AstroTurf, the original inventor of synthetic turf, has called Dalton, Georgia, home for decades, and it’s still where modern AstroTurf systems are engineered and manufactured today. Inside AstroTurf’s integrated Dalton facility, several components are transformed into complete sports surfaces for fields across the country and around the world.
Here’s a closer look at how AstroTurf is made in Dalton.
Why AstroTurf Manufacturing Lives in Dalton, Georgia
Known as the ‘Carpet Capital of the World,’ Dalton has long been a center of yarn extrusion, tufting, and backing expertise, a foundation that supports synthetic turf manufacturing. AstroTurf first established operations here in the late 1960s, drawing on local know-how to scale the first generation of artificial playing surfaces and evolve them into today’s advanced systems. Over time, the company has consolidated its production in Dalton, investing in a modern manufacturing center that supports both day‑to‑day output and ongoing product development.
An Integrated Manufacturing Campus
AstroTurf’s manufacturing center on Callahan Road spans roughly 375,000 square feet, about the size of seven football fields. Under one roof, masterbatch compounding, yarn extrusion, twisting, tufting, coating, warehousing, and lab testing all happen in a single, continuous flow, with engineering and R&D teams on-site as well. This integrated approach reduces transportation, cuts waste, and gives AstroTurf direct control over every stage of production, supporting consistent quality and faster feedback between the factory floor and the design lab.
What Modern AstroTurf Systems Are Made From
High-Performance Turf Fibers
Modern AstroTurf playing surfaces start with engineered plastic resins, primarily polyethylene-based polymers designed for outdoor durability and player comfort. These resins are blended with color concentrates and UV stabilizers so the turf maintains its look and performance through years of sun, weather, and heavy use. Earlier generations relied on stiff nylon fibers that played fast but felt abrasive compared to natural grass.
Today’s fibers use refined shapes, softer polymer blends, and texturing to better mimic the look and feel of real grass while still delivering the resilience athletes expect.
Multi-Layer Backing and Coatings
Beneath the fibers, each AstroTurf product includes a multi-layer backing system that holds everything together. A primary backing fabric provides the base that yarns are tufted into, while a secondary backing and coating layer lock those tufts in place. This structure gives the turf dimensional stability, keeps seams tight, and supports the infill added during installation. The turf is also perforated during manufacturing to allow water to drain through, so fields stay playable during and after bad weather.
Infill, Shock Pads, and the Base System
AstroTurf systems are more than turf carpet. Most sports surfaces also include an infill layer, commonly engineered sands or specialty performance infills, that stabilizes the fibers, supports cleat traction, and contributes to impact absorption. Many fields add an elastic shock pad below the turf to fine-tune G-max values and surface response across the entire playing area. All of this sits on a carefully prepared stone or asphalt base. When the turf, pad, infill, and base are designed together, the result is a complete AstroTurf system tuned for specific sports, levels of play, and climate conditions.
How AstroTurf Is Manufactured Step-by-Step
Step 1 – Blending Polymers and Additives
Every roll of AstroTurf begins with plastic resin pellets fed into large mixers, where they’re combined with color concentrates and UV-blocking additives. The blended material is checked for consistency and quality to ensure the fibers will extrude with the right strength, color, and weather resistance. AstroTurf’s polymer chemistry and in-house masterbatch formulation make the real difference, containing the UV stabilizers, color, heat resistance, and other critical factors that influence the performance of the fibers.
Step 2 – Extruding and Texturing Turf Yarn
The blended resin moves into an extruder, where it’s heated and pushed through precision dies to form the thin strands that become synthetic grass blades. These strands are annealed, meaning they are cooled and stretched under controlled conditions. Several different types of yarn (i.e., texturized monofilament, straight monofilament, or slit-film), each with its own performance characteristics, are manufactured to achieve the right balance of resilience, softness, and ball interaction, then wound onto large spools ready for tufting.
Step 3 – Tufting Fibers Into the Primary Backing
Spools of yarn feed into high-speed tufting machines, which work like giant sewing machines, stitching fibers through the primary backing fabric. Machine settings, gauge, stitch rate, and pile height are adjusted to match each AstroTurf system, shaping the density and playing characteristics needed for football, soccer, baseball, and other sports.
Step 4 – Coating, Curing, and Perforating
After tufting, the turf moves to the coating line, where a coating, typically polyurethane or latex, is applied to encapsulate the yarn tufts and reinforce the backing. The turf passes through ovens to cure, cools, and then runs under perforating equipment that perforates the turf with drainage holes through the backing at controlled spacing.
Step 5 – Cutting, Rolling, and Project Labeling
Once cured and perforated, the turf is inspected and measured before being cut into rolls sized for each project’s seam and layout plan. Each roll is labeled with field-specific information, location in the design, direction, and system type, so installers can assemble the surface correctly and efficiently on site.
Engineering for Performance, Player Safety, and Sustainability
AstroTurf designs complete systems rather than selling turf carpet in isolation. Each combination of fiber, infill, pad, and base is engineered around sport-specific targets, G-max, rotational traction, vertical deformation, and ball roll, with dedicated research and testing behind technologies like RootZone and AstroTurf’s player-safety platforms. A football surface in a stadium and a multi-sport campus field may share a similar manufacturing process, but their system designs are tailored to how athletes actually move and play on each surface. HIC (Head Injury Criteria – ASTM F1292) is used to analyze system performance. This player safety testing method is now used in conjunction with Gmax to measure impact attenuation and player safety.
Consolidating manufacturing in Dalton also supports AstroTurf’s sustainability goals, reducing transportation between plants and minimizing material waste. New product lines incorporate materials and design strategies aimed at lowering environmental impact over a field’s full life cycle, and AstroTurf participates in ongoing industry efforts around recycling and repurposing synthetic turf systems at the end of life.
Quick Answers About How AstroTurf Is Made
How is AstroTurf made today? Modern AstroTurf systems begin with engineered plastic resins that are blended, extruded into fibers, tufted into a backing, coated and cured, perforated for drainage, and tested before being cut and shipped for installation.
Where is AstroTurf manufactured? AstroTurf manufactures its turf in Dalton, Georgia, at an approximately 375,000-square-foot facility that brings extrusion, tufting, coating, warehousing, and lab testing together under one roof.
What is AstroTurf made from? Today’s AstroTurf systems use polyethylene-based fibers, multi-layer backing and coating systems, performance infills, optional shock pads, and engineered stone or asphalt bases, all designed to work together as a complete sports surface.
