Floorball is a beautiful sport. But it is also very hard! Players as well as the game equipment (floorball rinks), have to deal with this hardness. Floorball rinks are exposed to intense shots, shocks, or even falls almost every match or training. The rinks are composed of individual parts. Each part must be designed to resist well all these sports characteristic. The resistance of the rinks consists mainly of: material, technology and production process. Let's take a closer look at them!
Types of rinks
We can divide the floorball rinks according to material, price, safety, environmental perspective or according to the certification of the International Floorball Federation (IFF). There are following twou groups on the floorball market:
- IFF certified rinks
- non certificated IFF rinks
The official IFF games (like for example World floorball championship) can be played only on an IFF certificated rink. Furthermore, the rinks provided with IFF certification must pass quality and safety tests. This control is carried out by IFF and in order to be certified it is necessary to meet all the test criteria according to the IFF floorball equipment test. The manufactures pay the certification fee. IFF will provide you the certification label with a numerical designation for this fee. One of the main reasons why IFF has taken this step is to provide product safety and quality equipment on the market to keep the reputation of floorball on the top level. If you buy floorball equipment with the certification label, IFF guarantees its quality and safety. However there are some quality issues among certificated products, which should be properly managed.
For better orientation we divide the floorball rinks into 2 groups according to their quality:
- The cheapest floorball rinks
- The High Quality rinks
The cheapest floorball rinks
You can expect a lower price for the base line rinks. Lower price usually means lower quality of the rinks means using a cheaper material and poor construction. This affects the durability of the rinks. We recommend to consider the construction of the rinks. The rinks should not stand up just due to the connection with others, but a single piece has stand alone easily.
The High Quality rinks
What can we expect from the high quality rinks? They should be made of a high quality and durable plastic. This material guarantees both the strength of the boards and an ideal ball bounce. You can recognize the high-quality rinks at first sight from the back side, where a thicker plastic welds (about 22 mm) can be found. Therefore, they have much bigger strength and durability. Generally, the thicker the weld, the better the strength. The thicker welds have up to 3 times stronger and have longer lifetime than the thin welds.
Now we will show you the main criteria to consider when choosing the new floorball rinks. Let's describe the difference between these criteria and compare the cheapest floorball rinks and the jigh quality rinks.
Stability of rinks
The rinks excluding the support element are displayed below. This type of the rink is unstable and usually shake in the game. The whole rinks row can also fall down easily. Some brand are sorted out this problem by fixing connecting joint permanently or added a metal structure embedded in the rinks. Following examples why of these solution are mentioned below.
Contrary to the High Quality rinks, you will find the support system to prevent from falling down on the playground. One of these systems is called the "Stable triangle technology". This system is characterized by greater stability thanks to the stabilizing element on each part of the rink. As a result of using this system the rinks are more stable. Furthermore there is no need to use metal elements, clubs can effectively avoid dangerous metal in the circumferential edges and metal joints.
Rinks safety
Metal parts are used in the various parts of the cheapest floorball rinks. Metal can be a problem in the fast and dynamic game, so we recommend to carefully consider how this element is incorporated into the construction of the rinks. Ideally, there should be no metal in floorball rinks. Metal is inserted into the rinks in their joints, where it serves to fix the connection and above all it replaces the stabilization system of the rinks. The metal can be used also inside the circumferential edges. The metal construction makes the rink part to be more fixed not deformate. Floorball game is very dynamic - the rinks part can disconnect during hard hits and the metal parts can be so revealed, players can hurt themselves on the metal parts. Safety is one of the most important aspects when considering buying rinks. eFloorball recommends to avoid metal elements that may cause problems and injuries in the future.
Connection
Another risky element of the rinks is a fixed connection of its parts. The joint should not hold together in all situations! The correct rinks should be stable without these metal elements. The rinks should disconnect when absorbing a strong hit - the parts should be partially separated, moved away and thus they help to slow down the hit. Unfortunately, it does not happen when a fixed joint is used. The impacts to the rinks are harder.
Some manufacturers use plastic bolt joints, others plastic hooks. These kind of joints might be too fixed - when a player hits the rinks they are not disconnected. This is quite a risky element, we recommend to replaced it by a "flexible joint". This is the best option of joining the rinks, which contributes the safety to all the participants. In principle, an elastic stretch rubber is used for the connection, which streches when players hits the rinks. So the rink parts spread apart.
Upper edge
The upper edge is one of the most dangerous part of the rinks. The most of the players' contact with the rinks is in this section. Manufacturers of the cheapest floorball rinks use metal to stabilize their products in the circumferential parts of the rinks, it can be dangerous. The shape of the upper edge will certainly help you to distinguish safe and high quality rinks from those of poor quality and dangerous ones. For the cheapest rinks you can find this part with a sharp edge, while for the high quality rinks you will find a round edge.
Lifetime of floorball rinks
Natural resources are spent when producing floorball rinks - to produce plastic, metal etc. It is ecological and effective to consider the lifetime. The cheaper rinks need to be replaced very often due to their low quality, therefore the ecological burden is higher than by the quality rinks which last much longer.
When evaluating all the qualitative criteria described above, we find both advantages and disadvantages of high quality and cheapest floorball rinks. The advantages and disadvantages of both types of rinks were summarized in several points below.
The cheapest floorball rinks
Disadvantages
- Lower weld strength
- Lower safety
- Lower stability
- Lower lifetime
- Top edge of metal or non-round
Advantage:
- Lower purchase price.
The High Quality rinks
Advantage:
- Longer lifetime
- More safety
- Stronger weld technology
- Stable rigid cushion that holds in a vertical position - pitch does not fall.
- Round top edge
Disadvantages
- Slightly higher purchase price.
Storage and handling of rinks
If you are buying floorball rinks, do not forget about floorball rinks trolley. A good manufacturer should have floorball rinks trolley available along with the rinks. The trolley will ensure a comfortable and fast transport of rinks on the playground. It will also provide you with excellent storage space while reducing space requirements. If you want to store the rinks on the trolley, do not forget about trolleys must be constructed including braces on spacers, otherwise the rinks can be deformated.
Floorball rinks with ideal price / quality ratio - Floorbee rinks
High-quality IFF-certified rinks include floorbee rinks. The rinks are made of high-quality plastic to guarantee their strength. Floorbee floorball rinks are available in different color combinations, but white and black are the best selling. Floorbee uses the most modern Swiss manufacturing techniqy that guarantee weld strengths over 80-90%. This is almost the same strength as a continuous layer of a material without weld. To increase the safety of the rinks, the upper edge is rounded off. This rounded edge is very safe especially in case a hit. Floorbee has improved its rinks with the use of "Stable triangle technology" - the use of this technology makes the rinks very stable, keeping shape and at the same time they meet IFF's demanding safety criteria.
Floorbee Floorball rinks can be found in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Finland, Singapore and other countries around the world. IFF Certification is a matter of course for Floorbee rinks.
We have shown the difference between high quality and low quality rinks. In case you are still not sure about the choice and would like to advise, do not hesitate to contact us at the following email address: info@efloorball.net . We will be happy to help you! ;-)