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Sun, 5 Nov 2006 14:54:10 -0500 |
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We recently attended a minor league game (CHL) in Austin, Texas while on
vacation, and they had 2 machines to clean the ice between periods. One
of them was a traditional machine with an engine (diesel?) and one was an
electric resurfacer, an Olympic brand model. Now, I've seen electric
Zamboni's before, and they are battery powered and very quiet and
unobtrusive. The Olympic machine was the only time I have ever seen an
electric machine that was powered by a very bright yellow power cord (the
world's longest extension cord?)
The Olympia machine was connected to a swiveling head that rotated 360
degrees to allow the cord to follow the machine around the rink as it
cleaned the ice. The power cord was coiled on a spring-loaded takeup reel
on the machine, so that it fed out cord or pulled in cord as necessary to
keep the tension at a point where the cord would stay up in the air. The
swiveling metal head where the cord was connected was moved out to a point
on the ceiling near center ice at the beginning of the resurfacing period,
via a metal rail that it was attached to. The head was retracted along
the rail to a position outside the boards between periods.
I have never seen this type of arrangement before. Have other people seen
this? Is this standard for an Olympia electric machine, or is this an
older technology that has been superceded by battery power?
The game was reasonably interesting, the ice was cold but rutted in this
small, local arena that the Austin Ice Bats have moved to this season. A
few former college hockey players were on the teams, but not many.
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