade, or simply removing surface irregularities, turfplaning promises to be the new standard for turf resurfacing and renovation.”