Laykold Chill Technology: The Science Explained
Lead R&D chemist, Jim Tritt, reveals the science behind Laykold’s patented temperature reduction court technology.
Drawing on 25 years of R&D experience within the sports surface industry, our lead chemist, Jim Tritt, has driven the development of our patented court cooling technology. From why the existing IR reflective technology falls short, to how the use of phase change materials in our courts will be revolutionary for player welfare, he unpacks the amazing science behind our latest court innovation and provides an update on our latest testing in Australia.
What impacts court temperature?
Court surface temperature very much depends on the color of the court and angle of the sun.
In winter the sun’s angle is low in the sky, but in summer it is high. When the sun’s angle is low, the sun’s rays go through more of the atmosphere before they hit earth, which filters away a lot of the energy of the sunlight.
That is why you can look at a sunset or sunrise but if you look straight at the sun high in the sky it hurts your eyes. So, on a warm day in winter the court will not get as hot as it might do on a cooler day in summer.
The court colors of course make a big difference. In general, darker colors get hotter, especially colors that contain black pigment. Colors with the highest amount of white pigment are the coolest.
The darker blues and greens (which are popular in the major hardcourt tournaments) are inherently hotter than lighter colors.
Where did the R&D for Laykold Chill begin?
We started with a system we know well; evaporative cooling. This is used in our synthetic turf products, where the system can release water for cooling.
Evaporative cooling uses a phase change – essentially, a change from liquid to gas which requires energy. The energy needed to evaporate water is extracted from the substrate in the form of heat. As a result of this process, the surface is cooled down.
Sweating is an example of evaporative cooling; sweat sits on the skin and when the water component evaporates, the skin (the substrate) cools off.
“What is even more brilliant about this technology is that we can ‘tune’ the temperature reduction to suit the conditions.”
How does Laykold Chill work?
We knew that phase change was a way to hack into cooling. But because we can’t include water in tennis courts we started investigating other phase change materials, and we found some PCM technology in the form of capsules which are filled with wax.
Once the temperature hits the activation point the wax starts melting but remains in the capsule. This creates the phase change which causes the temperature to plateau.
The capsules don’t break, and when the temperature drops, they freeze again and essentially re-charge. And what is even more brilliant about this technology is that we can use waxes that melt at different temperatures. This gives us the ability to ‘tune’ the temperature reduction to suit the conditions.
How did you optimize the temperature reduction technology?
Initially we put the phase change materials in the base coat, but found the results were not as strong as we wanted. We then started exploring ways to add the tech into the other layers of the system. In essence we wanted to draw the heat from the surface down into the system to enhance the cooling.
Also, we identified that the technology was more effective when next to the substrate (the concrete or asphalt). But most traditional acrylic coatings act as insulators, which means they don’t transfer heat well.
This is when we came up with the idea of adding conductive elements to pull the heat down from the surface to the substrate. For Laykold Chill we have added graphite as the conductor, graphite works well due to its molecular structure, which allows electrons to move freely through it.
What about the IR reflective technology that is already on the market?
IR reflective technology is well known by Sport Group because we have been using it for more than 15 years in our synthetic turf materials.
The science behind it is that sunlight energy (heat) is comprised of UV (ultraviolet) radiation, visible light, and IR (infrared radiation). The UV and IR components are invisible to us, but we feel them. UV radiation is a higher energy radiation that can break molecular bonds and cause damage such as sunburn or wrinkles. IR radiation is much weaker, and only results in molecular vibration, which creates heat. Examples of IR heat is the warm sun on your face or the heat from a fire.
The idea behind IR reflective technology is that if a substrate reflects the IR it will not heat up as much as one that doesn’t reflect the IR.
What are the limitations of this existing tech?
Our experience is that IR-reflective pigments cause the materials to heat up more slowly. As a result, we see the best results with this technology at lower temperatures or with partial cloud cover. When temperatures are very high, the impact of these pigments is very low.
For Laykold, when we started working with the phase change materials, we were looking at incorporating the IR reflective pigments but saw minimal temperature differences. We could have included IR reflective pigments in the Chill product but didn’t see the value of it.
IR reflective pigments are also restricted to a limited number of colors which is frustrating, especially as court owners increasingly want to do more dynamic colors.
How big a breakthrough is the Laykold Chill innovation?
We have been working on this for over two years and this R&D is continuing. With patents pending, we have taken steps to protect the work that we have done.
The phase change materials are smaller than a grain of sand, and there are trillions of them in a court. To be using nano-technology to help the players is truly amazing science in action.
What is the latest on the product testing?
Our initial field test was in the Gold Coast in Australia on a full-sized court on new concrete. Temperatures of a traditional court and a Laykold Chill court were recorded within minutes of each other.
The weather conditions were full sunshine with an ambient temperature of 29.8°C. This gave the normal court a surface temperature of 52°C, which is an ambient-to-surface increase of +22.2°C. The Laykold Chill surface temperature was 45°C which was +15.2°C above the ambient.
The testing shows that in this instance, the Laykold Chill surface delivered a 32% reduction (7°C) in ambient-to-surface temperature when compared to a normal surface. This is a significant amount.
It is important to note that each scenario will be different, depending not just on the ambient temperature, but also the height of the sun and the overall makeup of the court system.
We are still working on the effect of two or three temperature plateaus.
Our ongoing work is also exploring different phase change materials with each color and with different environments and temperature ranges.
What does the innovation mean for tennis and beyond?
The temperature reduction tech is great for all court sports including netball, but it is especially important for tennis which, unlike netball, is a summer sport and tends to be played in hot climates. Tennis is never played when the courts are wet, so court surfaces can become extremely hot which has a negative impact on player welfare.
When the heat of a hot tennis court reaches a tipping point, the body is no longer able to cool down through normal means. This can result in heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
By lowering the temperature of the court, Laykold Chill tech enables players to keep their body temperature within safe limits for longer. This equals more play and play at a higher level which in turn equals happy players and fans and increased event and club revenue.