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via Circling the Wagons
Winter is here. ("Oh
really," you say?) For many, that results in consistent bundling, complaining,
traffic snarls and shoveling. For the cruel and twisted it means skiing,
snowboarding, ice fishing and snowmen. Personally, I don't do any of the above
(except complaining) but I do enjoy another winter pastime: ice hockey.
As a fan, it's a game of passion and speed. As a player,
it's a morning on a frozen lake playing pond hockey or a few laps around the
local indoor rink. It's here that I've found misconceptions about making ice
for hockey and figure skating. The assumption: spray some water and turn the
temperature down; that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Not pictured: bruises, missing teeth, hockey pugilism. Via WN School
To begin, most ice rinks only lay about ¾" to 1" of ice.
Below the ice is a level surface of concrete embedded with miles of piping.
Through these pipes, refrigeration units below the rink pump gallons of chilled
antifreeze, often glycol or brinewater, to cool the concrete floor to just
under 32 degrees (F). To keep the rink structure from cracking due to the cold,
a layer of insulation is required under the chilled concrete.
A crew hoses down the concrete in sheets of water as thin as
1/32" so the ice making crew can monitor the level surface of the ice. After a
day of this process, the ice should be build up to about ½". You've probably
noticed that the ice in ice rinks is an unnatural white. That's because the ice
crew is also responsible to paint the ice--all of it. After a layer of white
paint the crew applies the hockey lines and logos (or if you're Canadian,
curling lines).
 via CVCC
 via NHL
Another day of ice making should lead to an ice slab of
about 1". It's important that the ice doesn't exceed much more than an inch.
Thick ice means slower skating because the pressure of the ice is greater and
more difficult to cool. Hockey ice is kept around 25 degrees while figure
skating ice is raised by several degrees to make the ice softer and easier to
grip. In some places, levels of humidity can create a fog over the ice and
dehumidifiers need to be employed.
Of course, maintenance of the ice is crucial. All rinks
require the use of an ice resurfacer-colloquially a Zamboni--which is either
the most boring or most excellent thing you've ever seen, depending on your age
and ease of excitability.
Entitled: zamboni: a boring video
Particularly in arenas, ice is covered by plywood if an
event is hosted where the ice isn't used. The transition from a basketball
court or other venue back to the ice only takes around 7 hours.
Finally, if you haven't been bored intrigued enough
by this process, enjoy this video that should fill in any questions you're
dying to ask.
Making rink ice
References:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/ice-rink.htm
http://www.nhl.com/nhlhq/index.html?clk=001
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Re: To Clarify: Making Rink Ice
