Designed for the Athlete
The ASB GlassFloor is a high-performance sports floor manufactured from speciality safety glass and a double spring aluminium substructure.
Quick Facts
The ASB GlassFloor revolutionises sports flooring with its advanced safety glass structure, unmatched elasticity, and superior grip, offering athletes enhanced performance, safety, and durability across all conditions.
Design
High-performance sports floor manufactured from speciality safety glass and a double spring aluminium substructure.
Remarkable Elasticity
The glass used in ASB GlassFloor is 1.8x more elastic than engineered wood boards and about 2.5x as elastic as hardwood boards commonly used in sports floor manufacturing.
Superior Shock Absorption
The ASB GlassFloor provides the highest amount of elasticity/shock absorption possible, reducing strain on athletes' joints and bones while maintaining 100% ball reflection.
Enhanced Grip
ASB GlassFloor delivers superior grip through a specialized top glass layer of ceramic dots to provide controlled friction and no skin burn from sliding.
Wet Conditions Performance
Even under wet conditions, ASB GlassFloor maintains superior grip, with sliding characteristics approximately 80% better than conventional systems.
Consistency and Durability
Engineered using materials with minimal variation in elasticity and density, ensuring a uniform performance across the entire surface.
Certified for Professional Sports
The ASB GlassFloor products are certified for the highest level of competitions by the International Basketball Federation, International Handball Federation, International Volleyball Federation, and exceed all performance criteria such as absorption, ball rebound, slip resistance, friction test.
Design Approach
When designing the ASB GlassFloor, we set out to create the best sports floor for the athlete. We realised that the glass we were making first tests with was 1.8x more elastic than an engineered wood board, used widely for European sports floors, and about 2.5x as elastic as a hardwood board commonly used across the U.S. and Canada in sports floor manufacturing.
We also realised that by applying a specifically developed ceramic screen print to the glass surface we can regulate the level of grip to the athletes shoes by changing the layout of the ceramic material we burn into the glass surface.
Originally we set out to develop the first advanced outdoor sports floor for the sport of squash but soon realised that the material properties of the created product are of a nature that provides superior performance over all alternatives in the market.
Elasticity
The ASB GlassFloor was designed to provide the highest mount of elasticity / shock absorption possible to reduce the strain on the athletes joints and bones whilst still reaching 100% ball reflection to accommodate sports like Basketball or European Handball without compromise.
The ASB LumiFlex floor has a force reduction of 50% at 2mm deformation.
The elasticity across the whole flooring system is delivered by two aluminium sheet suspension systems integrated into the substructure of the floor and the elasticity of the glass panel itself.
Grip
The grip is delivered to the shoe of the athlete in a fundamentally different way than on conventional sports floors. The top glass layer is specially treated by a computer-controlled chemical deep etching process. This results in the matte appearance of the top surface. The top surface itself has very low friction due to a very low contact area, resulting from the chemical etching process. When untreated, it does not show fingerprints and cannot cause skin burns from sliding for the same reason (very little contact surface). In order to provide the ideal grip to the athlete’s shoes, we burn elevated ceramic dots into the top surface of the glass at a certain size and frequency. The ASB GlassFloor has a slip resistance of 97 on an 80-110 scale of the EN 14904:2006, the norm generally referred to by FIBA, NBA, and other sports governing bodies.
Sliding Properties & Lower Movement Inertia
The elevated ceramic dots deliver grip in a fundamentally different way to a lacquered floor surface. While traditionally the rubber sole of a shoe would stick to the surface of a sports floor, on the ASB GlassFloor, the rubber sole interacts with the grain from the raised ceramic dots. This results in more controlled sliding behavior (no sudden stop - once the force is too low to enable sliding on conventional surfaces, the shoe comes to an abrupt stop when it 'sticks' to the surface) and easier initial movement of the shoe on the surface as the force required to initiate sliding is lower. With lateral angle strains being the most frequent cause of heavy injury in the NBA, we believe this brings a great advantage to athletes.
The effect of skin burn when an athlete falls and slides across the surface is drastically reduced in comparison to conventional flooring systems.
Wet Conditions
Due to the elevated ceramic dots that deliver the grip, sliding characteristics of the ASB GlassFloor are about 80% less under wet conditions compared to conventional systems. The raised ceramic dots ensure that the shoe remains in contact when the floor is covered with liquid.
Additionally, the matte finish of the floor becomes transparent under wet conditions. This enables athletes and officials to identify wet spots immediately as they are more visible than on conventional systems.
In the case of the ASB LumiFlex video floor, the floor is also warm to the touch due to the heat created by the underlying technology. This causes water on the floor to evaporate quickly.
The matte finish of the floor becomes transparent under wet conditions. This enables athletes and officials to identify wet spots immediately.
Consistency / Dead Spots
The ASB GlassFloor is designed using materials that have very minimal variation in elasticity and density (glass and aluminium), especially in comparison to a product like wood, which has a larger variation due to its natural origin.
The sports flooring industry has not seen any real innovation for the last 200 years, until now.
At ASB GlassFloor, we redefine possibilities by merging innovation with tradition to craft cutting-edge sports flooring solutions. Our journey as pioneers in sports surfaces began with revolutionising squash and has evolved to craft the world's most advanced flooring system.
Founded on a passion for sports and technological advancement, ASB GlassFloor has been at the forefront of reimagining the sports experience. Our patented glass flooring technology combines the durability of traditional sports floors with the elegance and adaptability of glass, creating a surface that surpasses conventional expectations.
Driven by a no-compromise commitment to innovation, quality, and excellence, our core philosophy is to combine meticulous quality assurance and design standards of German Engineering with the spirit of visionary pioneers and innovators. Our ceaseless dedication to advancing our product stands as a testament to our unwavering dedication to pushing the limits of what's possible in sports surfaces.