UNews - rubber

Horns looking for medals at Canada West Track Championship

trevor.kenney — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 18:51:37 +0000

The 2014-15 Canada West Track & Field Championships will see a small but talented ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge team compete this weekend at the Max Bell Fieldhouse in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba.

The Horns will send 12 athletes to the championship meet this year, with seven women and five men ready to challenge for conference titles.

Reigning CIS rookie of the year Aaron Hernandez and two-time Canada West weight throw gold medalist Peter Millman lead the Pronghorns this season and are favourites to win their respective events. The men’s team as a whole has been ranked 10th in the country for the past three weeks.

Following a stellar freshman campaign where he won both the Canada West and CIS gold medal in the triple jump, Hernandez enters the championship meet as the jumper to beat, ranked first in both the Canada West and CIS in his event.

Millman has had an exceptional start to his third season and goes to Winnipeg as the top ranked thrower in Canada West. Undefeated thus far this season, Millman sits atop the rankings in both the weight throw and shot put amongst Canada West competition. He is also ranked second in the CIS.

Ryan Sommer sits in second place in the Canada West rankings in both weight throw and shot put and sixth in CIS. Madison Hurst and Jordan Armstrong round out a strong men's team, ranking sixth and 13th in conference rankings for shot put and weight throw respectively.

On the women’s side, third-year Truro, Nova Scotia product Montana Forsyth is the top ranked Pronghorn athlete, ranking fifth in the weight throw, while Lara Roth is ranked one spot behind her at sixth.

The women's 4X200m relay team is ranked sixth in Canada West and looks to better its season's best time and ranking.

Overall, the Horns are poised to take home five medals and build on their preparations for the CIS Championships.

"We have had a strong season from a number of athletes thus far, but Canada West is where the rubber really starts to hit the road and preparations for CIS begin to show through,” says head coach Larry Steinke. “I'm expecting strong results from everyone and signs indicate that we will have some very notable performances again this year at Canada West."

Collaboration yields plumbing solution

trevor.kenney — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:41:13 +0000

A cooperative effort has helped to thwart a non-compatibility issue and for that, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students, staff and faculty can be thankful this winter.

When the Central Plant's hot water heating system began to see a number of its valves fail, their rubber linings chewed away to the point where they no longer held water, TJ Hanson and his Utilities staff suspected something more sinister than wear and tear was at the heart of the problem.

"The last few years we've had a number of incidents where valves throughout the system just weren't holding," says Hanson, the director of Facility Operations and Maintencance. "We would close a valve but water would continue through the line and it made it very difficult to isolate a boiler for service."

A total of three gas fired boilers work in unison to supply closed loop hot water heating to the U of L. With valves continuing to fail and another winter heating season looming, Hanson and the Utilities crew knew something had to be done.

"When we opened the valves up and looked at them they were all deteriorating or completely chewed up," says Hanson. "We had a chemical analysis done of the water in the system and we spoke with the valve supplier, but they assured us their valves were fine."

So, the crew decided to seek out its own expert – and found him in-house.

"Terry Sutton came up with the idea that we should contact someone in our chemistry department," says Hanson.

The chemistry someone in question was Dr. René Boeré, and it didn't take long for Boeré to determine what was wrong with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's failing valves. By examining the 20 or so constituents in the boiler water, their concentration and subsequently checking their compatibility with the rubber material (known as EPDM) of the valves, Boeré found a problem.

"The list from the analyst contained a range of substances, which I compared to a chemical compatibility index," says Boeré. "EPDM is supposed to have good compatibility with the majority of the ingredients in the boiler water. Of those species present that might attack this rubber, I looked at how much was identified as being in the water. Of these, the substance morpholine was one of the highest in concentration and most deleterious to EPDM."

Morpholine is an antiquated agent that has been used in steam and hot water systems because it distributes evenly between hot water and steam, and provides corrosion protection. Chemicals of its type have not been used in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's systems for well over 25 years. However, it has remained present as a legacy chemical and in ever-declining concentration.

"That was, more or less, our smoking gun," says Hanson, who now had a summer project on his hands.

The only solution was to shut down the entire system, clean it out and start from scratch.

"We drained and refilled the entire system twice, and circulated the water each time to flush it out," says Hanson. "Then we began the process of replacing valves on campus, a total of 220, ranging in size from four to 14 inches."

The system is now free of Morpholine and with the heating season on the doorstep, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is prepared, all thanks to the cooperative work of two very distinct ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ units.

"We have to think all the time about the kinds of materials we use to handle a wide range of chemicals, thus we get used to the idea of checking material compatibility," says Boeré. "It was a pleasure to be able to use these skills to help out TJ and his staff as they work to keep us warm throughout the winter. I think it's easy for us in the offices and classrooms to take their work for granted."

For a look at the full issue of the November Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

The science of plumbing

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:05:54 +0000

A cooperative effort has helped to thwart a non-compatibility issue and for that, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students, staff and faculty can be thankful this winter.

So, the crew decided to seek out its own expert – and found him in-house.

"Terry Sutton came up with the idea that we should contact someone in our chemistry department," says Hanson.

"That was, more or less, our smoking gun," says Hanson, who now had a summer project on his hands.

The only solution was to shut down the entire system, clean it out and start from scratch.

For a look at the full issue of the November Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Sports Stadium proves a challenge

trevor.kenney — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:33:07 +0000

There is no denying that construction of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's new Regional Sports Stadium and Field Complex has been trying. Weather conditions have played havoc with the various phases of the project, delaying work crews and subsequently pushing back completion dates.

So, it is hardly surprising to learn that the highest profile phase of the entire project, the installation of the artificial turf field, has been deemed epically difficult by the installer himself.

"We've installed fields worldwide for the last 20 years and this would be the third most difficult, one of the toughest I've been through because of the winds," says Ivan Couto of Ontario-based IC Improvements.

"Normally, we won't install a field at this time of year because of wind but with all the delays we've had, this was our only opportunity."

Laying the roughly 120,000 square foot turf field is essentially like putting down a massive carpet. The rolls are obviously much bigger but the basic concept is the same as any house installation. What complicates matters is wind getting underneath the panels and shifting them after they've been laid, throwing off exacting measurements. Couto and his crew dealt with such problems on a daily basis.

Once the panels are down and stitched together, weather again plays a role. The crew needs a stretch of days without precipitation to apply the unique U of L logos. Again, rain delayed this stage and added more time to the project.

The next stage in the process is giving the field its bounce. As it is, the field is rock hard because it simply rests on a base of hard-packed gravel. The sponginess comes from nearly 400,000 pounds of cryogenically frozen rubber pellets that are worked into the polyethelene turf fibres.

Couto describes a process that uses recycled tires flushed through a nitrogen tank then frozen to -180 C. They are then processed through a cracker mill, shattering the tires to pellet size, after which all metal and extra fibres are extracted, leaving pure rubber.

"The nitrogen changes the density of the rubber so it becomes heavier," Couto explains. "Our fields, when it rains or players are running, don't give you that splash of pellets because of their density."

The fracturing of the rubber also creates uneven edges on the pellets so that when they are installed (to a depth of an inch and ¾) they lock onto each other and remain in place.

"That also makes the whole field consistent, there are no soft or hard spots," he says. "The advantage with the cryogenic process is that in our winters, the pellets don't freeze. It can be -50 C outside and if you play on it, it'll still be soft."

GET THE FACTS

• The installation process of the turf field averages 10 to 14 days, but the U of L installation topped three weeks

• The field is not glued or fastened down in any manner, relying on the nearly 400,000 pounds of rubber infill to keep it in place

• Maintenance of the field includes a yearly visit by IC Improvements where they brush and wash the turf. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will regularly groom the field with a sweeper that fluffs up the fibres and removes any debris

• The lifespan of the turf field is 15 to 20 years

UNews - rubber

Horns looking for medals at Canada West Track Championship

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Collaboration yields plumbing solution

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Sports Stadium proves a challenge

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