​Philip Oberlin - Bird Arena
Olympia - Ice Maintenance
*Pictured to the right is the left conveyor that helps to clear the shavings of ice. These carry the shavings to elevator that collects them in the snow tank.
One of my main goals from this internship was to learn how to drive and operate the Olympia. The Olympia is the ice resurfacer at Bird Arena and is the machine that keeps the ice smooth for each ice session. The basic process of the Olympia involves a sharp blade that shaves layers of ice as the conveyors rotate to remove the shavings. The shavings are then collected in the snow tank. Meanwhile, the wash water cleans any debris or dirt out of the remaining grooves and into a vacuum hose. At the same time water is sprayed out of holes across the rear of the machine and a towel spreads the water creating a smooth sheet of ice.
*Pictured to the left is the Olympia with the snow tank lifted. The tank is lifted by a hydraulic system and after each ice cut you must dump the snow that was collected.
*Pictured above are the operational switches for the Olympia. As you begin your ice cut you first lower the conditioner, which has the towel on it. Then you put the elevator forward, which has the blade and conveyors. Next you switch the board brush out to clean the edges and then open the hot and cold water valves. Once pass the Olympia doors on the South end of the ice surface you turn the wash water on. After you finish the first lap, bring the board brush back in and continue the cut. When exiting the ice turn off the cold water at the blue line, turn off the wash water at the red line, turn off the hot water slowly between the second blue line and top of the faceoff circles, as the front tires of the Olympia exit the ice surface push the elevator back and raise the conditioner. Make sure to go and dump the snow tank after each cut.
*Pictured to the left are the procedures for entering the ice surface with the Olympia. We had issues with our timing this year and with people being on the ice while the Olympia was cutting the ice. For everyones safety the ice surface must be cleared and doors shut until the ice cut is complete.
*Pictured to the right are the hot and cold water valves. The circular handle allows the driver to adjust the blade height during a cut. If the blade isn't taking enough ice off then they can lower it or the opposite. If it's taking to much off they can lift it.
*Pictured above is the ice edger. This machine works just like a lawn mower. It has a blade that you can lower or raise and you push it along the wall of the ice surface because over time the ice builds up on the edges. The Olympia can only get so close to the wall, so the edger can get closer and more detail. Unlike the Olympia, the edger doesn't have a snow tank and the snow is just sprayed into the center of the ice surface.
*Pictured below is the exposed pipe in the offensive zone that was dugout last summer after the ice was having issues staying frozen in this location.
*Pictured above is the offensive zone area that we continued all year with coolant leaking issues and ice not staying frozen.
Coolant Leak - Ice Issues
This year we had a major issue that we've never had at Bird Arena before and that issue was coolant leaking out of the pipes and floor in two specific spots. What was happening was that coolant was leaking out of these spots from under the ice and creating hollow spots or big bubbles under the ice surface. The temporary fix for the year was to continuously check the spots and repack them with snow.
The process was to hammer out the surface of the ice exposing the coolant and slush. We then used a shop-vac to vacuum out the liquid and used fresh snow to repack the holes. We also used a spray bottle to freeze the fresh snow as we packed the holes allowing them to freeze quicker. We had to do this process upwards of 5 times a day and I was responsible for making sure the ice was taken care of for the end of the year AYHA tournaments.
*Pictured to the left is the exposed piping in the neutral zone that was dugout last summer. You can see were Ohio University Facility Maintenance attempted to patch where they thought the leak was coming from in the bottom right corner of the hole.
*Pictured above is neutral zone area that we continued all year with coolant leaking issues and ice not staying frozen. The area in the neutral zone was much larger than the problem area in the offensive zone.
Other Facility Maintenance and Operations Responsibilities
*Pictured to the left is the glass closet at Bird Arena. We had 4 panes of glass break this year. 2 during practices and 2 during Ohio DI hockey games. It takes a lot of team work to get a pane of glass that weighs around 200 pounds lifted and put into place. The panes of glass that Bird Arena uses are designed to spider, so that they don't shootout into the crowd. The big issue with that is that once they break and spider then they break into hundreds of small shards of glass. Using a shop-vac, brooms and dust pans the team cleans up all the shards and then puts the new piece of glass in place. If the process runs smoothly it takes 15 minutes but can take 20-25 minutes.
*Pictured to the right is are the controls for the sound system used at hockey games and for special events at Bird Arena. I became faniliar with the components of this system, so that I could use it in the operations of different events such as AYHA hockey tournaments and game day operations for the Ohio DII hockey team.
