Zurich Citizens News, 1976-11-24, Page 14Page 14 -Citizens News, November 24, 1976
M
king ice a long process
There's a lot more to making
ice than just freezing water,
especially if you happen to be
making enough ice to fill an
arena skating rink,
The first thing which must be
done, at least in preparing the
Zurich arena for flooding, is
the lowering of the cement floor
temperature to approximately
24 degrees Fahrenheit.
There are two main circuits
of pipes involved in lowering
the floor temperature. The
ammonia circuit is a series of
pipes which carries ammonia
gas from a compressor to the
condensor (located on the roof
at the rear of the arena) to the
chiller tank and then back to the
compressor. The chiller tank
also contains piping which car-
ries a brine solution from the
chiller tank, throught five miles
of plastic piping located under
the cement floor of the arena
and back again.
This brine solution is chilled
to about 18 degrees F. and
when circulated under the
cement it picks up any heat in
the floor. By removing the
heat in the floor, the brine
solution is actually lowering the
temperature of the floor.
This heat is given off to the
ammonia circuit which in turn
carries it to the condenser.
Water is pumped to the conden-
ser and it has a fan. This is
what causes the clouds of steam
so often seen coming off the
rear end roof of the arena.
It takes three or four days
before the floor temperature is
ready for flooding, depending
on the weather.
To begin the flooding, Jerry
Rader, arena manager, says
they take an ordinary hose and
start spraying until they have
about one -eight of an inch of
ice on the floor. The next
step is to whitewash the entire
surface of the ice to make it
nice and white. In Zurich, they
call in Bill Watson who has a
whitewash the entire surface
of the ice to make it nice and
white. In Zurich, they call in
Bill Watson who has a white-
wash machine to make the job
a little easier.
When the whitewash is froz-
en, the surface is hosed again
and again until the ice is about
one-quarter of an inch thick.
The ice is now thick enough
to start using the hot water in
the flooding machine to get the
ice surface level for painting.
All the lines and circles
necessary for a hockey rink are
painted by hand. The lines are
marked out with cord, then the
ice is painted the proper
color between the cords. For
the faceoff circles, Jerry must
measure out
ensure they
spots. The
from the boards to
are in the correct
faceoff dots are
CHILLING TANK—The tank behind arena manager Jerry Rader
is the chilling tank which contains the ammonia gas and brine
solution tubes used to lower the temperature of the cement
arena floor making the artificial ice possible. Photo by McKinley
FLOODING THE ICE—It takes a lot of work to make ice in an arena and a lot of maintenance to
keep it in good shape. This flooding machine is a very important item in the job of maintaining the
ice as arena manager Jerry Rader gives the ice one more flooding. Photo by McKinley
Busiest year for arena
This will be the businest
winter the Zurich Arena has
ever had according to arena
manager Jerry Rader.
Four major teams will play
in Zurich every week. On Fri-
day nights at 8:30 p.m. the
Shipka Colonials take to the
ice. Saturday at 8 p.m. the
Thedford Intermediates will
have their home games.
There are two major teams
playing every Sunday. At 2 p.m.
The Zurich Flyers hold their
games and at 8 p.m. the Exeter
Hawks take over.
The Kettle Point Minor
Hockey practices in the Zurich
arena Sundays from 8 a.m. to
1 p.m. On Mondays the Grand
Bend Minor Hockey takes to the
ice followed by broomball at
10 p.m.
Tuesdays we have figure
skating from 4:15 p.m. followed
by the Varna rec league.
Wednesday the Zurich Minor
Hockey takes its turn from
4:45 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. follow-
ed by practice for the Zurich
Flyers.
Thursday nights the Zurich
rec league gets in a little
ice time as well.
These are just some of the
highlights of the coming sea-
son. It should be noted the
times for public skating have
been changed to Saturdays from
4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. There
is also a special mothers and
tots skating time, Wednesday
afternoons from 2 p.m. to
4 p.m.
There's a lot of hockey and
a lot of entertainment says Mr.
Rader, and from the line up, it
looks as if he's right.
TU.C.O. PRODUCTS
HENSALL DISTRICT CO-OP
invite you to attend an
INFORMATION MEETING
on
L.S.-20 FOR SWINE
(TO MEDICATE FEED)
to be held at the
PINERIDGE CHALET, NOVEMBER 29, 1976
8:00 P.M.
. Lunch and Refreshments
24 inches in diameter and the
circles are 26 feet in diameter.
"It takes four people about
five hours to complete the
painting," explains Jerry.
The paint used is a water
base so as soon as it is painted
on it freezes.
After painting, Jerry covers
the ice surface with a very
fine mist from the hose a couple
of times until enough ice is
over the painting to use the
flooding machine without mark-
ing the lines.
The ice is flooded again and
again until the ice is about an
inch thick, that depth giving a
good hard ice surface. If the ice
gets much thicker than that, it
starts to get soft.
Since the ice is freezing from
the bottom up, the thicker the
ice the more difficult it is to
keep it hard.
To avoid a buildup of ice, the
flooding machine has a blade
controlled by a hand lever which
planes off a layer of ice as it
floods. Up to one -eight of an
inch can be planed off at any
given time.
"You go by the color of the
painted lines," says Jerry.
"When they are too light in
color, we plane the ice down
until they brighten up again."
The blades are changed
after about very 100 floods, or
once a week. They are picked
up every Tuesday and takento
be sharpened. The arena has
three blades for the flooding
machine, so they work them in
sequence.
The Zurich arena also has a
machine called "the lawn-
mower" which has circular
blades to shave the ice down
along the boards where the
large machine can't get.
If you have ever attended a
hockey game at the Zurich
arena, you have probably notic-
ed a group of boys who always
seem to be helping out --
sweeping the ice, cleaning the
ice, running errands etc. Those
are the "rink rats", and accord-
ing to Jerry you just couldn't
run an arena without them.
They get free passes to every-
thing in the arena, in return
for helping out. The Zurich
arena usually has about four
of these "rink rats" at any
one time.
So, the next time you step
out onto the ice in the arena
and skate off without really
thinking about it, why not
take a few minutes to appreciate
the work that goes into making
that ice.
Feeling listless? Out of
sorts?
Fight it! Take a_walk.
aaaarmarran
11
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