Due to the aggressive uprising of the popularity of synthetic ice panels, people are starting to ask questions. It’s all good. Nobody can blame a person for wanting to expand their knowledge about any particular topic or item. When it comes to ice skating sports like hockey and so on, people want to have the best for themselves because it is easy to get hurt and it is costly to invest in materials or training aids that do not work. Ice hockey flooring can be a little confusing for people that do not understand what it is or how it works. Hopefully, this article will shed a little light on the topic of synthetic ice and other hockey products.
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What Exactly Is Synthetic Ice?
Back in the early days of man scientists discovered some ice skate-looking shoes that were made out of bones of animals. It looked as though early civilizations had constructed their own types of ice skates and skated down frozen rivers before the sport of ice hockey was ever even dreamed of.
Many years have passed since then and humankind has continued to evolve in its own way. From the days of ice skating on bones, we have come to the days of ice skating on manufactured ice skates with metal blades.
A step further than traditional ice skating was to develop a kind of flooring that would allow people to ice skate upon without having to keep the entire building at a freezing temperature. It was with this idea that synthetic ice came into existence.
Synthetic ice is made out of polymer plastic that is specifically created in order to provide lubrication, UV Ray protection, longevity, and low weight. Essentially, synthetic ice is modified plastic.
Synthetic Ice Melting
We all know and understand that ice is merely water that has been frozen. When the ice hits a certain temperature it begins to melt and turn back into its liquid form, which is water. It is natural for ice to melt when the ambient temperature around it is over the freezing point.
Synthetic ice, and hockey tiles, on the other hand, are crafted out of special plastic that will only melt if it is subjected to extremely high temperatures. You can leave synthetic ice out in the sun all day long and it will not melt one bit. This gives it a huge advantage over traditional ice because you can ice skate in any kind of weather at any time of the year.
Synthetic Ice and Real Ice
Of course, there are tons of differences between real ice and man-made ice. When skaters skate across the surface of each and compare the two there are plenty of differences. The first one is that the surface of the flooring is different. Ice is a little bit harder than synthetic ice because it is frozen and brittle. However, some of the higher-quality synthetic ice is pretty close to the real deal. In any event, the more pliable flooring is going to always have a different amount of drag when the ice skates glide across it.
What this means is that when you ice skate across synthetic ice flooring you will feel a bit of a drag because of the resistance that the softer surface causes. Although there is a slight drag, it is not enough to make the ice skating experience impossible. In fact, most skaters get used to it very quickly and learn to adapt.
Conclusion
Although it is obvious that synthetic ice is not made out of the kind of material that will melt in the same manner as ice does, wondering whether or not if it melts at all is a worthy ponderance.
No question is a dumb question, so keep asking them. Asking questions is the only way to get answers.
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