JP2001165542A - Snow making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ice making machine in which a temperature of water can be decreased positively and some fine water droplets can be formed. SOLUTION: An ice making machine 10 of the present invention is comprised of a blower segment 11 where a blower wind generating means 110 is stored in it and having a cooling mechanism 30 performed with blower wind arranged at an upstream side of the blower wind generating means; and a nozzle segment 15 for mixing compressed air with pressure water after passing through the cooling mechanism 30 of the blower segment 11 and injecting them together. The cooling mechanism 30 is constituted by a hollow pipe 310 made of raw material having a superior thermal conductivity, and it is arranged at a circumferential edge of an opening of the cylindrical blower segment 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a snowmaker for artificially producing snow.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a machine for artificially making snow, a pressurized water and a compressed air are mixed to form fine water droplets (80 to 130 microns), which are injected into outside air below the freezing point or blown off by a fan for instantaneous use. It is generally known that ice is frozen to form spherical snow (ice) different from natural snow.

[0003] These fine water droplets are formed by mixing pressure water and compressed air. In this type of snow making machine, an indoor snow making apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-93267.

On the other hand, in snowmaking outdoors, which is affected by natural conditions, it is necessary to reliably spray fine water droplets.
In the injection of pressurized water, the balance between the injection nozzle and the water pressure is a major factor. At the design stage, the number of nozzles, the mounting structure, the spray angle, etc. are being developed. In addition, when the outside air temperature is relatively high, the water temperature and the addition balance of the compressed air are important factors in order to produce good-quality and dry snow.

[0005]

As described above, as conditions for snowfall, outside temperature, relative humidity, and water temperature are major factors. Of these, natural conditions such as temperature and humidity Since the water temperature is unchanged, it is considered to lower the water temperature. Therefore, a cooling tower was installed to cool down the temperature of the water while snowing.

Accordingly, the present invention is to provide a snow making machine that can provide a cooling means for compressed air in addition to the water temperature drop by the cooling tower to further lower the water temperature and form fine water droplets.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a snow blower including a blower wind generating means therein, and a blower cooling mechanism disposed upstream of the blower wind generating means.
A nozzle unit for mixing the compressed air with the pressurized water after passing through the cooling mechanism of the blower unit and jetting the mixed air. This cooling mechanism is composed of a hollow tube made of a material having good heat conductivity,
It has a configuration including a hollow tube and cooling fins disposed on the peripheral edge of the tube, and includes a configuration disposed on the peripheral edge of the opening of the cylindrical blower portion.

[0008]

Embodiment 1 An embodiment of a snowmaker according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a snowmaker according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory side view thereof. The snowmaker 10 has a configuration in which a blower unit 11, a wind tunnel unit 13, and a nozzle unit 15 are connected in series, and an operation unit 2 that instructs each unit to drive and control.
0, a compressor 40 for compressing air and the like are provided.

The blower section 11 is a cylindrical body in which a blower impeller 110 as a blower generating means is rotatably disposed, and a protection member 121 of the blower impeller 110 is disposed at an opening at the tip end. The protection member 121 is, for example, a net, and is stretched over the protection member support portion 120 fitted to the tip of the blower portion 11. Protective member support 12
Reference numeral 0 denotes a plurality of connecting rods 120c connecting the two annular supporting portions 120a and 120b and the annular supporting portions 120a and 120b.
Is made up of The blower impeller 110 is electrically connected to the operation unit 20 in which a driving mechanism and the like are stored.

A ring cooler 30 as a cooling means is provided on the protection member support 120. Ring cooler 30
Is made of a material having a good thermal conductivity, for example, a hollow tube made of aluminum as shown in FIG.
It has a ring shape along 0 and is supported by the connecting rod 120c and attached to the protection member support 120 by a stopper 125. The ring cooler 30 includes a ring-shaped cooling unit 310 and an introduction pipe 31 connected to one end of the cooling unit 310.
1. The cooling unit 310 includes a discharge pipe 319 connected to the other end. The introduction pipe 311 is connected to the air hose 30
1 is connected to the compressor 40. The discharge pipe 313 is connected to a nozzle 15 described later. An air pressure gauge 319 is attached to the discharge pipe 313 so that the pressure of the air flowing through the discharge pipe 313 can be measured. A first drain valve 315 is provided at a lower portion of the cooling unit 310 on the side where the inlet pipe 311 is connected.
A second drain valve 317 is provided at a connection portion with the valve 13.

The rear end opening of the blower section 11 has a wind tunnel section 13.
Are connected in series. The wind tunnel 13 has a hollow cylindrical shape, and guides the blower wind from the blower 11 to the downstream side.

The nozzle section 15 is connected to the wind tunnel section 13 (see FIG. 4). The nozzle portion 15 has a donut shape in which a passage for air and water is formed. In addition, a number of nozzles 150 that open toward the passage of the blower style are provided.

A discharge pipe 301 of the ring cooler 30 is connected to the nozzle 15, and the compressed air discharged from the ring cooler 30 is discharged to the nozzle 15. Further, the configuration is such that pressure water from a water source (not shown) is discharged into the nozzle portion 15.

That is, the compressed air and the pressurized water are mixed in the nozzle portion 15. Then, the pressurized water is mixed with the compressed air to form fine mist-like water droplets (for example, water droplets of 80 to 130
Micron) and is ejected from the nozzle 150.

The fine water droplets ejected from the nozzle 150 suddenly become zero due to the temperature drop due to the adiabatic expansion of the compressed air and the latent heat cooling due to the evaporation of water, and become snow. Then, the air is discharged into the outside air together with the wind from the blower unit 11.

Here, the first drain valve 315 provided in the ring cooler 30 stops the operation of the snowmaker 10 after stopping the operation.
When opened, the water remaining in the ring cooler 30 is discharged. Further, the second drain valve 317 has a function of discharging the water in the ring cooler 310 and a valve for discharging the water remaining in the discharge pipe 313 similarly to the first drain valve 315. Has been prevented.

Next, the operation of the snowmaker 10 of the present invention will be described. When the switch is turned on by the operation unit 20, the blower impeller 110 rotates, and the outside air flows down from the outside of the machine through the wind tunnel 13 in the direction indicated by the arrow a.

Further, the compressor 40 is turned on, and compressed air flows into the ring cooler 30 from the introduction pipe 311 through the air hose 301. The inflowing compressed air is compressed and enters the ring cooler 30 in a high temperature state. And
Arrow a of the blower unit 11 while passing through the ring cooler 30
Is cooled by a blower (suction) wind indicated by. The cooled compressed air flows into the discharge pipe 313. At this time, since the ring cooler 30 is disposed on the connecting rod 120c of the annular support portion 120, the ring cooler 30 receives cooling air from all sides, thereby improving the cooling efficiency.

For example, the air compressed by the cooling in the snow making machine of the present invention is usually about 50 ° C., but the compressed air that has passed through the ring cooler 30 is 4 ° C. to 8 ° C.
Cool down to

The cooled compressed air flowing into the nozzle portion 15 from the discharge pipe 313 is mixed with the pressure water separately flowing into the nozzle portion 15 to form fine water droplets.

The fine water droplets are ejected from the nozzle 150 and turn into snow. Then, the air is released into the outside air together with the blower wind flowing down the wind tunnel 13 from the blower unit 11.

As described above, in the snow making machine 10 of the present invention, the compressed air discharged to the nozzle portion in the normal high temperature state is cooled by the suction air (blower air) of the blower impeller 110 through the ring cooler 30. After that, the water droplets are supplied to the nozzle portion 15, so that the water droplets mixed with the pressurized water and miniaturized are cooled. In this way, the finely cooled water is surely turned into snow when injected into the outside air.

Next, a water temperature of 10.2 ° C. and a water volume of 60 liters
A snowmaking experiment using / min was performed. In the experiment of the test body 1, the compressed air (151.0 ° C.) was directly discharged to the nozzle portion, mixed with the pressure water under the above conditions, and injected into the outside air at −0.8 ° C. Test 2 was performed using compressed air (151.0 ° C).
Through a ring cooler to cool it down to a temperature of 107.8 ° C.
Compressed air was discharged to the nozzle portion, mixed with the pressure water under the above conditions, and injected into -0.2 ° C. outside air. In the experiment of the test body 3, the compressed air (151.0 ° C.) was cooled by passing through a ring cooler, and the compressed air having the temperature of 104.1 ° C. was discharged to the nozzle portion, and the compressed water with the above conditions was mixed with the compressed water. Mix, -0.5
Injected into the outside air of ° C.

The results are shown in the following table.

[Table 1]

According to the above test results, in the case of Experiment 1, the water droplets having a fine shape sprayed did not become snow. Experiment 2, Experiment 3
Means that despite the outside air temperature being higher than the outside air temperature of Experiment 1,
I was able to build snow.

As described above, this snow making machine can form cooled water droplets by cooling the compressed air, and can make snow even if the outside air temperature is somewhat high.

As described above, when the jetted finely cooled water droplets touch the outside air, they freeze instantaneously to snow. This phenomenon is completed within a fraction of a second of flight of 3 to 4 m from the nozzle portion 15, resulting in a dry spherical shape different from a natural snow crystal. Such artificial snow fuses with each other and forms snow, similar to the sintering phenomenon of metal. Then, in the case of natural snow, even if 1 m of fresh snow is piled up, if it snows, it will condense to about 30 cm. However, the snow formed by this snowmaker hardly changes its snow thickness even if it snows.

Although the cooling mechanism shown in this embodiment has a ring shape, it is not limited to a circular shape but has a spiral shape.
A triangular shape, a quadrangular shape, or the like may be used, and a cooling effect can be improved by disposing cooling fins around the cooler.

Further, the cooler is divided into an upper half and a lower half,
A form in which the supply amount of the cooled compressed air to the nozzle portion is increased is also possible.

[0030]

According to the present invention, it is possible to economically provide a snowmaker that reliably lowers the temperature of fine water droplets and produces dry snow without significantly modifying the existing structure.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a snowmaker according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the snowmaker according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a cooling mechanism (ring cooler) according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a nozzle portion of the snowmaker according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Snowmaker 11 Blower part 13 Wind tunnel part 15 Nozzle part 20 Operation part 30 Ring cooler 40 Compressor 110 Blower impeller 120 Ring support part 120c Connecting rod 121 Protective member 150 Nozzle 301 Air hose 301 Discharge pipe 310 Cooling part 311 Introductory pipe 313 Discharge Pipe 315 Drain valve 319 Air pressure gauge

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A blower unit having a blower wind generating means therein, and a nozzle unit disposed downstream of the blower unit for mixing and blowing compressed air and pressurized water, wherein the blower unit has a blower wind A snowmaker having a cooling mechanism using a blower wind disposed upstream of the generating means, wherein compressed air flows into the nozzle portion via the cooling mechanism. 2. The snow making machine according to claim 1, wherein said cooling mechanism is constituted by a hollow tube made of a material having a good thermal conductivity. 3. The snowmaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the cooling mechanism comprises a hollow tube made of a material having a good thermal conductivity and cooling fins arranged on the periphery of the tube. 4. The snowmaking machine according to claim 1, wherein the cooling mechanism is formed of a hollow tube made of a material having a good thermal conductivity, and is disposed around an opening of a cylindrical blower.