Case Study: Component Testing for Baseball Netting Ensures Safety at Games

The Challenge

While fans are at the ballpark enjoying a game, there’s nothing more important than keeping them, and the players, safe.

So, when Innovative Test Solutions had the chance to test safety netting exclusively offered from Sportsfield Specialties, Inc., the ITS team jumped at the chance.

It’s a priority and common goal of many of the tests done at ITS to ensure safety. This is certainly no different, and the impact of these tests will be served well beyond the 162-game season of the MLB year that includes practices and other events like non-sanctioned games, among other events.

The Solution

ITS created an impact test to verify the strength properties of Ultra Cross® baseball netting exclusively provided by Sportsfield Specialties. The product is manufactured with UHMWPE Dyneema®, considered “The World’s Strongest Fiber.”

Thanks to its knotless, low-profile design, Ultra Cross® baseball netting gives spectators industry-leading 95% see-through visibility and is designed to deliver superior strength and performance over conventional netting.

ITS tested the product previously, but Sportsfield wanted to prove that the netting would hold up to extreme conditions that the netting would never face in ordinary use. ITS, a third-party test laboratory with an international reputation for excellence in materials and component testing, designed a trial that put Ultra Cross® to the test.

The Results

The baseball netting tested was a 10-foot square section as it would be used on the field and would need to withstand balls speeds of 100 mph.

Using a pitching machine, ITS fired baseballs at the netting at speeds of more than 105 mph, from just 10 feet away. Remarkably, the lightweight, see-through netting was able to withstand more than 4,700 impacts to the same location on the netting without failure.

This netting is changing the way fans enjoy the game of baseball and is installed in approximately 24 Major League Baseball parks and hundreds of other fields across the country.

Luckily, Innovative Test Solutions has proven this safety netting can withstand repeated extreme impacts throughout the season, meaning fans and players will be safe at the ball field.