Okay, here's an ice tech's comments.

Quote:
Brushing produces heat.
Unquote.

Produce the evidence for this. Our own (SCIG) research found no evidence at all, the results can be found here:

http://www.scottishcurlingicegroup.org/reports/SweepingAndIceTemperature.pdf

There is a separate report that also deals with this:

http://www.scottishcurlingicegroup.org/reports/FrictionVsTemperature.pdf

To summarise briefly, sweeping essentially clears amorphous ice (frost) from the ice surface (or the tops of the pebbles, to be exact). Without the frost the stones travel further and curl less. In a rink where there is very little frost and cold ice-surface temperatures, the stones travel further and curl less EVEN WITHOUT SWEEPING. The way they get stones to curl more is to deal with the running bands of the stones by "sanding" them to create a rougher texture, and suddenly the stones "finish well", aka they "dive at the end".

The Balance Plus fabric discussed here will move the frost and damage the ice less, but it will not warm up the ice to a degree where heat can become an influence. It works like this. A brush or pad head is say 200mm wide, covering a distance of some 35 metres in 27 seconds or so. Ignoring the fact that the stones travels ever slower, that's 1.3m per second. For a brush/pad to sweep all that distance in one second will require some significant effort, like 30+ to and fro movements. I have not yet met two players who can syncronise their efforts and achieve this, if they achieve 10% of this they're doing very well.

There is no doubt in my mind that the effects of sweeping are exaggerated. Sweeping certainly helps, but only as far as removing some frost from the ice surface and so make some difference in how far the stone will travel and how much (or little) it will curl. As for fabrics used to perform this sweeping, they have one advantage over brushes: they stay on top of the pebbles, rather than also between the pebbles onto the ice surface, and are therefore easier to manipulate to and fro. The gentler the fabric, the less damage. Why pads were introduced in the first place I do not know, but they are certainly popular for the easier sweeping and they most definitely destroy the surface of the pebble. In fact, after a few ends these pads will remove so much of the pebble that the characteristics will change to provide not only keener ice, but more curl, primarily by an increase in the contact area between stone and ice.

It takes about ten seconds sweeping on the same spot to produce sufficient heat to affect the behaviour of a stone. The effect will be (WILL be) that the stone will travel less far and curl more -- try sweeping a stone at its death in the house and it will be possible to force the stone to curl in behind a guard, el pronto.

The data given at the bottom of the EQ page baffles me completely. It is true that there is a certain amount of MSMM/F going on under the running band of the stone, even at -5C, but it is quite impossible to measure this. Also, the measurement of the ice surface temperature is very difficult and seldom accurate, even the most sophisticated Infrared equipment will have to be accurately calibrated  and then used under laboratory conditions. A simple waft of air over the spot will change the reading by 0.2C, and this will take a minute or two to recover, and will only recover if there is no further air movement or if more heat is extracted. Taking everything I know into account, these figures they provide cannot be trusted unless they publish a comprehensive report to prove it. I must add that the many Canadian reports or claims that I have studied take a lot for granted and are seldom scientifically correct.

Can I stop now?