RU2316700C2 - Method of manufacturing ice - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: manufacturing ice.

SUBSTANCE: method comprises freezing the first layer of ice by condensing moisture from the ambient air on the plate of the base with a temperature from -6°C to -11°C provided by circulating a coolant at a temperature from -9°C to -14°C, freezing the second layer and each next layers of ice by supplying cleaned water after the freezing of the previous layer due to circulating coolant in the plate of the base at a temperature from -9°C to -14°C, removing stress by means of slowed down heating of the surface layers of ice up to the temperature of the surface layers ranging from -0.5 to 0.2°C by means of circulation coolant with a temperature from -2°C to -4°C, and planing ice down to a depth of no more than 0.35 mm with adding water at a temperature of 40°-75° C.

EFFECT: enhanced quality of ice.

6 cl, 2 dwg

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to technologies for creating sports grounds with ice cover in closed rooms for training and ice skating, in particular, to creating or forming ice cover for speed skating platforms, and can be used to create or form coverings in closed rooms (ice rinks) for training or competition of skaters, performances of masters of figure skating, ice hockey or ball.

State of the art

Recently, with the advent of closed skating rinks for speed skating, the achievements of athletes began to largely depend not only on the level of training of athletes, but also on technical means: the design of skates, tracksuit, ice characteristics, thermal parameters of the air environment in the ice room arenas, etc. An important role in setting new records, in particular in ice skating, is ice cover, that is, ice on which training or competition takes place. Therefore, improving the properties of ice, that is, its sliding properties, it is possible to reduce the resistance forces arising between the ridge blade and the ice surface, which ultimately leads to an increase in the speed of the skater and the improvement of his own or world records.

Currently, many methods have been developed to form or create artificial ice.

For example, EPO application No. 1059385 (publ. 13.12.2000) proposes a method for restoring sliding coatings in which the surface of the ice is first heated and liquid artificial ridge material is sprayed onto it, and then the surface is polished. It turned out, however, that no artificial materials can provide the same glide as a frozen water surface.

In USSR author's certificate No. 794343 (publ. 07.01.1981), a method is described in which an ice mass is poured in layers, the second and each subsequent layer being frozen halfway and the non-frozen water enriched with air is removed. However, this measure alone was not enough to increase the sliding properties of ice.

In USSR author's certificates No. 1242505 (publ. 07/07/1986), No. 1649218 (publ. 05/15/1991) and No. 1796650 (publ. 02/23/1993) methods are presented in which polyvinyl alcohol, glycerin and a whole series are added to the filling water components, which provides increased strength, heat resistance and reduced water permeability. Nevertheless, the sliding properties of such ice are still not high enough.

In US patent No. 4312142 (publ. 26.01.1982) describes a device for preparing the surface of the ice rinks, which is a combination of a mechanical scraper and a water distribution device that moves along rails along the ice rink. A similar design is presented in PCT application No. WO 2004/092485 (published on October 28, 2004), in which a water tank is adapted to collect cleansed snow for melting. At the same time, both documents describe machine planing of ice with machine gravy of water. The resulting ice, although it has a smooth surface, but does not provide maximum glide, the process of obtaining such ice in terms of labor intensity also significantly exceeds traditional technologies.

US patent No. 5536411 (publ. July 16, 1996) discloses a method of preparing water for an ice rink, in which soften the water and pass it through a charcoal filter. Then the water is demineralized by reverse osmosis, heated and used to restore the surface of the ice. As in the previous analogue, the resulting ice does not have the required physical and mechanical characteristics, and first of all, the sliding characteristics.

In US patent No. 6158228 (publ. 12.12.2000) presents a method of freezing ice by creating a temperature difference at the base and above it. As a result, the condensate from the air in the form of drops drops on the base, and these drops freeze at the moment of touching the cooled base. But this ice is not slippery enough.

The closest analogue can be considered the method of forming an ice mass described in the article “Slippery topic” by G. Sanin in the journal “Itogi” No. 52 (498) dated 12/26/2005 (pp. 52-55). In this method, the ice massif is frozen in layers and is “annealed” by increasing the temperature of the ice almost to the melting point, due to which the sliding properties of the ice are significantly increased. Nevertheless, the quality of the ice obtained in this way can be further improved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to eliminate the disadvantages of the above analogues and the creation of artificial ice with the most sliding properties.

This problem with the achievement of the specified technical result is solved in the method of forming an ice mass according to the present invention. This method includes layer-by-layer freezing of ice, the first layer of the ice massif is frozen by condensing moisture from the ambient air of the arena premises on the base plate, brought to the operating mode of formation of the ice massif with a temperature selected from the interval from -6 ° С to -11 ° С, by bringing the temperature of the coolant circulating in the base plate to a temperature selected from the interval from -9 ° C to -14 ° C; fill in and freeze the second and each of the subsequent layers of the ice mass by supplying purified water after freezing the previous layer of the ice mass when the coolant circulates in the base plate at the mentioned temperature, selected from the interval from -9 ° С to -14 ° С; at least one stress relief in the ice mass is performed by delayed heating of the ice mass to the temperature of the surface layers selected from the interval from -0.5 ° С to -0.2 ° С, by combining the heat supply to the surface layers of the ice mass from the ambient air of the room arenas with heat removal from the lower layers of the ice massif to the base plate due to the circulation of a coolant in it with a temperature selected from the interval from -2 ° C to -4 ° C; periodically machine ice planing to a depth not exceeding 0.35 mm, with machine water pouring having a temperature selected from the interval from + 40 ° C to + 75 ° C.

An additional feature of the method of the present invention is that the freezing of the first layer of the ice mass is carried out by cooling the base plate to the aforementioned temperature, selected from the interval from -6 ° C to -11 ° C with a rate of decrease in the temperature of the base plate below + 10 ° C, selected from the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h, with a simultaneous increase in the relative humidity of the ambient air in the arena room to a value selected from the range of 45-60%, by setting the appropriate operating mode of the air conditioners, equipped with cellular humidification systems or steam generators, or a combination thereof.

Another additional feature of the method according to the present invention is that the ice mass during stress relieving is maintained at the mentioned temperature of the surface layers, selected from the interval from -0.5 ° C to -0.2 ° C, for at least 2 hours, and then cooled with decreasing temperature of the coolant to a temperature selected from the interval from -9 ° C to -14 ° C, with a reduction rate selected from the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h.

In the method of the present invention, stress relieving in the ice mass is performed after freezing the next 10-20 layers of ice, and the total number of layers in the ice mass is from 25 to 40.

Another feature of the method of the present invention is that the second and subsequent layers of the hoses are poured with purified water at a temperature selected from the interval from + 10 ° C to + 45 ° C to a thickness of each layer of not more than 1.5 mm.

Another feature of the method of the present invention is that the water is purified by passing it sequentially through a carbon filter, an ion exchange filter and a membrane filter of the reverse osmosis system.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In the drawings, illustrating certain aspects of the present invention, like reference numerals refer to like elements.

Figure 1 is a sectional view of an array of freezing ice. Figure 2 is a conditional diagram showing the dependence of ice temperature on its depth in the process of stress relief.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The ice mass, frozen during the implementation of the method according to the present invention, has many layers. Figure 1 shows a sectional view of a section of this ice mass. Ice is frozen on the base plate 1, inside of which the coolant circulates in the pipes 2. The temperature of the latter is maintained at the required level using refrigeration units (not shown). On the base plate 1, the first ice layer 3 is frozen, after which each of the subsequent ice layers 4 is poured and frozen. The top layer 5 in FIG. 1 is another poured layer. This is not necessarily the last layer of the ice mass.

The method of forming an ice mass is a complex technological process and consists in the following. Prior to the formation or creation of the ice mass, the base plate 1 (or technological plate) is cleaned and its temperature is started to decrease by decreasing the temperature of the coolant circulating in it. This lowering of the temperature of the base plate 1 is necessary to bring it to the operating mode of forming an ice mass, which lies mainly in the temperature range from -6 ° C to -11 ° C, although a temperature range from -1 ° C to -12 ° C is acceptable.

To exclude undesirable temperature stresses in the base plate 1, the temperature of the plate (at least below + 10 ° C) decreases at a rate in the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h due to a gradual decrease in the temperature of the coolant (in pipes 2) to a value selected from the interval from -9 ° C to -14 ° C. Simultaneously with the withdrawal of the base plate 1 to the operating mode, the humidity of the ambient air or air in the arena room where the base plate 1 is located gradually increases and reaches values lying mainly in the range of 45-60%, although limits from 20 to 85% are acceptable. Humidification of the ambient air is achieved by setting the appropriate operating mode of the air conditioners equipped with cellular humidification systems or steam generators, or a combination thereof. A simultaneous decrease in the temperature of the base plate 1 and an increase in ambient humidity leads to the formation of the first layer of ice on the base plate by condensing moisture from the ambient air. Moreover, in contrast to the aforementioned US patent No. 6158228 is not allowed the mandatory formation of drops according to the type of rain. The first ice layer 3 frozen in this way has good strength and adhesion properties, which subsequently contribute to better heat transfer between the base plate 1 and the frozen ice mass, eliminating undesirable delamination at the concrete-ice interface. The actions mentioned above occur with the precise control of the set air temperature, and the freezing of the first layer 3 on the base plate 1 by moisture condensation takes about 6-12 hours.

The second and subsequent layers 4 of the ice mass is obtained by pouring water, which goes through several stages of deep cleaning, which includes passing water through a carbon filter first, then through an ion exchange filter, and finally through a reverse osmosis membrane filter. A carbon filter is needed to purify water from chlorine and organic compounds, an ion-exchange filter is needed to replace calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions, and a reverse osmosis membrane filter is designed to maximize water purification. Such deep cleaning occurs with a different order of steps compared to the cleaning described in the aforementioned US patent No. 5536411. The purified water supplied to the pouring has a temperature in the range: for hose pouring - from + 10 ° С to + 45 ° С, for machine gravy - from + 40 ° С to + 75 ° С.

When pouring the second and each of the subsequent layers 4 of the ice mass, the circulation of the coolant in the base plate 1 does not stop, and the temperature of the coolant remains at the aforementioned value, which, recall, is mainly in the range from -9 ° C to -14 ° C. The thickness of the filled and frozen ice layer 4 is, as a rule, not more than 1.5 mm. The total number of layers in the ice massif can reach 40 (usually within 25-40, although it may go beyond these limits).

Pouring each layer 4 with purified water can be made from hoses. The use of hoses with cylindrical nozzles for filling each layer 4 with purified water is explained by reduced air entrainment by the water being poured in comparison with spraying (spraying) technology. Moreover, due to the reduction in the capture of air particles by water sprayed, preliminary degassing of purified water, as is done, for example, in the method according to Japanese application laid out No. 11-148754 (publ. 02.06.1999), is not a significant technological operation. Air trapped in water due to the reduced phase interface (air-water) does not form a large number of bubbles in the ice mass, which worsen the sliding properties of ice. The absence of the need for additional degassing of the pouring water is an advantage of the method of the present invention.

In addition, during the formation of the ice massif, the ice is periodically machine planed to a predetermined depth, which mainly does not exceed 0.35 mm, using a machine that also refills water with a temperature mainly lying in the range from + 40 ° С to + 75 ° C. Such ice planing should be carried out after filling the draft ice layer, after performing the technological operation to relieve stress in the ice mass, if necessary, level the surface of the ice mass to be poured and at the finishing stage of pouring. Figure 1 in the upper layer 5, the dashed line conventionally shows the thickness of this layer after machine planing, and the dashed line shows the thickness of this layer 5 after pouring water. The machine for planing and pouring water may be as described in the aforementioned US patent No. 4312142 and PCT application No. WO 2004/092485.

As you freeze a given number of layers of ice 4 (at least once, usually after freezing every 10-20 layers of ice), there is a need for the so-called annealing operation to relieve stresses in the ice mass. Such stress relieving is carried out by delayed heating of the surface layers of an ice mass to a temperature value mainly lying in the range from -0.5 ° C to -0.2 ° C with a rate of temperature increase lying in the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h This heating is carried out by combining the heat supply to the surface layers of the ice mass from the surrounding air in the ice arena room with heat removal from the lower layers of the ice mass to the base plate 1 due to the circulation of the coolant in it with a temperature value lying mainly in the range from -2 ° С to -4 ° C. At the same time, the surface layers of the ice mass during the stress relieving process can withstand the temperature at the mentioned value, which is preferably at least 2 hours by controlling the temperature of the coolant circulating in the base plate in the range of values lying mainly in the range from -2 ° C to -4 ° C, and then cooled while lowering the temperature of the coolant to the temperature value (i.e., predominantly up to the interval from -9 ° C to -14 ° C) with a speed lying in the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h.

It is important to note that the indicated “annealing” of the ice mass is carried out in principle without shutting down the refrigeration units. This is due to the fact that when the chillers are turned off and the coolant circulation is maintained in the pipes 2 of the base plate 1, the coolant is heated in the recirculation pumps of the cooling system and begins to heat the lower layers 3 of the ice mass through the base plate 1. Therefore, when you turn off the chillers, the temperature change curve over the ice mass has the form shown by the dotted line in figure 2. The upper layers 5 of this ice mass are also heated by heat exchange with the surrounding air, while the middle layers 4 remain at lower temperatures. Such a temperature distribution between layers 3-5 of the ice mass leads to stresses that can cause peeling of the lower ice layer 3 from the base plate 1, as well as the appearance of cracks in the ice mass, which impairs its strength characteristics.

In contrast, in the method of the present invention, the stress relieving operation is performed without shutting down the refrigeration units. This allows you to maintain the temperature of the coolant at the above value, preferably lying in the range from -2 ° C to -4 ° C. In this case, the temperature distribution curve over the ice mass has the form shown in Fig. 2 by a solid line. Preservation of the lower, first layer 3 in the ice massif at a negative temperature does not lead to peeling of this layer and does not cause stresses in the ice massif without compromising its strength characteristics.

Thus, the ice formed in accordance with the presented method is maximally strong and at the same time has excellent sliding characteristics.

Although the specific values of the individual parameters are indicated in this description, all of them are illustrative only and not limiting the scope of the present invention, which is defined only by the attached claims.

Claims (7)

1. A method of forming an ice massif, which includes layer-by-layer freezing of ice, while the first layer of the ice massif is frozen by condensing moisture from the ambient air of the arena premises on the base plate, brought to the operating mode of forming the ice massif with a temperature selected from -6 to -11 ° C by adjusting the temperature of the coolant circulating in the base plate to a temperature selected from the interval from -9 to -14 ° C; fill in and freeze the second and each of the subsequent layers of the ice mass by supplying purified water after freezing the previous layer of the ice mass when the coolant circulates in the base plate at the mentioned temperature, selected from the interval from -9 to -14 ° С; at least one stress relief in the ice mass is performed by delayed heating of the surface layers of the ice mass to the temperature of the surface layers selected from the interval from -0.5 to -0.2 ° C, by combining heat supply to the surface layers of the ice mass from the ambient air of the room arenas with heat removal from the lower layers of the ice mass to the base plate due to the circulation of coolant in it with a temperature selected from the interval from -2 to -4 ° С; periodically machine ice planing to a depth not exceeding 0.35 mm, with machine water pouring having a temperature selected from the interval from +40 to + 75 ° C. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which the freezing of the first layer of the ice mass is carried out by cooling the base plate to the aforementioned temperature, selected from the interval from -6 to -11 ° C with a rate of decrease in the temperature of the base plate below + 10 ° C, selected from the range 0.3-0.7 ° C / h, with a simultaneous increase in the relative humidity of the ambient air in the arena's room to a value selected from the range of 45-60% due to the installation of an appropriate operating mode for ambient air conditioners equipped with cellular humidification systems, or steam generators, or a combination thereof. 3. The method according to claim 1, in which the ice mass during stress relieving is maintained at the mentioned temperature of the surface layers, selected from the interval from -0.5 to -0.2 ° C, for at least 2 hours, and then cooled with decreasing temperature refrigerant to a temperature selected from the interval from -9 to -14 ° C, with a reduction rate selected from the range of 0.3-0.7 ° C / h. 4. The method according to claim 1, in which the removal in the ice mass produced after freezing the next 10-20 layers of ice. 5. The method according to claim 1, in which the total number of layers in the ice mass is from 25 to 40. 6. The method according to claim 1, in which the second and subsequent layers from the hoses are filled with purified water at a temperature selected from the interval from +10 to + 45 ° C to a thickness of each layer of not more than 1.5 mm. 7. The method according to claim 1 or 6, in which the water is purified by passing it sequentially through a carbon filter, an ion exchange filter and a membrane filter of the reverse osmosis system.

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