Shock Pads

What the heck is a shock pad? Sounds dangerous! But in fact it’s the opposite.

A shock pad is an underlayment for artificial grass that improves impact attenuation, which is the measure of a material’s shock absorbing properties.

If you’re building a commercial playground, you’ll need to choose a shock pad that is consistent with the required critical fall height (CFH). CFH is a combination of critical height and fall height. According to ASTM International, critical height is “…the maximum fall height from which a life threatening head injury would not be expected to occur.” Fall height is “…the vertical distance between a designated play surface and the playground surface beneath it.”

Purchase Green’s 45mm shock pad has a CFH of 5’5″ by itself. Our 16mm shock pad has a CFH of 3′ by itself. Purchase Green’s shock pads are made using closed-cell, cross-linked, polyethylene. The closed cell structure means it does not absorb moisture. The cross-linking produces a three-dimensional bond between the molecules providing excellent performance. Purchase Green playground systems (shock pad + artificial grass + infill) can provide critical impact ratings up to a 8′ fall height, depending on how the system is constructed.