REHAU Industries SE & Co. KG

All over the world, time and again, major sporting events such as Olympic games or football tournaments delight media representatives, sportsmen and women, and fans. For the people responsible, a race against time begins directly after their acceptance as hosts: sports facilities and infrastructure must be finished on time and on budget – no easy task. In more than 350 stadia worldwide, REHAU is present in the sports facilities, ensuring that reliable quality is guaranteed in aspects from drinking and waste water systems to beverage hoses and accompanying refrigeration systems as well as cable ducts, drainage systems and turf heating.

“Turf heating must be considered roughly like underfloor heating in buildings,” explains Thorsten Wiggenhagen, Business Team Leader in the area of subsurface heating/cooling. “Under the turf, robust and durable heating pipes are installed parallel to each other, through which warm water is channelled if required. Even playing fields that are frozen solid can therefore ‘thaw’ and coverings of snow melt away evenly.” A weather-dependent control system controls the complex system and keeps the surface temperature of the turf to a maximum of 2° C.

By installing the RAUTHERM pipes using RAILFIX rails that can be accurately planned under the grass roots, machine processing of the turf, for example for loosening the subsoil, is possible without restriction. In fact, the even distribution of heat is ensured with temperatures that protect the grass roots: special temperature gauges prevent possible damage to the grass roots. Iced up, snow-covered or slushy playing fields are therefore a thing of the past.

Turf heating can also be impressive in terms of economics: the investment and operating costs are relatively low; alternative energy sources can even be used with REHAU systems. The pipes used are exclusively those with the PE-Xa installation system. The robust and durable RAUTHERM pipe is supplied in property-specific coil lengths. As such, no expensive residual lengths are accumulated. The permanently sealed jointing technique with compression sleeves guarantees easy and quick installation.

Because of national and international regulations, turf heating is needed in order to ensure use and playability, as a match cancellation due to snow and ice represents a considerable financial risk – for everyone involved. The German football association (Deutscher Fußballbund – DFB), for example, defines turf heating as standard in first and second division stadia. REHAU turf heating keeps the pitch playable even at temperatures well below freezing and therefore allows training 365 days per year.

The high-performance drainage systems from the system supplier also contribute to this: polymer part-filter pipes take in rain or melt water directly under the pitch and channel it to multi-purpose pipes arranged at the side of the pitch. Pipes in larger sizes then reliably transport the accumulated water to cisterns, into the sewer, or into flushing and inspection shafts. REHAU also supplies these system components to football arenas. In this, the industry specialists draw on their many years of experience in transport infrastructure and underground construction.

“We offer everything from one source – from turf heating through drainage to reliable irrigation systems and geotextiles, which continue to stabilise heavily used green areas even after many years,” Thorsten Wiggenhagen thinks. “Of course, the specialist companies involved with the installation are trained right from the outset,” the Business Team Leader continues.

Leading technology for top requirements

The REHAU Group is a polymer specialist with an annual turnover of over 3.5 billion euros. It is an independent and stable family-owned company. Some 20,000 em-ployees around the world generate growth and success for REHAU at over 170 locations. REHAU has about 12,000 employees in Europe, of which 8,000 alone work in Germany. REHAU provides solutions in the construction, automotive and industry sectors. For over 70 years, it has been REHAU’s mission to make plastic products even lighter, more comfortable, safe and efficient, and it supplies coun-tries around the entire world with its innovative products.