Profiled Expert – Wesley Baum
Meet Wesley Baum, Laykold’s Technical & Field Support Manager and US Open court quality controller.
Wesley Baum initially went to university to study Medicine, but instead settled on Chemistry. He’s been with Advanced Polymer Technology (APT) since 2006. Overseeing installations such as the US Open and the Miami Open has given Wes unrivalled expertise when it comes to sports surface construction and chemistry.
What does the Technical Support side of your work entail?
I write the Technical Data Sheets, the Spec sheets and the Installation Guides. Working with the Senior Chemist, the D&D Chemist, Lab Manager, and our Global R&D Manager, we collaborate on new Laykold projects, decide which projects to pursue and then push them through to a final product.
And what does your role in Field Support include?
I train the Laykold Masters dealers about all aspects of the range and do the site surveys in order to review any problems or issues, in addition to training court installers.
How do you support Laykold when it comes to major events?
Firstly, I figure out which materials are needed for each event. Then I construct sample boards of the court structures, so that pace ratings are correctly calibrated and consistency is delivered:
‘Consistency is key for these events. We need and deliver consistency across a single court and consistency across a battery of courts… we can dictate exactly what goes into the product to give that desired control and consistency.’
For the US Open, and other major events like the Miami Open I work closely with their technical team and go onsite during installation to oversee installation and provide quality control.
What else is key?
Consistency is key for these events. We need and deliver consistency across a single court and consistency across a battery of courts. Because Laykold has sand-filled products, we can dictate exactly what goes into the product to give that desired control and consistency. With APT being an ISO 9001 company, all batches are 100% quality tested which is unique to the industry.
We enjoy working with events on developing their own colors; for the US Open, we had to match their existing colors perfectly, and for the Miami Open and Dallas Open, we designed new colour combinations which help make these events stand out.
“We’re not a paint company that paints a tennis court surface; we’re a chemical company that creates elite, high performance sport surfaces”
Why is Laykold the industry leader?
We’re not a paint company that paints a tennis court surface; we’re a chemical company that creates elite, high performance sport surfaces, for example our Rekortan tracks are used in major stadiums globally.
Quality control is achieved because we formulate our products from the ground up and therefore our quality control is better, because it’s built-in. We develop our products in order to make the installation easier for our service providers and we’re constantly researching and developing new products for continuous improvement.
What does the future hold for Laykold?
With constant R&D, we are looking to keep advancing our products. Currently we’re focusing on solutions to asphalt cracking which causes the thin film acrylic system to crack. We’re also working to develop a winter installation process, and of course Green Technology is increasingly important.