On the evening of February 4, the one-year countdown to the Beijing Winter Olympics was held at the “Ice Cube” of the National Aquatics Center. The exterior design of the torch for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games was officially released.
The overall appearance of the torch echoes the shape of the main torch tower at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The torch is “based” with auspicious cloud patterns, which gradually transitions from the auspicious cloud pattern to the paper-cut style snowflake pattern from bottom to top, and rotates and rises like a ribbon fluttering. Wang Xiangyu, deputy director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said that the torch of the 2022 Winter Olympics reflects the perfect integration of artistic design and technological innovation.
Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Torch
Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics Torch
Carbon fiber replaces traditional metal materials
The previous Winter Olympic torches, including the Olympic torches, were made of traditional metal materials. The “Flying” torch shell was made of light-weight, high-temperature-resistant carbon fiber material, and the torch combustion tank was also mainly made of carbon fiber material.
According to Huang Xiangyu, a carbon fiber expert and deputy general manager of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd., the Beijing Winter Olympics torch is composed of a torch shell and a combustion device. The torch shell is made of carbon fiber and its composite materials, showing “light, solid , beauty” characteristics.
—“Light”: Compared with the same volume of aluminum alloy, carbon fiber composite material is more than 20% lighter.
—“Solid”: The material has the characteristics of high strength, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, friction resistance, ultraviolet radiation resistance and so on.
—“Beauty”: The internationally advanced three-dimensional three-dimensional weaving molding technology is applied to weave high-performance fibers into a beautiful whole with complex shapes.
Universities, research institutes and science and technology companies have worked together to overcome a series of problems, solve the application bottleneck of carbon fiber composite materials under extreme conditions, and realize the normal use of the torch casing in a hydrogen combustion environment above 800 °C. It solved the problems of foaming and cracking of the torch shell during the high temperature preparation process of 1000 °C.
Huang Xiangyu said that the use of carbon fiber composite materials for torches has achieved innovation in 3 aspects:
1, 3D weaving method
It can be prepared in various shapes, and can be prepared according to the size requirements of the designer. This is a technological breakthrough in carbon fiber molding.
2, Mold design
The design of the forming mold uses a combined mold to solve the requirements of different curved surfaces.
3, High temperature resin
A very special resin that can withstand high temperatures is selected. In addition, the resin molding technology is also specially designed for this resin.
Using hydrogen as fuel to overcome three major problems.
Han Zongjie, senior engineer of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that the development of the torch has solved many technical problems such as flame color and stability, high-pressure hydrogen storage, and safe utilization of hydrogen energy. High safety and reliability, wind resistance 10, can be used in extremely cold weather, the decompression ratio is as high as several hundred times. While solving complex problems, it also takes into account the requirements of lightweight and miniaturized shape matching.
The first is the color of the flame. The flame of hydrogen gas is invisible in sunlight, which is not sufficient for shooting. The research team has developed a formula that can adjust the color of the hydrogen flame to give it a visible flame color in sunlight.
The second is the stability of the flame. During the torch relay, strong winds may be encountered, and the research team solved the problem of the flame combustion stability of the torch under the wind speed of 100 km/h.
Again, there is the issue of high-pressure hydrogen storage. How to perform large scale decompression? Inside the torch, the space is very small. In such a space, how to achieve a large decompression of up to several hundred times is a very difficult problem. The team developed a lightweight and miniaturized hydrogen decompression device to decompress high-pressure hydrogen.
Past Torch Review
After reading the torch design of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the Winter Paralympics, let’s review the torches of the 5 Winter Olympics in the past~
The 23rd session in 2018
Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, South Korea
The 22nd session in 2014
Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia
The 21st session in 2010
Vancouver, Canada Winter Olympics
The 20th session in 2006
Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy
The nineteenth session in 2002
Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, USA
