Tips And Traps For Creating Perfect Ice

About the Tips and Traps for creating perfect ice manual

Perfect IceTM is a passion, which should be the goal of every ice technician. It can be a goal, which is very difficult to achieve on an ongoing bases in some facilities. Each facility has its own operating environment, which can change year to year and even hour to hour. Each particular user group will bring a whole new set of problems.

Depending on your particular circumstances the quality of your ice, to a certain extent, can be out of your control. In your particular facility you could possibly be dealing with an poorly designed or worn out refrigeration plant, inadequate or no dehumidification, or a building with insufficient insulation and no low-emissive ceiling. One or all of these scenarios could have adverse effects on the quality of your ice.

It can take years of hard work and observation to fully understand and master your facility. One thing that you should remember is, there is a very fine line between good ice and great ice. Techniques that might work well for you in one facility will have little or no effect in others.

EXCERPT

Engineering the Floor

Perfect IceTM starts several feet below the surface of your facility. Precision engineering and exceptional preparations are the foundation of your perfect ice surface.

A site must be selected that will not be affected by water tables, frost heaves, or settling soil. A complete geophysical report must be conducted to determine if your site will be suitable for an ice rink installation.

When your selected site is given the thumbs up by the geophysical engineers, the precision engineering begins. Drainable subsoil must be installed, compacted, and precisely laser leveled. A layer of the appropriate grade of sand will be placed and a subfloor-heating system installed to eliminate the possibility of future frost heaves. The sand is further compacted and leveled to ensure a perfect base. Even though a sub-floor heating system is only required if the arena is to be operated more than 7 months of the year we recommend that every facility install one. It is a relatively low first cost that will give you the flexibility of increasing your future programming.

The sand base is once again compacted and checked for level. A double layer of high density, water repellant insulation and vapour barrier are installed. This will form the supporting base for the finished floor.

Pipe supports (chairs) are installed in a method that will eliminate any sagging or voids in the cooling pipe grid. The cooling pipes are positioned in a manner to provide optimum heat transfer and minimum pressure drop in the secondary coolant. A typical ice rink will have approximately 14 miles of pipe between the heating floor and cooling floor.

A specialty cement formula is crucial to enhance heat transfer, minimize shrinkage over a wide plane, and to provide structural integrity through a wide range of temperature conditions that can be imposed on a multi-purpose facility.

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