Nowadays, the Winter Olympics have been held in full swing on the mainland, and the mainland is also a country participating in the curling project, which has attracted the attention of many people, it is known as "chess on ice", but it is not known that it looks like a very ordinary curling, but the cost is not cheap.
There are many netizens who believe that the reason why curling is expensive should be that its production raw materials are relatively scarce, but this is not the case, according to the current curling demand, its raw materials can be supplied for at least 10 million years, so why is curling so expensive?
An ordinary curling assembly costs up to 180,000
Curling originated in Scotland in the 16th century, in the winter cold, many rivers will be frozen, a thick layer of ice, in order to find fun, scots like to play related games on the ice, in the long run, this game gradually evolved into curling.
Today, it has developed into a global sport, officially joining the Winter Olympics since the late 1980s.
The shape of the whole curling is round pot-shaped, with a circumference of about 92 cm, a height of 11 cm, and a weight of 39 pounds. During the race, the participating athletes need to step on the pedal and then slide with the curling, throw the whiskers at the front of the throw line, and ensure that the area between the front throw line and the bottom line is effective when they reach the far end.
In the Winter Olympic Games, curling is a sport that combines static and dynamic femininity, and it is the longest broadcast event in the whole. Compared with other sports, curling is not only more physical, but more often than intelligent. The price of a set of equipment is at least 180,000 yuan for curling on a round pier, why is curling so expensive?
1, the production of raw materials is extremely special
Many people questioned: "Isn't the raw material of curling made of stone, why is it more special?" "In fact, as long as you carefully observe the competition process, it is not difficult to find that you want to keep curling near the center of the camp, but also to ensure that the curling of the other party can not collide, so that the raw material stone for making curling is not an ordinary stone."
Because it needs to be in a low temperature environment, it can not be broken. Know that the best curling raw material stones in the world mainly come from elsa Craig Island near the west coast of Scotland.
The picture shows Elsa Craig Island
Located about 16 kilometres off the coast of South Ayrshire, the island is an isolated island because it was formed by volcanic eruptions and was converted into a prison until around the 18th century, when it remained deserted and is now home to animals.
The most special thing about this small island is that it has an extremely low quartz content in its granite. Quartz has one of the biggest weaknesses, that is, once it is placed in a relatively low temperature, harsh environment, it will become very fragile, especially in collisions, the higher the amount of quartz contained in a stone, the easier it is to produce cracks, or even breakage.
The granite produced by this small island formed by the volcano contains a very low amount of quartz, even in the cold environment, we do not have to worry about it will rupture, it can be said that the curling made of granite from this small island is fully in line with the requirements of high-specification competition.
The manufacturer has exclusively mined this granite, and during the grinding process, the blue grinding stone mainly acts on the bottom of the curling, and the appearance texture is close to crystal, after all, it is very hard, and there is a waterproof effect.
Even repeated rubbing on a wet ice surface can keep it round and will not deform. In addition, the appearance of the entire curling body is made of ordinary green granite, even if it is an abnormal impact, there will be no rupture.
It is worth mentioning that the granite in this small island will not be depleted in the short term, and relevant experts predict that this granite is sufficient enough, even if the annual mining volume is increasing year by year, it will take at least 10 million years to completely mine it.
2, high manual production costs, the production process is very cumbersome
Although the raw materials for curling are very special, this is not the main factor in its high price, because the production process of curling is very cumbersome and needs to rely entirely on manual manufacturing, which also leads to the very high cost of its production. It is reported that from the first process of polishing the entire mined raw stone, to bonding, manual polishing, etc., the manufacture of a curling needs to go through more than twenty processes, and at least five skilled workers take three days to complete a set of curling.
In the production process, the production experience of the workers plays a crucial role, and the skilled production of high-quality curling. For example, in the process of polishing and polishing, workers need to use small glass beads to spray the edge of the stone, so that the side of the curling will produce a circle of holes, this degree of grinding force, a little careless, will make the hole larger, the previous entire process will be wasted.
3, the production of curling has been completely monopolized
In the world, there are currently only three curling companies that produce competition-specific curling companies, and Scotland Case Company has completely monopolized the exclusive mining of Curling Stone on El Sacraig Island, while the other two companies are the only two companies that manufacture curling that meet the requirements of the competition, in other words, only the curling produced by these two manufacturers meets the requirements of the competition.
For the Winter Olympics, there are many countries participating in curling competitions, which also makes curling expensive due to the small number of manufacturing companies. Once this huge profit cake is divided among other production companies, the more production companies, the greater the number of curling pots produced, then its price will not be so expensive.
Rubbing curling requires endurance
In the eyes of many people, the curling track should be very smooth, in fact, the ice surface in the curling track is not smooth, because in the making of the ice track, there will be small water droplets on it, which is like paving a cobblestone road.
In this kind of road race, the curling walking route is extremely unstable, a little careless will cross the line, and even hit the curling of other opponents, most of the participants in this kind of competition are also testing the patience and care of a competition staff.
Today, 96 carefully selected curling has long been transported to the mainland at the end of last year, curling is a team event, the spirit of teamwork is very important, let us wish the curling team to play a style, repeatedly win the championship, dominate the wind!