Sylvan Lake

The Town of Sylvan Lake is excited to share news of our new CIMCO, SMART Transfer System. This maybe doesn’t sound as exciting as it should be, so let us explain.

We (well anyone with an indoor ice surface really), rely on refrigerants to create and maintain our indoor ice surfaces. Refrigerants include products like Freon, Ammonia, and CO2, which are toxic. Exposure to these chemicals – either for planned maintenance, or in the event of a leak, is dangerous and requires extensive training, and the use of personal protective equipment.  

Now we have some fabulous ice operators, who have done an excellent job in maintaining our ice, while keeping us all safe (and will continue to do so); however, relying on manual decision-making to detect/diagnose potential leak situations isn’t ideal, and puts a lot of added pressure on our crews. 

With our new SMART Transfer System, the Town eliminates the need for our staff/operators to potentially expose themselves to these dangerous refrigerants! The new system detects leaks or high-levels of refrigerants, then automatically isolates the chemicals and only returns the product back to our system once a leak or issue is resolve; no risk of exposure to people, and no impact on our infrastructure, including the ice itself (which also means neither the ice, nor facility users are impacted).

With a final (on budget) cost of $216,000 for purchase and install, this is pretty leading-edge technology – we’re the first in Canada to utilize, in fact, and we’re really happy that it both enhances safety, and improves efficiencies within our NexSource Centre.