The innovative product idea – not only for golf courses
Both CEOs of the Formenbau GĂ¼ntner company hit upon the product idea through hobby golfing, which led to the founding of Grasscalm. The greenkeeper spoke to Heribert GĂ¼ntner at the golf course about how quickly the grass grows in over the sprinkler systems and that cutting the sprinklers free involved a lot of time and work. "Our family company Formenbau GĂ¼ntner has been around for 24 years now and specialises in injection-moulded parts. With the new Grasscalm company, we were able to fall back on our existing know-how and previous experience and have developed the prototype of our artificial turf edging within one year," reports Andreas GĂ¼ntner, CEO of Grasscalm. In 2015, then, the product was ready for series production.
Artificial turf edging consists of an artificial lawn mat sprayed with hot plastic. The grating enables the product to grow in together with the real lawn and is thus firmly anchored in the ground. The applications of artificial turf edging include commercial and public areas such as traffic islands, playgrounds, football fields and golf courses, as well as in private gardens along waysides or plant and flower beds and sprinkler nozzles or garden lighting.
Use of easy-care artificial grass products in landscape planning is increasingly in demand
The landscape architect Manfred Schachenmayr, of the Brugger Landschaftsarchitekten, also knows the advantages of using artificial grass in landscaping: "I use artificial grass products in my planning more and more. It has proved to look nearly identical to normal grass. Easy-care artificial turf products can be used very well for outdoor facilities such as schools or playgrounds. Those are places where normal grass lawns would no longer make any sense. For golf and sports facilities, I have mainly put artificial turf to use in the tee-off areas as well as for the sprinkler systems." Manfred Schachenmayr specialises in planning the outdoor facillities of hotels as well as playgrounds and golf courses, designing under the motto living like on holiday. "My facilities should give people the feeling of beauty and aesthetics," confirms Manfred Schachenmayr. Currently, the landscape architect is working on the designing of an 18-hole golf course on the island of RĂ¼gen:
The increasing use of artificial grass products in landscape planning also means that the planners and landscape architects increasingly require digital product data in the form of BIM CAD models for their planning and request such data from the manufacturers.
Time and cost savings through 3D CAD artificial turf edging model
To enable landscape architects and planners to easily include artificial turf products of Grasscalm in their planning and design projects, the manufacturer has recently started offering 3D BIM CAD models of their products on the download portal BIMcatalogs.net, based on the proven PARTcommunity and eCATALOGsolutions technology by CADENAS. The digital product data of Grasscalm can be downloaded in more than 100 BIM CAD formats and directly integrated into common programs of the architect and construction branch such as Autodesk Revit, GRAPHISOFT ARCHICAD, Nemetschek Allplan, etc. Moreover, lots of additional information about Grasscalm products is available for customers and interested parties.
"If they are in need of a Grasscalm product, planners can now look directly on the Internet and do their own configuration. Afterwards, they can easily download the BIM CAD model as well as further information and thus obtain the exact product they desire. This reduces the risk of potential errors and saves the landscape architect as well as Grasscalm a lot of time," says Andreas GĂ¼ntner of Grasscalm. "Thanks to the download portal, our aim is to be involved with our products directly in the planning process."
Trend towards 3D in landscaping
Manfred Schachenmayr is sure that the creation of detailed plans will be much easier when landscape architects and planners have access to a pool of products and building materials with 3D CAD models, such as from Grasscalm. "At this time, we are in a transitional period in the field of landscape architecture, from 2D to 3D planning," says Manfred Schachenmayr.
The Grasscalm company took up the trend of 3D BIM product data in landscaping early on, with its 3D BIM CAD download portal, excellently positioned for the future.
The 3D CAD download portal BIMcatalogs.net of Grasscalm can be found at:
www.grasscalm.partcommunity.com
More about the BIMcatalogs.net portal by CADENAS can be found here:
www.bimcatalogs.partcommunity.com
Further information about Grasscalm can be found at:
www.grasscalm.com
More information can be found in the Grasscalm Case Study.