NEWS

Football arena was changed to ice hockey arena for Ice Hockey World Championships in a month

- the accomplishment of Suomen Tekojää has been amazing

Ice Hockey World Championship Tournament starts in Riga on Friday. Part of the tournament will be played in Olympic Sports Centre which has been tranfromed from football arena to an ice hockey arena by Suomen Tekojää. CEO Timo Mansikkaviita is using a term ”delivery of conditions” as International Ice Hockey Federation has ordered also a certain air quality in addition to the ice. Suomen Tekojää is responsible for the ice during the whole tournament so also the Ice Masters are from Finland. Moreover also the stand and locker room solutions for 300 players are part of the delivery.

Contract was made a bit over a month ago and now the rehearsals are already ongoing in the arena. Tight schedule is due to the fact that decision to move the tournament away from Minsk was made only in January. An option for Riga was Bratislava where the infra would have been ready after the tournament in 2019. The strenght of Riga was that main arena and Olympic Sports Centre are located so close to each other that there will be no travelling between the locations which is reducing the risk of corona infections.

BIG PROJECT AND TIGHT SCHEDULE

National teams start using Finnish made ice arena on 18th of May and arena will be in active use till the end of the tournament, 6th of June. Already on 12th of June all ice arena technique has been removed.

- We have strong experience and references of World Championships and Olympics but earlier the schedule has been nothing like this. The size of this project is also exceptional and for us the first one where the technique of this scale is delivered and then also removed. In euros this project is a bit more than a million, says Mansikkaviita.

The project started with rolling off the artificial turf in the football arena. Refrigeration piping was installed on top of the concrete floor. Refrigeration equipment racks were delivered in double even though one would have been sufficient. Both units have their own power supplies to ensure continuous refrigeration. Delivery of the conditions is ensured by having four Finnish Ice Masters at the site already. These men are top of their field from Finnish league arenas.

Air conditioning was also part of the project. Conditions need to be convenient for both players and audience. Technique is taking care of the refrigeration and also the humidity of the air which is crucial in the cool arena especially if the weather outside is warm.

- This project in Riga is bigger than we are used to as dasher board is part of the delivery. For that we have a partner Icepro. There will be one ice rink in the middle of the arena and stand for 6500 people around it. However for now it seems there will be no audience due to corona. But we are still building the stand and there might be card board figures sitting in there. The atmosphere in the arena will be created with recorded voices of ice hockey game, says Project Manager Jerry Mansikkaviita from Suomen Tekojää.

The employees of Suomen Tekojää are really efficient as the assembly has been made by nine experts. The Latvians have been wondering how this is possible. Also the International Ice Hockey Federation had had doubts that anyone could deliver a project this big with such a short notice.  Timo Mansikkaviita says the success is possible thanks to many working hours made in advance in Tekojää’s workshop in Parkano.

- We thought we would have a good chance to win the tender so we started to prepare the delivery in advance with a slight risk. Otherwise this would not have been possible. We started assembling the refrigeration equipment about a month ago. Normally we do most of the work in Parkano and only small part of it at site.

Exceptional circumstances have brought some more challenges to the project. Everyone travelling to the site has to have a permission applied six days in advance. Corona test has been needed to take in a certain time and a new test has been required before coming home or entering the site in Riga.  Ice Masters in Riga are working in pairs partly in quarantine so that everyone is not getting infected in the same time if the worst happens.

ENQUIRY WAS BASED ON TEKOJÄÄ’S PLAN

When Riga was chosen as an location option for the tournament Suomen Tekojää was suggested the idea of transforming the football arena to ice hockey arena. The company made a budget quote and a plan of the technique. Timo Mansikkaviita says IIHF used this plan as a basis of the enquiry.

- So basically we were contributing to getting the tournament in Riga. I had visited this particular arena some years ago as there was a plan to change the arena suitable for ice hockey. So I knew the transformation would be possible. There were also a German and an Austrian supplier competing with us in this tender. We won as we were able to deliver everything and also take care of the ice during the tournamet.

Riga’s arena is a remarkable project for Suomen Tekojää and brings international attention.

- Surely this is a great reference for us. We can deliver such an entity anywhere in the world. This project also strenghtens our relationship to IIHF which hopefully brings us similar kinds of projects in the future.

Equipment upgrade in ice arena in Eurajoki

We have provided new refrigeration equipment, heat pump and air handling unit for ice arena in the municipality of Eurajoki. Like most of our previous projects this one was designed and completed with due regard to efficient recovery of condensing heat produced by the refrigeration equipment. The recovered heat energy is utilized in heating coils of the air handling unit and via heat pump in different heating circuits if the arena. 

Heat pump for Botnia Freeze

We have provided a 1 MW heat pump for the Botnia Freeze’s freezing warehouse located in the city of Seinäjoki. The heat pump is placed in a free-standing technical container close to the warehouse and terminal building. The waste heat produced by refrigeration equipment supplied by us earlier is increased with high efficiency rate by means of the heat pump to be utilized in district heating network of the power provider of the city of Seinäkoki.

Equipment upgrade in Tesoma ice arena 2

We have provided new refrigeration equipment along with heat pump and air handling unit for Tesoma ice arena 2 located in the city of Tampere. This project was designed and completed in a similar manner to our previous projects where refrigeration equipment and heat pump unit are placed on the lower level of the two-store technical container, new air handling unit of the arena is placed on the upper floor and liquid cooler is mounted on the roof of the container. Condensing heat produced by the refrigeration equipment is recovered with high efficiency rate to be utilized in heating coils of the air handling unit and via heat pump in different heating circuits of the arena.

Equipment supply contract for ice arena in the city of Joensuu

We have supplied new refrigeration equipment for Mehtimäki ice arena in Joensuu. The scope of the contract included cooling systems of ice sports hall and both old and new training ice arenas as well as slab installations in the latter one. From now on cooling energy for three ice rinks of the arena is provided by two ST N600 refrigeration units manufactured in our assembly workshop in Parkano. Along with the refrigeration unit a high COP heat pump ST 600HP is placed in the same plant room providing hot water for different heating circuits of the arena. The refrigeration units operate on a natural refrigerant ammonia (NH3) and heat pump uses R1234ze as a refrigerant.

Equipment supply contract for Lippumäki twin rinks arena in the city of Kuopio

Suomen Tekojää Oy has supplied refrigeration, ventilation and heat pump systems to Lippumäki twin ice rinks arena. Ammonia refrigeration equipment with cooling capacity of 700 kW along with heat pump unit with heating capacity of 200 kW are placed on the lower level of the technical container. The air handling units serving the ice hall room are placed on the upper level and the liquid cooler is installed on the roof of the container. Condensation heat of the refrigeration equipment is recovered by means of the heat pump unit to be transferred to heating coils of the air handling units as well as to be used in various heating systems of the arena.

Europe’s biggest geoenergy plant ever installed in shopping malls is completed for Skanssi

Adven have completed the renovation of energy systems of Skanssi shopping mall in Turku. Suomen Tekojää Oy have manufactured geothermal heat pumps for the new geothermal energy plant. The heat pump units were delivered to the site in February and after necessary connections, tests and commissioning had been completed the heating and cooling energy for the shopping mall has been provided by the geothermal energy plant.

District cooling plant for Jyväskylän Energia power supply company

We have manufactured district cooling plant with cooling capacity of 5 MW for power supply company of the city of Jyväskylä. The cooling plant is placed at Nova central hospital campus located in Kukkumaki, Central Finland. Cooling energy produced by the district cooling plant is used for air conditioning of the premises of the new hospital building.