Tru Mark Athletic Field Marker general manager, Mark Hall, along with Darrell Ervasti of D.Ervasti Sales, and TK Products representative participated in synthetic turf cleaning and painting demonstratation. The demonstration team visited Minnetonka High School in the suburban Minneapolis, MN area, home to a $2.4 million baseball and multipurpose synthetic turf sports field and grandstand area.

The demonstration included the cleaning of an existing painted baseball coaches box along the 3rd baseline using TrailBlazer Trail Wash cleaner, applying TrailBlazer Moon Daze paint as a test stripe, applying the same paint over the cleaned area as well as over stripping the coaches box along the 1st base line. Besides the physical labor for turf cleaning Tru Mark used the Graco FieldLazer S100 as the line striping unit. The FieldLazer was outfitted with a RAC 5 SwitchTip LL5419. The Moon Daze paint is designed for multi-game application without any dilution and was applied directly from a 5-gallon pail.

Two weeks after the application several images were taken of the painted surfaces. There was not flacking of the Moon Daze paint nor any degradation due to traffice and wear activities. The customer was very pleased with the performance of this new formulated paint for synthetic turf fields.

A series of pictures were taken and are listed with captions in a on-line Picasa Web Album.

Lessons learned from the demonstration include:
1) grooming the synthetic turf fibers before painting to achieve a more vertical standing position for more uniform paint application,
2) a long handled short bristle brush for less wear and tear on the back,
3) access to running water and cleaning rags,
4) using a taut string line to help the operator achieve straight painted lines
5) backpack or hand sprayer for applying the Trail Wash cleaning solution,
6) drip rag for wiping spray tip to avoid any dripping when moving between application areas,
7) after stopping the spray gun/tip application, pull back the paint striper to avoid paint dripping on unpainted turf
8) use a cardboard sheet (old refrigerator box) for test pattern and tip height adjustment