Rink

Does anybody use or have any good information on Man Down Alarms for ice resurfacer drivers? We have employees at the arena working alone and we are looking for a system that would call the police or our safety and security officers if someone were to fall on the ice and not be able to call on a radio or cell phone. This was a much larger issue before cell phones became common place, however it still remains an issue in the rink industry. I would recommend that anyone working alone have, at a minimum, a working cell phone on their person. If there is a worker that does not have a personal cell phone and is working alone, the facility should provide one during this time. To take the safety of working alone to another level, there are push-button systems available produced by many companies that sell industrial worker safety calling devices. We also recommend you consider these tips for employees working alone in the rink. Make sure the person working alone does not perform dangerous tasks like working on the compressors or changing an IR blade with no one in the building. First Aid training is also a good idea so that a worker could help them self if they were injured. My question is regarding contaminated sand-based rink floors. If the sand is contaminated with large amounts of brine and old paint, would that contamination cause a new paint sheet to look dirty and contain very low opacity? Also, we heard we should crack the sand-based ice before painting the ice white – is this true? It has been my experience that contaminated sand will bleed through and give you a gray-looking spot in the new paint. Try to remove as much as possible and replace it with clean washed masonry sand (or whatever sand type you have). As for the old paint, that should not be an issue on the new paint. With regards to cracking the ice, once the ice is built up to the point where you are ready to paint it white, I like to take out a car or truck and drive it around before painting the ice white. This will crack the ice and get things settled. After this is done, apply another coat or two of water to fill the cracks, and then paint the ice white. Most importantly, you have to saturate the sand thoroughly before you make it cold. We are looking for a low-cost way to stop the fill water on our ice resurfacers. Too many times our operators will get distracted and forget to shut off the water and it will run over, using up all the hot water in the building. I have a low-cost and fairly easy solution to this problem, thanks to Clive at the Fort Myers Skatium. Clive found that the Melnor model 3010-4 water timer he found at Home Depot for $15 works fine even with the hot water running through it. He does say that he gets only about eight months to a year out of each timer, but for $15, what do you expect? A picture of the unit is shown below. ★ ask dave 58 R INK MAGAZ INE sept ember/october 2008 ■ You have rink questions. Dave has rink answers. Send your questions to AskDave@rinkmagazine.com. Employees working alone should be equipped with a cell phone. Water timers can help solve over-fill issues with re-surfacers. STAR PHOTO Contaminated sand floors can result in unsightly gray spots on the ice.

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