JP2659565B2 - Artificial snowfall equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an artificial snowfall apparatus which can be used for snow exposure tests of various devices, parts thereof, and various materials, or displays of various products, and more particularly, water vapor is applied to a cooling surface. The present invention relates to an artificial snowfall apparatus of the type in which ice or frost formed on the surface is scraped off and snow falls.

[Conventional technology]

As this type of artificial snowfall device, water vapor is caused to flow down from the upper part of a cylindrical drum capable of cooling the inner peripheral surface by a humidifier, whereby ice or frost (hereinafter, referred to as snow) is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the drum. , Which is referred to as "moto snow"), which is scraped and dropped by a rotating blade built in a drum.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, according to this type of artificial snowfall device, the steam supplied from the upper part of the cylindrical drum flows out from the lower end of the drum without sufficiently contacting the inner peripheral surface of the drum,
There is a problem that the amount of snowfall is small in proportion to the amount of humidification water.

Further, since the scraping blade advances only to stroke the inner peripheral surface of the drum, the scraper blade becomes smoother than the original snow formed on the inner peripheral surface, rather than scraping the original snow. In addition to the problem that it is possible to perform a simple scraping, it is difficult to position the center of rotation of the snow scraping blade with the center of the drum, and there are also cases where the blade does not rotate smoothly.

Furthermore, the snow falling from the cylindrical drum is concentrated in one place in a heap, and cannot be uniformly distributed over a certain area like natural snow. Even if a large number of cylindrical drums are prepared and arranged, this problem has not been solved because only a large number of heaped snow parts can be provided.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an artificial snowfall device that can make a sufficient amount of snow fall smoothly according to the amount of humidifying water, and that can uniformly deposit snow over a certain area as compared with a conventional cylindrical drum type device. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for solving the problem]

According to the present invention, there is provided a snowmaking room having a vertical panel whose surface can be cooled, a humidifier for supplying and circulating water vapor from a lower portion to an upper portion of the snowmaking room, and an element formed on the surface of the panel. An artificial snowfall device having a vertically movable roll-shaped brush extending in the horizontal direction in view of the surface of the vertical panel for scraping off snow, provided within a range of the length of the bristle constituting the roll-shaped brush. The brush bristles can be moved up and down together with the brush, come into contact with the brush bristles with the rotation of the brush, bend the brush bristles, and then perform a flip-up operation, whereby the brush bristles of the roll-shaped brush are snowed by the rotation. The present invention provides an artificial snowfall device characterized by comprising a brush lifting rod for dropping snow attached to the brush bristles after scraping off.

In addition, the snowmaking room can be provided with a shutter that can be opened and closed at the lower end thereof.

(Operation)

According to the artificial snowfall device of the present invention, while the vertical panels in the snowmaking room are cooled, water vapor is circulated in the snowmaking room by the humidifier. The water vapor moves from the lower part to the upper part of the snowmaking room. When original water snow is formed on the inner surface of the vertical panel due to the entry of the water vapor, they are scraped off by a roll-shaped brush that rotates and falls, and falls downward. The roll brush reaching the lower end of the vertical panel is raised to its initial position in preparation for the next snowfall.

When a shutter is provided at the lower end of the snowmaking room,
It can be closed at the time of forming original snow on the inner surface of the indoor panel, and can be opened at the time of snowfall where the roll-shaped brush is lowered while rotating.

In addition, the original snow attached to the brush bristles after the bristles of the roll-shaped brush scrape off the snow by its rotation,
With the rotation of the brush, the brush bristles to which the original snow adheres are bent while being in contact with the brush lifting bar, and are then shaken off from the brush during the springing operation and fall.
This also makes snow fall smoothly and prevents clogging of the brush.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The illustrated artificial snowfall device includes a rectangular parallelepiped snowmaking chamber 1, and a pair of vertical panels 2, 2 facing each other are provided on both sides of the interior. Each panel surface portion 21 is formed of a copper plate. Each panel has a built-in evaporator tube 2a in a refrigeration circuit, and a refrigerant flows through the evaporator tube to cool the panel inner surface 21 to a predetermined temperature.

The roll-shaped brush 3 is arranged so as to face the inner surface 21 of each panel. The roll-shaped brushes 3, 3 are supported by a pair of support plates 31, 31, and can be rotated in the directions of arrows A, B in FIG. 1 by a motor (not shown) built in the brush support shaft 30. Each support plate 31 is provided with a block 32 at the center of the outer surface thereof, and the block 32 is fitted to a vertically extending guide rod 4 provided in the snow making chamber 1 so as to be able to move up and down.

The two support plates 31, 31 are connected between the pair of brushes 3, 3 by a member 33 extending in parallel with the brush shaft 30. The member 33 is provided with a female screw portion 33A at this central portion,
A threaded rod 34 extending in the vertical direction is rotatably fitted in this. The screw rod 34 is a bearing 351 provided on the ceiling of the snowmaking room 1.
And a bearing 352 at the center of the cross beam 10 erected below the snowmaking room, and is rotatably supported by the motor 36 provided on the outer surface of the ceiling of the snowmaking room 1. The motor is supported on the ceiling of the snowmaking room via a frame (not shown).

Electric heaters 341 and 41 for preventing icing and the like are built in the screw rod 34 and each guide rod 4.

 A humidifier 5 is attached to the snowmaking room 1.

The humidifier 5 is an ultrasonic humidifier 51 for supplying water vapor to the lower part of each panel 2 in the snowmaking room. The gas in the snowmaking room 1 is sucked from the ceiling hole 52 and is returned to the humidifier 51 via the duct 53. A circulating blower 54 is provided.

At the lower part of each roll-shaped brush 3, a brush-raising bar 6 is arranged in parallel with the roll, and both ends of the bar are supported
1, 31 is supported.

A shutter 7 that can be opened and closed is provided at the lower end opening of the snowmaking room 1. The shutter 7 is provided with an electric heater 71 for melting snow accumulated thereon when it is in the closed position. The shutter is reciprocally movable along rails 72 and 73, and the rails are provided with water guide grooves 72a and 73a for collecting and discharging water released by the heater 71 to a predetermined position. The shutter is driven to open and close by a motor 75 via a rack pin-on mechanism 74.

According to the artificial snowfall device, the roll-shaped brushes 3, 3 are initially arranged at the raised position shown in FIG. 1, while the shutter 7 is closed. The humidifying device 5 supplies and circulates water vapor from below to above in the snow making room 1. The circulation of the steam has an effect of maintaining the room at a predetermined low temperature by the circulation of the low-temperature gas.

The water vapor thus contacts the inner surfaces of the cooled vertical panels 2, 2 where the original snow forms. When sufficient base snow is formed, the shutter 1 is opened and the roll-shaped brushes 3, 3 rotate in the directions indicated by arrows A and B in FIG. And begin to descend. Thus, the original snow on the panels 2 and 2 is scraped off by the brushes 3 and 3,
Fall down as snow. In addition, the snow attached to the brush 3 causes the brush bristles to come into contact with the flip-up bar 6 as the brush 3 rotates, to bend down and drop when the spring 3 bends. In this way, snowfall is deposited almost uniformly over the length of the roll-shaped brush 3.

When each roll-shaped brush 3 reaches the lower end of the panel 2,
The shutter 7 is closed again, and each of the roll-shaped brushes 3 is raised to the initial position by the reverse rotation of the screw rod 34. The snow accumulated on the shutter with the shutter closed is melted by the heater 71 in the shutter, and the water guide groove 72
A and 73a are collected at a predetermined position, and are discharged therefrom by a pipe (not shown).

The inside of the snowmaking room 1 is always maintained at approximately minus 20 ° C. by the panels 2 and 2. When the temperature in the snowmaking room exceeds -20 ° C, only sticky snow is obtained, and when it falls below -20 ° C, only powdery snow is obtained.
When the temperature in the snow-making room is around -20 ° C., the snow looks good and the snow falls and the snow accumulates.

The roll-shaped brush 3 is formed by arranging a large number of flexible nylon bristles radially at a predetermined density, and the length of each bristles is such that the bristles do not reach the surface of the panel 2 very slightly. It is length. According to such a roll-shaped brush 3, since each brush bristle can flex and vibrate more flexibly than the case where a brush using a hard metal brush is used for each brush bristle, the action of the flip-up bar 6 is also reduced. Snowfall can be made very smoothly with help. The flip-up bar 6 also prevents the roll-shaped brush 3 from being clogged.

Since the snowmaking room 1 is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, a plurality of such snowfall devices are arranged in a state where the snowmaking rooms are connected to each other, whereby the snowfall and the snowfall can be uniformly spread over a wider range.

Since the heaters 341 and 41 are built in the screw rod 34 and each guide rod 4, the apparatus prevents the screw rod 34 and each guide rod 4 from icing during the operation of the apparatus, and the brushes 3 and 3 move up and down due to icing. Operation failure can be prevented.

〔The invention's effect〕

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the artificial snowfall apparatus which can make enough snow fall smoothly according to the amount of humidification water, and also can make snow pile up uniformly over a fixed area compared with the conventional cylindrical drum type apparatus is provided. can do.

Further, since the brush-raising bar is provided on the roll-shaped brush, snow attached on the brush can be smoothly dropped and clogging of the brush can be prevented.

When the snowmaking chamber has a shutter that can be opened and closed at the lower end thereof, closing the shutter allows a desired amount of original snow to be quickly formed on the cooling panel.

[Brief description of the drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the whole, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1 ... snow-making room, 2 ... cooling panel, 3 ... roll-shaped brush, 5 ... humidifying device, 6 ... brush lift bar, 7 ... shutter.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A snowmaking room having a vertical panel whose surface can be cooled, a humidifier for supplying and circulating water vapor from a lower portion to an upper portion of the snowmaking room, and a source snow formed on a surface of the panel. An artificial snowfall device having a roll-shaped brush that can be lifted and lowered in the horizontal direction in view of the surface of the vertical panel, and is provided within a range of the length of the bristle constituting the roll-shaped brush. The brush bristles can be moved up and down together with the brush, the brush bristles come into contact with the rotation of the brush, and the brush bristles are bent. An artificial snowfall device comprising a brush flipping rod for dropping snow attached to the brush hairs after the brushing. 2. The artificial snowfall apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said snowmaking room has a shutter at its lower end which can be opened and closed.