The "ice" that is not cold lights up the Beijing Winter Olympics with dazzling Chinese wisdom 　　

On February 19, Chinese duo Sui Wenjing/Han Cong won the figure skating pair skating competition at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
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(Photo courtesy of CFP)

On February 19, Chinese duo Sui Wenjing/Han Cong won the figure skating pair skating competition at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Ice sports have high requirements on the venue and are easily restricted by climatic conditions
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Not to mention the low-latitude areas where natural skating venues cannot be formed all year round.

Therefore, fans of ice sports have turned to the manufacture of artificial artificial ice and turned their attention to new chemical materials
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As early as the 1990s, Dortmund, Germany, Long Island, New York, and other places have tried to build artificial ice rinks using plastic

But this board also has its limitations
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High molecular polyethylene has good cut resistance, which is an advantage when an athlete wears the upper body into a competition suit, but becomes a disadvantage when it is stepped on the foot and becomes an ice surface

So are there any materials that can better simulate ice? A new type of thermosetting polyurea material, polyaspartate polyurea (referred to as "aspartate polyurea"), has entered the public eye
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"After Beijing's successful bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2015, we began to study thermosetting artificial ice
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" Xu Chunyang, co-inventor of liquid synthetic ice from Beijing All Season Sports Technology Co.

But wear resistance alone is not enough
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When an athlete is skating, the steel blade of the ice blade will cause certain damage to the surface of the ice body

"We spent months researching the balance of performance and invited professional sports teams to conduct extensive testing on samples, resulting in a liquid synthetic ice that is 'brittle' and wear-resistant
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Currently in routine testing, synthetic ice materials The average loss rate is 5 years/mm, which can fully support long-term use

　　Another great advantage of this synthetic ice is that it is easy to maintain
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The research team adjusted the solid content of the synthetic ice material so that it can solidify slowly at room temperature, which can support stadium staff in spraying or leveling maintenance operations on the ice surface

　　According to Xu Chunyang, the penetration rate of ice and snow sports in the Chinese market is still low
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They cooperated with the Health and Sports Development Center of the China Care for the Next Generation Working Committee and established the Four Seasons Ice and Snow Project to promote ice and snow sports to 500,000 primary and secondary schools, communities, institutions and other units across the country
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"In addition to ice skating rinks for ice skates, we have also developed products such as land curling and table curling.
We hope to use campuses and communities as windows to lower the threshold for participation in ice and snow sports, so that more people can participate and enjoy ice and snow sports.
fun
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" Xu Chunyang said
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