Hoopeston Area High School is a high school in Illinois that has always been committed to providing the best school experience for their students. On one side, through valuable lessons, but on the other through sports.
With a complex athletics program ranging from football and soccer to baseball, it became difficult to manually paint all the lines. In search of a more efficient line marking solution, they came across the Turf Tank robot. And ever since they got theirs in the spring of 2022, their line marking process transformed significantly.
77% reduced paint consumption
Tim and Brad Walsh, father and son, are the ones who maintain the athletics fields for Hoopeston High School. One of the biggest advantages they observed ever since they got their Turf Tank is the paint savings.
They explain how in the past they used a walk-behind sprayer, which for a football field would consume approximately 65 gallons of paint. Now with the robot, that same football field can be completed with just 15 gallons of mixed paint, which actually equals about two and a half gallons of unmixed paint.
Painting a football field
| 4 people |
|---|
| 3 days |
| 65 gallons |
| 1 person |
|---|
| 3 hours |
| 15 gallons |
This is a huge difference and it’s thanks to the Turf Tank autonomous line marking robot’s consistent spraying pressure and speed.
It’s a great piece to have. It saves so much money. And so much time.
Tim Walsh, Director of Buildings and Grounds
This calculation was a great argument for Tim when trying to convince the board. At first, they were a bit hesitant due to the costs. But when they realized how much they could actually save with the robot, they quickly realized that the Turf Tank is a great investment.
5x faster at painting football fields
The biggest impact that the Turf Tank has on their efficiency is the time it saves. It used to take a team of four people about three days to manually paint a football field to ensure it was marked properly. Now, with the robot, they can do it in just four hours.
It’s been able to save us a lot of time on the fields and be able to do some things that we weren’t able to do before.
Tim Walsh, Director of Buildings and Grounds
“Before I would have had to stay and paint the fields, whether it be a football field or a soccer fields or or whatever it is we were lining. I couldn’t get away. Now I’m able to go to the other schools and handle issues that might come up during the day that I need to be around for and taking care of.”
The great part is that the robot has an autonomous design, which means it can paint the entire field all by itself, without human intervention. So not only is the Walsh father and son duo able to get the school’s football field ready five times faster than before, but also while the robot paints the fields, they have more time to focus on other tasks around the facility.
We’re able to send this out and know it’s doing his job while we’re able to do other jobs.
Tim Walsh, Director of Buildings and Grounds
In the past, even the cleanup process was lengthy with a walk-behind sprayer. It used to take one hour to scrub the machine, while now with the Turf Tank robot it takes just five minutes.
“This unit, you simply put the water in, spray and it cleans the whole system out. There isn’t very much paint that gets on the unit. Five minutes pretty much and you’re done.”
Endzones and logos on the fields at Hoopeston High School
Curious to test the limits of technology, Brad decided to see what other things the robot is capable of doing. So he started experimenting with endzone letters and logos.
“We have a practice football field that we put the letter in the endzone for. The Hoopeston Cornjerkers.” – Brad Walsh, Assistant to the buildings and grounds
Tim Walsh explains how to normally paint these elements you would have use stencils. But because of their high costs, they were never able to buy them and so the high school never had any decorations on the fields. That had changed too, due to the Turf Tank’s custom lettering and logo creation feature.
“In the past, we have not been able to put anything in the endzone without using stencils. And the cost of stencils was cost prohibitive. We were never able to do that. With this unit, we’re able to do that, along with text of any type. We’re going to put on our middle of our field our football logo, which is something that has ever been done. So it’ll be kind of a neat thing to do for the kids.”
Conclusion
The Turf Tank robot has saved Hoopeston High School a lot of time and money. With its efficient design, they are able to paint football fields five times faster than before and with less manpower. In addition, the robot creates new possibilities for the high school, as it is able to create custom logos and letters for the endzones, something that was not possible before.
For those who are still not convince, Tim ends his story with an advice:
“I would recommend anyone that’s looking into this, to get this unit. It’s a great piece to have. It saves so much time. So much money.”
“You could use this thing to shorten your day of painting. Coaches, you could shorten your field time that you could be putting it in for practice or planning. Money savings, is there.”