I believe that if you have watched ice sports competitions, you must have seen one or more ice resurfacers shuttling back and forth on the ice during the breaks to perform ice repair work. But do you know how they actually repair the ice?

At the sports service section of the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services, which opened on the 1st, the reporter saw the ENGO ice resurfacers at the Technoalpin booth. During this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, the ENGO ice resurfacers provided relevant service support for the National Speed Skating Stadium and the Capital Indoor Stadium.

Xu Ligang is an engineer at the Technoalpin Group. Last year, he participated in the support work related to the "Meet in Beijing" ice sports test event at the National Speed Skating Stadium and Capital Indoor Stadium. He explained that an ENGO ice resurfacers is about 4 meters long, with a width and height both exceeding 2 meters, and weighing over 5 tons. During the competition, its task is to repair and maintain the ice surface. "When the ice surface is scratched by skates and ice sludge appears, it is time for the ice resurfacers to come into play and repair the ice surface."

It is understood that the front part of the ice resurfacers mainly includes an ice slag recovery box, a water storage tank, and a power battery. The ice slag recovery box has a volume of about 3 cubic meters, and the water storage tank can hold 1 ton of water. The power battery used in the ice resurfacers is a lead-acid battery, which takes 5 to 6 hours to charge fully and can perform about 15 ice repair tasks. The device responsible for ice surface repair is located at the very rear of the ice resurfacers and is called a "crawler". It integrates ice blades, horizontal and vertical spiral electric drive augers, water valves, and cloth curtains.

Xu Ligang explained that the ice-making process of the ice resurfacers is seamless. The staff drives the ice resurfacers into the arena, sets the height of the skid according to the regulations, and starts to repair the ice around the arena. First, they use an ice scraper to remove the broken ice on the ice surface. Then, the horizontal auger absorbs the broken ice on the ice surface it passes through using pressure, and transfers it to the vertical auger, which ultimately delivers it to the recycling box at the front of the vehicle. Next, the water valve starts to spray water, and the cloth curtain at the end spreads the water evenly. In this way, the ice-making process is completed. For a standard ice rink covering an area of 1,800 square meters, the repair process takes about 15 minutes. "If the scratches on the ice surface are relatively deep, the staff needs to fill them up initially, and then the ice resurfacers vehicle will carry out the overall repair."

It's worth mentioning that the water tank of the ice resurfacers is filled with hot water at around 50 degrees Celsius. "After the hot water reaches the ice surface, it first combines with the ice, and then gradually freezes, resulting in a better combination with the ice surface, with a smoother and brighter ice surface. Using cold water tends to freeze quickly, leading to uneven ice surfaces."

What is the price of an ENGOice resurfacers? Xu Ligang said that the total cost, from purchase to final implementation, would exceed one million yuan.

"Being able to participate in the service and support work for the Beijing Winter Olympics is a recognition of our equipment, which has greatly promoted our product capability and experience accumulation. In the post-Winter Olympics era, with the increasing popularity of ice and snow sports nationwide and the continuous development of the ice and snow industry, this will provide great impetus for the development of our enterprise equipment," said Shen Yumei, Director of the ENGO Business Department of Technoalpin Group.

The above article is sourced from Beijing Daily.