JPH031063A - Artificial snowfall device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit the provision of an artificial snowfall device, capable of producing the crystal as well as the layer of ice sufficiently and scraping the ice layer down by a cylinder scraper effectively, by a method wherein a fan, sending cooling air from a cooler into a snow arresting body through an upper opening and sending the air, passed through the snow arresting body, into the cooler again to circulate the air in a snow generating chamber, is provided to lengthen the levitating and stagnating time of snow seeds supplied into the snow arresting body. CONSTITUTION:A ventilating hole, bored on a partitioning plate 5, is provided with a fan 8, sucking air in a snow arresting body and supplying it into a cooler. Air, sent into the cooler 7 by the fan 8, is cooled in the cooler 7 to a temperature below freezing point (-5--10 deg.C, for example) while the cold air from the cooler is sucked into the snow arresting body 3 from an upper opening 11 through a ceiling duct 10. The air in a snow generating chamber 2 is cooled by the cooler 7 while water is blown into the snow arresting body 3 downwardly from a 2-fluid nozzle 15 at an upper opening as mist type snow seeds. The snow seeds are blown off as mist and, therefore, are frozed quickly by adiabatic expansion and are levitated in the snow arresting body as the fine particles of the crystal of ice, then, are adhered to the snow arresting body and are grown to the layer of the ice.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field J] The present invention relates to an artificial snow-making device for a snow-making laboratory or a snow-making exhibition room.

[Prior art and its problems 1] The artificial snow-making device previously developed by Yamagandai Company has a ventilated and flexible capped cylindrical snow trap inside the snow generating chamber. Cooling air at a temperature below freezing is sent through the opening at the bottom of the tank, and water is sprayed in the form of a mist using a two-fluid nozzle.
The adiabatic expansion action of air instantly freezes frost and forms ice crystals.

The ice crystals are caused by the upward airflow inside the snow trap body (
By mechanically scraping off this ice layer with a scraper such as a brush that slides on the outside surface of the snow trap, a certain amount of snow particles can be removed. As a result, snowfall conditions are realized.

This prior art requires two scrapers, one for the top of the snow trapping body and the other for the top.

The scraping action of a scraper such as a brush removes snow through the synergistic action of the brush and the trapping body. In other words, when the brush slides under pressure due to sufficient bending of the catching body, the elasticity of the bristles of the brush creates an action of hitting the catching body, causing the ice layer to peel off into pieces of ice and fall as snow. This action works effectively on the sides of the body of the trap, but on the upper surface of the top, the trap cannot be bent sufficiently due to molding, and therefore, the snow flakes off and falls due to the action with the brush. This is not done effectively and results in insufficient snow particles.

In addition, since the nozzle sprays from below toward the lower opening of the snow trap, it must be positioned so that all the spray enters the lower opening, so the installation positions of the two nozzles are limited. , it also requires a fairly large amount of space.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention provides a horizontal sliding scraper for the top, which requires only a body scraper that slides only the body of the snow catcher onto a scraper that scrapes off the ice layer formed on the snow catcher into ice pieces. Therefore, the scraper device can be simplified and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.Furthermore, the floating and residence time of the snow shovel fed into the snow catcher can be lengthened to prevent ice crystals,
To provide an artificial snow-making device which can sufficiently generate an ice layer and can also effectively scrape off the ice layer using a toe scraper.

rConfiguration of the Present Invention J The artificial snow making device according to the present invention is provided with a snow generating chamber in the upper part of the snow making chamber, the lower part of which communicates with the snow making chamber.

Inside the snow generating chamber is a snow trapping body consisting of a cylindrical body made of a flexible material with ventilation and an opening at the top, and a snow pile that sprays water downward from the upper opening into the snow trapping body. A supply nozzle, a cooler that cools the inside of the snow generating chamber to below freezing point, and cooling air from the cooler is sent into the snow trapping body from an upper opening, and the air that has passed through the snow trapping body is sent back to the cooler. The artificial snow generating device includes an air blower that circulates cooling air within the snow generating room.

[Example J] The present invention will be explained below with reference to a specific example shown in the accompanying drawings.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 indicates a snow-making chamber, and a snow-generating chamber 2 is provided above the snow-making chamber.

An artificial snow generating device is provided in the snow generating chamber z, and a specific example thereof will be described in detail below.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a snow trap located approximately in the center of the snow generating chamber, which is made of a flexible cylindrical body made of breathable coarse cloth or fibrous fabric, and is open at the top and bottom.

A scraper 4 made of a brush body or the like for scraping off snow generated on the snow trap is provided on the outside of the snow trap.
This scraper 4 is reciprocated up and down by a suitable two-down movement mechanism (an example of which will be described later), and scrapes off the ice layer that has formed on the snow trap as small pieces of snow in the snow chamber 1. .

Inside the snow generation chamber z, there is a cooling chamber 6 divided by a partition plate 5, and a cooler 7 is provided in this chamber. A blower 8 is provided to suck out the trapped body and send it to the cooler.

The air sent to the cooler 7 by the air blower a8 is cooled to a sub-zero temperature (for example, -5°C to -10°C) by the cooler 7, and the cold air from the cooler passes through the ceiling duct 10 to the snow trap. 3 through the opening 11 at the top.

The bottom of the snow generating chamber 2 (ceiling of the snow chamber) communicates with the snow chamber through a snow passage hole 12 bored in the bottom, and the lower opening of the snow trap communicates with the snow passage hole 12. There is.

A two-fluid nozzle 15 serving as a snow seed generator is provided at the upper opening of the snow trap 3, and a pump 13 is connected to the nozzle 15.
At the same time, water is supplied from the air conditioner 914, and compressed air is supplied from the air conditioner 914, so that the water is blown downward as snow seeds in the form of mist.

There may be various mechanisms for vertically moving the scraper 4 for the snow catcher, and examples thereof will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

Each of the left and right scrapers 4 is attached to a carrier 4a provided integrally with each geared motor M, and the carrier 4b is attached to a non-rack portion 41a of a vertical rack rod 18 provided in the snow generation chamber 2 so that the fitting portion 4b is vertically attached to the carrier 4a. A pinion I is slidably fitted into the shaft of the motor M, and is also fixedly fitted onto the rotating shaft of the motor M.
ll is the rack tooth of rack rod 18! 8b, and the rack rod 18 is sandwiched between the carrier fitting portion 4b and the motor pinion I9.

Therefore, the carrier 4a moves vertically along the rack rod by the forward and reverse rotation of the motor M, and the scraper 4 slides vertically on the circumferential body of the snow catching body.

Incidentally, when the scraper 4 reaches the upper limit, the rotation of the motor M is reversed by operating the upper limit switch LSI, and the scraper 4 starts to descend.

When the scraper reaches the lower limit, lower limit switch LS2
By activating the motor M, the motor M rotates in the normal direction and begins to move up, thereby repeating the up and down reciprocating movement.

The artificial snow making device of the above-described embodiment is suitable for snow resistance tests of automobiles and houses, or for viewing and displaying snow experiments.

The air in the snow generation chamber 2 is kept at below freezing point (approximately -5℃) by the cooler 7.
Water is blown into the snow trap 3 from a two-fluid nozzle 15 at the upper opening in the form of a letter-shaped snow shovel directly below.

Snow shoveling blows as mist! ! 11, it quickly freezes due to adiabatic expansion, becomes fine ice crystals, floats inside the snow trap, adheres to the snow trap, and grows into an ice layer.

The ice layer that has grown and adhered to the snow trap 3 is scraped off into ice pieces by a scraper 4 that moves up and down, and falls into the snow chamber 3 as snow.

[Effect of the Invention J According to the present invention described above, since the snow catching body is cylindrical with the upper and lower parts open, only a body scraper is required as a scraper, and an upper sliding scraper whose upper part rotates horizontally, etc. This is unnecessary, which simplifies the entire device and reduces manufacturing costs.

In addition, snow is supplied downward from the upper opening into the snow trapping body, but since it is blown out as mist, it instantly turns into ice crystals due to adiabatic expansion and forms into the snow trapping body. It grows into an ice layer, and this ice layer is scraped into ice pieces by a so-called scraper! ! This creates a snowfall that closely resembles natural snow.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing an example of an artificial snow-making device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 11--■ in FIG. 1, and FIG. wS3 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an example of a scraper vertical movement mechanism. wS4 is a cross-sectional view of the scraper vertical movement mechanism, and FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the scraper vertical movement mechanism. Figure middle ・Snow chamber 3・・Snow catcher 4a・・Carrier 5・・Partition plate 7・・Cooler 10・・Ceiling duct 12・・Snow passage hole 14 Near compressor 15--Word supply nozzle +8a・Toothless part 19@ and pinion 21 Snow generation chamber 41 Debris scraper 4b... Fitting part 6 - Fist cooler chamber 8... Patent applicant Toyo Seisakusho Co., Ltd. Representative Patent attorney 1) Kiyomi Figure 3 Figure 2 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] A snow generating chamber whose lower part communicates with the snow generating chamber is provided in the upper part of the snow generating chamber, and inside this snow generating chamber there is provided a snow trapping body consisting of a cylinder made of a flexible material with ventilation and having an open top; a snow seed supply nozzle that sprays water downward into the snow trapping body from its upper opening; a cooler that cools the inside of the snow generating chamber to below freezing; and a top opening that directs cooled air from the cooler into the snow trapping body. An artificial snow making device comprising an artificial snow generating device including a blower that sends air from the snow trapping body and sends air that has passed through the trapping body again to the cooler to circulate the cooled air in the snow generating chamber.