February 9, 2015. A portable ice-generating system is now being assembled at Uralvagonzavod stadium in Nizhniy Tagil in preparation for the Russian Classic hockey match.

According to Uralvagonzavod Corporation’s press service, the system is a necessary back-up in case of warmer temperatures which could be detrimental to the ice coating.

‘Two trucks delivered the necessary equipment to Nizhniy Tagil, namely, a set of ice mats and a Freon refrigerating unit. The unit is in charge of cooling the ethylene glycol that runs inside the ice mat pipes and keeps the ice arena cold. The equipment was unloaded with the help of tower cranes, since the Freon unit weighs over 6,000 kg,’ the press service says.

The ice mats have already been put in their places, now the task is to introduce several layers of ice one by one in order to get an ice sheet that is 5cm to 6cm thick, to put up the fences and to paint all the marks on the ice. The contractor promised the quality of the ice to be as good as, or better than that of the conventionally obtained ice coating. The so-called ‘artificial ice’ gets more attention.