JP3163186B2 - Artificial snowfall equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an artificial snowfall technique for transporting ice pieces to a predetermined place and then spraying ice crushed like snow on a slope.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ice pieces have been transported about 100 m by a pneumatic transportation device or a belt conveyor, and crushed ice has been separated from a transport line. Spraying has been done.

[0003]

However, the ice chips are removed by 300 pieces.
Transporting air by m or more has been technically impossible because of the problem of clogging caused by melting of ice pieces during transportation. The present invention provides an artificial snowfall apparatus that can solve the above-described problems.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The artificial snowfall apparatus of the present invention is provided with a tubular inclined passage for lowering ice chips supplied to an entrance toward an outlet, and an air flow for promoting the falling of the ice chips in the inclined passage. A biasing means is provided, and a branch pipe from the inclined passage or
Installed a mobile ice spreader or fixed ice spreader at the exit,
Mobile or fixed ice spreaders separate air and ice chips
Separator, discharge machine for discharging ice chips, and discharged ice
A crusher that turns the snow into pieces and sprays ice pieces that have been crushed into snow
And means for performing the operation.

[0005] The transport of ice pieces, ie, transport in the present invention, is due to the gravity drop of the ice pieces and the airflow that urges the drop.
At least 90% by weight of the ice chips should not be passed through the 5 mm sieve, but should pass through the 40 mm sieve. The air temperature at the ice chip inlet is 10 ° C or less, and the air speed is 20-30 m / s. sec, and the mixing ratio of the input ice pieces and the input air is set to a ratio of the weight of the input ice pieces to the input air weight of 3 to 7.

[0006]

[Function] The melting of ice pieces during transportation can be triggered by considering the conditions such as the temperature and particle size of the ice pieces, the temperature of air, the flow rate, and the mixing ratio of the ice pieces and air. In particular, the relative speed with the airflow during the transportation of the ice chips is reduced, and the amount of heat exchange between the ice chips and the air is reduced, so that the melting amount is reduced. Ice pieces can be transported over long distances. In addition,
The present invention intends to make snow at a ski resort at a temperature between late October and early December (differing in altitude but not higher than 10 ° C.). In addition, by connecting an ice spreader, ice can be crushed in a snow shape on a slope and sprayed.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An ice making facility is located on an upper slope. The dispersing means is located below the ice making equipment and transfers the ice pieces from top to bottom. The preferred slope to target is 300m long
That is, the descending gradient is about 15 degrees or more. The ice chips are transported using a tubular inclined passage laid downhill. The ice chips naturally descend due to gravity, but the transport speed is not stable due to the uneven slope and friction, and the ice chips are partially retained and easily clogged. Creating a stream of air that facilitates the falling of ice chips facilitates transportation.

As a method of creating an air flow, a method of obtaining a wind speed by applying an air pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure from the upper part of the inclined passage (referred to as “pumping”), sucking air from the lower part of the inclined passage, reducing the internal pressure to a pressure lower than the air pressure, There is a method (referred to as suction) for obtaining a wind speed that urges a piece to descend. When transporting 20 tonnes of ice per hour 500 m using a pipe with a diameter of 250 mm and an airflow of 24 / sec, the total pressure loss reaches 3650 mm Aq on a flat surface without slope. Therefore, in the case of pumping, 3650
If the blower that can pressurize mm Aq or more is suction, -3650
A vacuum pump capable of suctioning at least mmAq is required.

[0009] hand, when the slopes inclination angle is 15 °, the total pressure loss due to the effects of inclination, reduced to 1780 mm Aq, by less than half the horsepower blower or vacuum pump compared with the case of transportation on level ground, air The ice pieces can be easily transported simply by energizing. The ratio of ice chips to air speed is 61% on flat terrain, but it is improved to 87% on sloping terrain, the transport time is reduced by 10 seconds, and high speed transport is possible. FIG. 1 shows the equipment configuration of the pneumatic transport by pressure, and FIG.

[0010] Ice pieces made by an automatic ice maker (not shown) are stored in the ice storage chamber 4, and are quantitatively discharged to a transport pipe 10 by a slew feeder 5 or the like. Ice chips produced by an automatic ice maker have various shapes, but are roughly classified into plate-shaped plate ice and flake-shaped flake ice according to the structure of the automatic ice maker. In the case of plate-like plate ice, the plate thickness is always constant, but the planar shape is arbitrary. The plane size varies with the ice thickness, but according to the measurement results, when the ice thickness is about 15 mm , the plane size (the area passing through the sieve) is in the range of about 6 to 40 mm. More than 90% is distributed by weight, and fines less than 6 mm are less than about 3%. It is considered that the flake ice has more fine powder by analogy with the ice making method.

The smaller the particle size of the ice pieces, the greater the surface area in contact with air per weight, so that the ice pieces are easily melted.
However, on the other hand, from the viewpoint of pneumatic transport, the smaller the particle size of the powder becomes, the more the powder becomes closer to the snow, the more the powder floats in the pipe. In addition, when the ice chips are melted, water is generated, and the fine powder is melted into sherbet-like snow, which adheres to the pipe wall and causes blockage. On the other hand, large ice chips have a property that they are difficult to melt, but are difficult to float in a transport pipe and are transported while being in contact with the bottom of the pipe, resulting in a large pressure loss and poor fluidity, causing blockage. Therefore, in order to minimize melting and appropriately suppress the pressure loss for long-distance transportation, it is necessary to carry out pneumatic transportation with an appropriate particle size.

Because of the ice making efficiency and low generation of fine powder, plate-like ice chips by an automatic ice machine are suitable for long-range pneumatic transportation of ice.
It is a preferable condition for long-distance pneumatic transportation that 0% by weight be within a range not passing through the 5 mm sieve but passing through the 40 mm sieve. In this case, it is desirable that the plate ice before crushing has a thickness of 10 to 20 mm.

In the case of the pressure feeding shown in FIG. 1, since the outlet temperature of the blower 1 rises, the air is cooled by the aftercooler 2,
Keep below 10 ° C. Then, ice pieces are quantitatively discharged from the ice storage chamber 4 by a slew feeder 5 or the like, and are put into the transport pipe 10 via the rotary valve 3 provided in the transport pipe 10. In the case of suction vacuum transport shown in FIG. 2, ice pieces are dropped into the transport pipe together with air sucked through the hopper-like input port 6. Also in this case, the temperature of the inhaled air is 10
C. or less is preferred.

In order to prevent clogging due to melting of the fine powder, the wind speed at the inlet is set to 20 m / sec or more. As the wind speed increases, the sherbet-like fine powder melted on the pipe wall becomes less likely to adhere, and according to experiments, practically 20 m / sec.
If it is above, the attached sherbet-like fine powder does not grow. At the end of the transport pipe, the air speed increases due to the expansion of the air. When transporting 1000 m, the wind speed at the end is 40 m.
/ Sec or more. In the case of 30 m / sec or more at the inlet, the wind speed becomes excessive at the end, and the capacity of the blower also needs to be excessive.

When the inner diameter of the transport pipe is 250, the transport weight of ice pieces is 20 tons per hour, and the inlet wind speed is 25 m / sec,
The mixing ratio becomes about 3.5. At this time, according to the experiment, the ice pieces are transported at a flow rate of 60 to 70% of the wind speed. 1000
m can be transported within one minute.

If the air temperature during transportation is 10 ° C. or less,
Due to the expansion of the air itself and cooling by ice, the end of the transport tube is cooled to approximately 0 ° C. On the other hand, ice chips rise in temperature due to the heat input from the air, but if the ice temperature is -3 ° C or less, the entire transport tube will be thawed at the beginning of transport because the entire transport tube is warm, but transport will start due to the sensible heat of ice After about 3 minutes, the transport tube is cooled and can be transported continuously without melting.

The mixing ratio based on the weight of the ice pieces and the air to be charged is preferably 3 to 7. If it is less than 3, the transport efficiency will decrease and the relative melting amount will increase. The higher the mixing ratio, the more efficient the transport. However, if the mixing ratio is more than 7, the ice bed speed becomes slow and the pressure loss during the bed formation becomes large, exceeding the practical range.

At a wind speed of 20 to 40 m / sec, some of the ice pieces are in contact with the bottom of the tube. In addition, a polyethylene tube and an inner surface coated tube with less friction are preferable because they prevent adhesion. FIG. 1 shows a device configuration in the case of pressure feeding.
In the case of pressure feeding, a blower 1, an aftercooler 2, and a rotary valve 3 are connected to a transport pipe 10, and a plurality of 2
The directional valve 11 is connected.

The ice chips supplied from the rotary valve 3 are:
It is supplied to the mobile ice spreader 20 mounted on the crawler cart 27 or the fixed ice spreader 30 provided on the fixed stand 28 or higher through the transport pipe 10, the two-way valve 11 and the branch pipe 13.

These ice spreaders include, for example, a cyclone as a separator 21 for separating air and ice pieces, a rotary valve as a discharger 22 for discharging separated ice pieces from the cyclone, for example, and a discharged ice piece. It comprises a crusher 24 for crushing into a snow shape, a blower 23 and a scatter hose 25 as means for spraying ice crushed into a snow shape on a slope.

In this way, the crushed snow and ice can be widely spread on the slope. Note that, without providing the blower 23, ice pulverized in the form of snow may be sprayed by the air coming out of the cyclone. On the other hand, in the case of suction transport, as shown in FIG. 2, a filter 7 and a vacuum pump 8 are connected to the end of the transport pipe 10.

A plurality of couplers 12 shown in FIG. The coupler 12 is composed of a pair of flexible hoses 12a having a coupling portion 12b at the tip. And the coupling part 1
Separate 2b and connect them to branch pipes 13a, 13b to cyclone 21 of the spreader. In this case, the air from the cyclone is returned to the transport pipe 10 via the branch pipe 13b.

In both the case of the pressure feeding and the case of the suction, the ice storage chamber 4 provided on the upper side of the slope makes it possible to reduce the required horsepower of the blower and the vacuum pump by dropping due to gravity.

[0024]

The method for transporting ice pieces and the apparatus for crushing and scattering ice pieces according to the present invention are as described above, and the ice pieces can be transported over a long distance without causing a blockage due to melting of the ice pieces during transportation. Snow can be scattered throughout the slopes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of an equipment configuration in the case of a pressure feed type showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the equipment configuration in the case of a suction type showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a coupler showing one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 10: transport pipe, 11: two-way valve, 12: coupler, 20
... mobile ice spreader, 30 ... fixed ice spreader, 21 ... separator,
22: Discharger, 23: Blower, 24: Crusher, 25: Watering hose.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuaki Nagase 1-32 Chayacho, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Yan Mar Diesel Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Minoru Toyonaga 1-32 Chaya-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka, Osaka (56) References JP-A-62-182567 (JP, A) JP-A-58-191134 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F25C 3 / 04

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A tubular inclined passage for lowering ice chips supplied to an entrance toward an outlet is provided, and an air flow urging means for facilitating the descending of the ice chips is provided in the inclined passage.
Mobile or fixed ice spreader at branch or outlet
The mobile ice spreader or the fixed ice spreader is provided with air and ice pieces.
A separator for separating, a discharger for discharging ice chips,
A crusher that turns snow pieces into snow,
Means for spraying artificial snowfall. 2. An ice temperature of -3 ° C. or less and at least 9
0% by weight does not pass through the 5 mm sieve but has a size within the range of passing through the 40 mm sieve.
2. The artificial snowfall apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ratio of the input ice pieces to the input air is 3 to 7 and the mixing ratio between the input ice pieces and the input air is 3 to 7.