Winter Olympic ice maker makes ice like a decoding game
The ice at the feet of the Winter Olympics has many mysteries.
A qualified short track speed skating rink requires that when athletes cross a curve, the snowflakes scraped by the skates on the ice are not ballast, but snow foam.
For a professional curling track, the time required to make the “freezing point” on the surface is 45 seconds, which is the standard.
The ice in the figure skating arena must be frozen to 5.5-6 cm thick to prevent it from being penetrated by the power of the skates.
In the Winter Olympics venues, the ice maker is the person who knows the mysteries of ice best. There are no more than 20 top ice makers in the world.
Liu Boqiang is a Chinese ice maker. His job is to manufacture and maintain 4 professional sports ice rinks for national team training at the National Winter Sports Training Center in Shougang Park.
He often felt that he was playing a special decoding game. Freezing, repairing, and melting ice are like clearing and upgrading one after another.
The key to unlock the code is hidden in the ice rink.
The “password” of the ice rink
On January 4th, Liu Boqiang walked into the curling hall of the National Winter Sports Training Center in Shougang Park and began a two-week round of closed ice making.
During ice making, he must check the values of the ice making system at any time, observe indoor and outdoor humidity and temperature, record the thickness, flatness and slippage of the ice rink, and maintain the ice rink.
“A qualified ice maker needs to master all the skills of freezing, repairing, and melting ice. There is too much attention and approach.” Liu Boqiang felt that he has been working in ice making for more than two years. It’s like playing a decoding game.
“Take frozen ice as an example. The bottom of the ice rink is a hard concrete floor. Before the ice is frozen, a scrubber must be used to remove all debris and dust on it. The gaps in the board walls surrounding the ice rink must be completely blocked. To prevent leakage when pouring ice. After that, the ice making unit is turned on to slowly cool the ground, and the dehumidifier and air conditioner are turned on to reduce the indoor temperature and humidity.”
When the ground temperature is below 0℃, the ice maker can start pouring ice. According to his experience, it normally takes 8-10 days to freeze an ice rink. “Ice frozen at this time is the strongest, not easy to crack.”
Frozen ice is the link that most tests the skill of the ice maker. After freezing the 8-10mm thick bottom ice, the ice maker needs to drive the ice trolley to scrape away the impurities on the ice surface, and then mix an environmentally friendly white paint with pure water and put it into a special machine to form a mist of water. Use a spray gun Spray evenly on the ice little by little. Then spray mist of water to freeze ice 1.5-2 mm thick, and seal the white paint.
In this process, the ice maker also draws out the dots and lines required for different events such as ice hockey, curling, and short-track speed skating, and freezes various venue logos in the ice. After completing these tasks, increase the intensity of ice pouring, and freeze the thickness to meet the requirements of different projects.
Different competition events have different requirements on the ice rink. For example, curling requires ice thickness of 3 cm, ice hockey requires ice thickness of 5 cm, short track speed skating requires ice thickness of 3.5-4 cm, and figure skating ice must be frozen to a thickness of 5.5-6 cm. “Because in figure skating competitions, athletes have a lot of jumping, spinning and falling movements. The force of the skates on the ice is very large, and it may even penetrate the ice. If the ice is not thick enough, the skates may penetrate the concrete The ground caused the athlete to be injured.” Liu Boqiang explained.
He remembered that for a period of time, the short track speed skating rink of the National Winter Sports Training Center of Shougang Park repeatedly froze and melted, melted and frozen. “As soon as the athlete crosses the curve, a layer of ice ball is thrown on the ice and stands on it like a knife. The coach said that this kind of venue is definitely not good, it will scratch the athlete and it is also easy to fall.”
Later, Boqiang Liu learned that short-track speed skaters are very fast when they cross corners, and ice skates will bring out many snowflakes on the ice. A qualified short-track speed skating rink requires that the snowflakes falling on the ice are not ballasts, but snow foam.
The most difficult ice repair
More often, the ice maker spends energy on repairing ice.
During the use of the stadium, the ice maker needs to constantly check the thickness of the ice and repair the flatness of the ice rink accordingly. If the damage is severe, it may need to be melted and re-freeze.
In addition to the thickness, smoothness and flatness of the ice rink, the ice maker also needs to know the temperature of the ice pouring water, the dehumidification capacity of the dehumidifier, and the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor, etc., and comprehensively judge the real-time situation of the ice rink according to the seasonal climate. To adjust the device parameters.
“The total difficulty of repairing ice in all venues can’t be compared with curling venues.” Liu Boqiang said.
Among all indoor ice events, ice making at the curling track is recognized as the most difficult.
Liu Boqiang made a time comparison: Figure skating, short-track speed skating and ice hockey venues can be repaired in 10 minutes by a staff member driving an ice sweeper. However, it takes 4 people to work for 2 hours at the same time to repair the ice at the curling venue.
This is because curling venues have very high requirements for flatness and slippage. “General figure skating and short track speed skating require the flatness of the court to be no more than 2 mm in height difference in any 3 square meter area, but the requirement for curling courts is that there is no flatness, only flatter.”
Unlike other venues, the surface of the curling track is not smooth, but there is a layer of raised small ice particles called “freezing point”. The process of ice maker making “freezing spots” on the track is called “dotting”. Every time the ice is repaired, it means that we need to do another “docking”.
The technical difficulty of “dotting” is extremely high. It takes 45 seconds to hit a dot from start to end on a standard track. It does not work if it is slow or fast. The size, thickness, density, and temperature of the dots all affect the game. Therefore, the curling venue has extremely high technical requirements for the ice maker.
In order to test the smoothness and smoothness of the curling field, Liu Boqiang has thoroughly understood the rules of the curling competition and often practiced pitching by himself.
“If the flatness and slippage of the ice rink are unqualified, curling will not be able to reach the position where the athletes want to be placed according to the tactical setting. In a formal international competition, if the ice surface slippage of the field is the same as the ice surface slippage during training Not the same, athletes have to temporarily adjust their tactics.”
Liu Boqiang said frankly that this is of course a test of the athletes’ ability to adjust and adapt on the spot. “But if the ice maker can make the athletes’ usual training venues as consistent as possible with the venues of international competitions, it can help them reduce such disadvantages and achieve better results.”
“Middle-aged Adventure”
Before becoming an ice maker, Liu Boqiang never thought that one day he would deal with “ice”.
In the past 20 years of working in Shougang, he has worked as a steel roller, welder, and maintenance worker. The one who can get a little closer to the “ice” is that you have learned some refrigeration principles during air conditioning maintenance.
For Liu Boqiang, who was 40 at the time, learning a job he had never done from scratch was a “middle-aged adventure” that many people couldn’t understand. But his idea is very simple: “I have done many jobs in the past, and I have done everything that is dirty and tired. I am not afraid of changes. I will try if I have a chance.”
At the beginning of 2017, Liu Boqiang’s air-conditioning team was notified that there was an ice making and ice sweeping training and volunteered to sign up for it. At that time, only 4 people, including him, signed up.
Later, Boqiang Liu learned that because the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, the Capital Gymnasium, which is the winter sports center of the State General Administration of Sports, plans to renovate and renew. , Used for national team training.
One day in July 2017, Liu Boqiang and three other colleagues were notified to go to the Capital Gymnasium to start a three-month study of ice making and sweeping.
When he first arrived, Boqiang Liu felt fresh about everything on the ice rink. When he was okay, he lay on the board wall of the ice rink and watched the figure skaters train. The ice skates were swiping, spinning, jumping, and falling on the ice, and accompanied by beautiful music, he could watch for hours attentively.
Liu Boqiang felt that from then on, he began to consciously care about how the ice was made under the athletes’ feet. But at that time, the actual training time on ice was not long.
Liu Boqiang calculated it. The first system ice teacher’s working system is 24 hours of work and 72 hours of rest. If he shifts according to this time, he will be able to study for 20 days after three months. “After watching the work of an ice maker for a while, I found that I can’t learn it in a day or two just by driving an ice sweeper. If this continues, I guess I won’t even be able to learn it.”
He tried to discuss with the ice makers in the first body whether he could enter the rink more, give the teacher a hand, and practice ice sweeping by the way. At that time, it happened that the restoration of the first body ice rink was heavy, and the teachers agreed to let Liu Boqiang follow along.
Since then, no matter who is on duty, Liu Boqiang will take the subway to the first body every day and follow the ice makers to repair and sweep ice.
After three months, Liu Boqiang silently summarized nearly 50 tools needed to repair ice, including the management system of the ice sweeper and the operating procedures of the ice maker, which he also wrote in his notebook.
When Liu Boqiang returned to Shougang with these summaries, he became the one who was favored by the opportunity.
From “sweeper monk” to “ice maker”
In June 2018, the curling, figure skating and short track speed skating training venues of the Shougang Park National Winter Sports Training Center were officially put into use. At that time, Liu Boqiang was the only person in the unit who could go on ice to sweep ice.
Two months later, with the national ice making team officially stationed, Liu Boqiang was assigned to the curling hall to assist in ice making. But at that time, in the curling hall, he did not have the opportunity to contact the real ice making work.
The team responsible for ice making in the curling hall is Canada’s top ice maker Jimmy. Liu Boqiang’s job is just sweeping snow on the ice rink.
He was unwilling to keep sweeping like this.
Liu Boqiang borrowed the “dotting” pot from the ice maker in the curling hall. From 8 to 10 pm every night, he practiced the “docking” on the road next to the curling hall in the Shougang Park.
“It’s like playing table tennis. If you want to fix a movement, you have to swing 20,000 times. The memory of muscle strength is required for the number of times.” Liu Boqiang found that the ice maker’s “dotting” movements are also fixed. He thought that through this exercise, he can form the “dotting” muscle strength. If the strength is enough, then if he can get on the ice, it will be relatively easy to adjust his movements.
One day two months later, Liu Boqiang was cleaning the ice in the curling hall as usual. It just so happened that there was a shortage of manpower for curling, so Jimmy temporarily called him to try. Jimmy was surprised by the “freezing point” Liu Boqiang hit on the curling track. He told Liu Boqiang that in the future, he could formally go on ice to “do some”.
But then, new problems emerged.
“Normally, the ice rink should be well leveled after the’running’ the ice, but after about a week, the ice rink was uneven again.” Liu Boqiang remembered that at that time, Jimmy was also puzzled and didn’t know where to go. Problem.
That day, Jimmy asked Liu Boqiang to make another point for the ice rink. “He was sitting at the end of the track, watching me hit the road all the way, and when I finished a track, he said, you have too much power.”
Liu Boqiang recalled that because there was a lot of training for athletes in the stadium, there was not enough gap in the middle of the track. They were just separated by a 10 cm sponge. The force was too great during the “doing”, and the “freezing point” would be thrown to the next track. Some tracks will be repeatedly “dotted”, and the sides will be higher than the middle.
To change the action that has formed muscle memory, Liu Boqiang felt very uncomfortable. The next day, Jimmy watched him “do something” again, still not satisfied with the effect. “This time the force is too small and the freezing point cannot cover the entire track.”
In order to meet Jimmy’s request, Liu Boqiang borrowed a “dozen” pot and came to the road outside the curling hall. According to the width of the track 5 meters, he put bricks on the road for a distance of 5 meters, taking the dividing line between the motorized and non-motorized lanes as the center line of the track, and simulating the track for management.
This practice lasted for half a month, and Liu Boqiang gradually found a sense. On the ice again, he was finally able to hit the “freezing point” that happened to cover the entire track.
“Ranging” became more and more proficient, and Liu Boqiang felt that he could finally be regarded as a person who can make ice.
“Leave the best ice making experience in China”
In more than two years, Liu Boqiang has gradually learned and summarized more laws about ice.
He found that water quality and water temperature also have an effect on the ice rink’s slippage, flatness and freezing point hardness. In the Shougang Training Center, weakly acidic pure water is used for ice making, so that the skating rink can reach the standard.
Stadiums that need to meet the training requirements of the national team also have very high requirements for auxiliary equipment such as air conditioning and dehumidification systems, such as whether there is a water treatment system, and whether the dehumidifier can meet the dehumidification requirements. “Beijing summer canteen days, the indoor humidity is high, and the temperature is high. If the venue fails to meet the standards, dripping of cold and hot air will have a great impact on the venue.”
Over time, Liu Boqiang felt that making ice is a difficult task as he learns more.
In normal times, he likes to record his daily work, including the conditions that occur in the ice rink every day, solutions, and the best feel for ice repair. But such a summary is always overturned by myself in practice.
“Sometimes some experience is summed up, and the next time ice is made according to this method, only to find that it is wrong.” He found that ice making is affected by various factors such as time, environment, and equipment, and ice makers must learn Be adaptable.
In Liu Boqiang’s eyes, Jimmy, who has worked in ice making for more than 40 years, is particularly flexible.
When making ice for the Curling World Championships, Jimmy found that the ice-making system of the venue where the competition was held was not perfect, without water treatment systems and dehumidifiers. In the end, he brought more than 1,400 barrels of pure water, and he just made an ice rink that met the requirements. “If I were to encounter this situation, I am afraid it would be gone.” Liu Boqiang said.
He felt that he was lucky enough to work with a top ice maker like Jimmy.
“I can learn a lot every day, and I don’t even want to leave him for a day. Because the experience and technology of ice making are displayed at the moment when a situation occurs and when the situation is resolved. If you miss a certain moment, it may be forever I missed it and I never know how to solve it.”
He once asked Jimmy when he could make ice independently. Jimmy’s answer is that it is enough to work with him for a year. However, if you want to meet all the tricky situations that may occur in the ice rink and successfully solve them, it will take at least five years.
But for the future career plan, Liu Boqiang did not actually think how specific. Right now, what he wants to do most is to do his best to make every ice-making process of the “Four Ice” at the National Winter Sports Training Center in Shougang Park before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The Winter Olympics are getting closer and he also has new aspirations. “I hope that when the Winter Olympics arrive, I will have more opportunities to work with top domestic and foreign icemakers, continue to improve my own technology and experience, and keep the best ice-making technology and experience in China.”
Beijing News reporter Wu Jiaoying
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