ICE RESURFACING MACHINE

Abstract

The present invention provides an apparatus for resurfacing of an ice surface to provide for dense high quality ice. The apparatus comprises an ice resurfacing machine having a water storage tank connected by delivery pipe to a flood bar assembly to apply water from the water storage to a flood cloth. At least one of the delivery pipe and flood bar assembly are provided with one or more magnets to magnetically treat the water as the water flows through the delivery pipe and the flood bar assembly thereby producing a denser more high quality ice. The present invention also provides for a method of forming an ice surface on a chilled surface, the method comprising passing the water to be applied to the chilled surface through a magnetic field to produce denser, higher quality ice.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of ice making equipment and more particular, to an ice resurfacer for forming a layer of ice on a cool surface, such as may be found in hockey and ice skating arenas.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Arenas used for hockey and ice skating are typically formed on concrete floors in which are embedded pipes carrying a chilled solution. The chilled solution lowers the temperature of the concrete floor to as low as 10° F., well below the 32° F. freezing temperature of water. The chilled floor is then flooded with water which freezes to form an ice surface. Typically indoor ice skating rinks have a layer of ice of about 1½ inches in total. The ice is built up to this thickness by repeatedly flooding the surface with layers of water. The layers freeze one onto the next to form the full layer of ice. In a typical application, after the first couple layers of ice are placed on the chilled surface, the ice is painted white to provide a good contrast to the ice surface. A couple more layers of ice are placed over the painted layer for protecting the painted ice layer. At this point, additional graphics are painted on the ice such as, for example, the red and blue lines, goal lines and the like for hockey as well as any additional advertising graphics, such as corporate logos. A couple more layers of ice are then placed on top of these ice surfaces to provide for the final layer of ice for hockey or ice skating.

In order to provide for the optimum surface for hockey and ice skating, it is desirable that the ice be relatively dense. This is generally accomplished through the use of hot water as it freezes to a more dense and harder ice surface then cooler water. Generally, the water is heated to about 150° F. for the making of ice in an arena.

During maintenance of the ice, after the initial ice is formed, an ice resurfacer such as a Zamboni™ or Olympia™ is used to shave the ice to remove slush, snow and dirt from the surface of the ice. The resurfacer then floods the surface of the ice with fresh water. This is generally accomplished by dragging a rag or cloth at the rear of the ice resurfacer onto which water is spread to provide for a uniform film of water to be distributed over the ice surface. The snow and shavings picked up by the resurfacer are stored in the snow tank which are then dumped after the resurfacer is finished.

Typically, to resurface a sheet of arena ice, about 120 gallons of water is heated to 150° F. This requires a significant amount of energy to both heat the water as well as create a refrigeration load in the cooling solution of the chilled floor to properly freeze the surface of the ice.

There have been attempts in the past to provide for reduced energy consumption during ice making and maintenance. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,411 describes a process whereby the water used to flood the ice rink is de-mineralized by reverse osmosis and carbon filtered. In this way it is only necessary to heat the water to about 90° F. However, this still requires some additional energy to be used for the processing of the water.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,360 describes the use of an additive in the water used to form the ice or ice layers. The additive comprises a surfactant, a primary alcohol and a silicone. The surfactant acts to reduce the surface tension of the water while the silicone acts as a defoamer collapsing any bubbles formed on the surface and also as a lubricant when pressure is applied on the ice such as an ice skate blade. The alcohol is believed to aid in providing a generally homogenous mixture when added to the water. Through the use of the additive this allows the water to be only heated to about 45-55° F. However, the savings in energy are offset somewhat by the cost of the additives.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,874 describes an ice maker which utilizes a source of de-gassed water which is de-gassed by being heated. A pump to pressurize the de-gassed water is provided and the water is passed to a sprayer hydraulically connected to the pump. The sprayer has nozzles sized and shaped to convert the pressurized water into a fine de-gassing droplet spray directed at the cooled surface. The droplets are sized to substantially freeze on contact with the cooled surface.

There still remains a need for an energy efficient means of resurfacing an ice surface while providing for dense high quality ice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an apparatus for resurfacing of an ice surface to provide for dense high quality ice. The apparatus comprises an ice resurfacing machine having a water storage tank connected to a water delivery system comprising a delivery pipe to a conditioning box and a flood bar assembly to apply water from the water storage to a flood cloth. One or more magnets are provided to magnetically treat the water as the water flows through the water delivery system thereby producing a denser more high quality ice.

In an aspect of the invention, one or more magnets are located along the delivery pipe.

In another aspect of the invention, one or more magnets are located on the delivery pipe adjacent the flood bar assembly.

In yet another aspect of the invention, one or more magnets are located along the flood bar assembly.

In another aspect of the invention, the magnets are equally spaced along the flood bar assembly.

In another aspect of the invention, one or more magnets are located at both of on the delivery pipe and along the flood bar assembly.

The present invention also provides for a method of forming an ice surface on a chilled surface, the method comprising passing the water to be applied to the chilled surface through a magnetic field to produce denser, higher quality ice.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view in cross section of an ice resurfacing machine according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the piping and the flood bar of the ice resurfacing machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the piping and flood bar of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an alternative arrangement of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An ice resurfacing machine 10 according to the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. The ice resurfacer 10 includes a tank assembly 12, wheels 14, an operator position 16 and an ice resurfacing unit 18.

The ice resurfacing unit includes a scraper bar 20 contained within a conditioning box 21 to shave the ice surface and prepare for receiving the water for resurfacing the ice. The shavings from the scraper bar 20 are fed by means of a conveyor unit 22 to the snow holding tank 24 contained within the top portion of the tank assembly 12. The bottom portion of the tank assembly 12 holds a water tank 26 which contains the water for application to the surface of the ice. A water delivery system including a piping assembly 28 distributes the water from the water tank 26 onto the flood bar assembly 30 to thereby be applied to the flood cloth 32 to form the ice surface.

As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, in one embodiment of the invention, one or more magnets 34 are provided at one or more locations along the water delivery system preferably along the piping assembly 28 and flood bar assembly 30. The magnets 34 are attached to the exterior surface of the piping assembly 28 or flood bar assembly 30 such that the water flowing in the pipes are subject to the magnetic field generated by the magnets. The magnets are arranged on the pipes such that the north pole are oriented outwardly and the south pole of the magnet is oriented inwardly to the pipe.

There are a number of different locations at which the magnets can be placed to provide for the desired effect on the water flowing through the pipe. The magnets 34 may be placed on the piping assembly to surround the piping assembly 28 such that the water is treated by the magnetic field prior to its distribution through the flood bar assembly 30. Alternatively, one or more magnets may be placed along the flood bar assembly 30 such that the water is subjected to the magnetic field just prior to its exiting the flood bar assembly 30 through the openings 36 provided along the length of the flood bar assembly 30. Preferably, for a maximum effect, it has been found that a number of magnets placed around the piping assembly 28 as well as magnets placed along the length of the flood bar assembly 30 are most effect for the desired treatment.

An alternative arrangement for the magnet for treating the water in the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 4. Each of the alternative arrangements described below may be utilized on their own or in combination with other arrangements as described. The ice for resurfacing machine 10 is typically provided with a conditioning box 21 immediately in front of the flood bar assembly 30. The purpose of the conditioning box 21 is to apply water to the surface of the ice so that any ruts present in the ice will be filled in with a wet slush of the combination of the water and the snow on the surface of the ice. In the alternative arrangement illustrated in FIG. 4, the outer surface of the conditioning box 21 and/or the supply pipe 40 supplying the water to the conditioning box 21 are provided with one or more magnets 34 oriented as described above. In addition, an extension bar 42 may be provided above the flood cloth 34 to provide a magnetic field to the water in the flood cloth or immediately after the flood cloth to condition the water as it is applied to the ice surface.

To resurface the ice utilizing the apparatus of the present invention, the operator operates the ice resurfacer in the normal manner scraping the ice and flooding the ice with the thin layer of water applied to the ice through the flood cloth. In operation the water from the water tank 26 is dispensed along the piping assembly to the conditioning box as well as to the flood bar assembly 30 where it exits the flood bar assembly 30 through the openings 36. The water then falls on the flood cloth 32 from which it is dispensed on to the surface of the ice.

It has been found that utilizing the magnets to interact with the water utilized in ice resurfacing in accordance with the present invention provides numerous benefits to an operator of the ice resurfacing machine. Firstly, the ice prepared utilizing the apparatus of the present invention has been found to be very dense and high quality such that ruts formed in the surface of the ice as a result of the skaters movement of the skate blades are not as deep as those formed in ice utilizing a standard ice resurfacer of the prior art. In addition and more importantly, is has been found that this ice may be formed utilizing much lower temperature water than has previously commonly been used in ice resurfacing machines. While typically the water in a ice resurfacing machine is heated to about 150° F. for the making of ice in an arena, with the apparatus of the present invention, it has been found that water of 90° F. or perhaps even less may be utilized to form the dense high quality ice. The ice formed with the apparatus of the present invention has been also found to be much clearly perhaps as a result of less dissolved gases within the water. The denser ice also allows for better conductivity of the chilling effect of the chilled floor to the surface of the ice. It has also been found that ice formed with the ice resurfacer of the present invention is a faster ice where skater's movement is quicker as well as for hockey games the puck has been found to move faster on such ice.

In addition to using the magnets to treat the water applied to an ice surface with an ice resurfacing machine, the water utilized to build up the original ice layers may also be magnetically treated. This may be accomplished by providing one or more magnets on the hose used to flood the chilled surface to produce the ice layer. The magnets are preferably provided in a collar either attached to the hose or through which the hose passes. In this way, the original ice layers are dense and of high quality, making the resurfacing of the ice much easier.

While it is not exactly know how the magnets increase the density and quality of the ice, it is postulated that it may be in part due to the magnetic field acting on the water molecules to reduce the bond angles and allow for denser packing of the water molecules in the ice as it is forming.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described herein in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. An ice resurfacing machine to provide dense high quality ice, the machine comprising a water storage tank connected to a water delivery system comprising a delivery pipe to a conditioning box and a flood bar assembly to apply water from the water storage tank to a flood cloth, the water delivery system being provided with one or more magnets to magnetically treat the water as the water flows through the water delivery system thereby producing a denser more high quality ice.

2. An ice resurfacing machine to provide dense high quality ice, the machine comprising a water storage tank connected by a delivery pipe to a flood bar assembly having a flood cloth to apply the water to an ice surface, at least one of the delivery pipe and flood bar assembly being provided with one or more magnets to magnetically treat the water as it flows through the delivery pipe and the flood bar assembly.

3. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 2 wherein one or more magnets are located along the delivery pipe.

4. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 3 wherein one or more magnets are located on the delivery pipe adjacent the flood bar assembly.

5. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 2 wherein one or more magnets are located at both of on the delivery pipe adjacent the distributor pipe and along the flood bar assembly.

6. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 5 wherein said magnets are equally spaced along the flood bar assembly.

7. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 2 wherein one or more magnets are located along the flood bar assembly.

8. An ice resurfacing machine according to claim 7 wherein said magnets are equally spaced along the flood bar assembly.

9. A method of forming an ice surface on a chilled surface, the method comprising passing water to be applied to the chilled surface through a magnetic field to produce denser, higher quality ice.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the water is applied to the chilled surface using an ice resurfacing machine having a water storage tank connected by a delivery pipe to a flood bar assembly to apply water from the water storage to a flood cloth dragged along the chilled surface, at least one of the delivery pipe and flood bar assembly being provided with one or more magnets to magnetically treat the water as the water flows through the delivery pipe and the flood bar assembly thereby producing a denser more high quality ice.