Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
  • F25C—PRODUCING, WORKING OR HANDLING ICE
  • F25C3/00—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for producing ice or snow for winter sports or similar recreational purposes, e.g. for sporting installations; Producing artificial snow
  • F25C3/04—Processes or apparatus specially adapted for producing ice or snow for winter sports or similar recreational purposes, e.g. for sporting installations; Producing artificial snow for sledging or ski trails; Producing artificial snow
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
  • F25C—PRODUCING, WORKING OR HANDLING ICE
  • F25C5/00—Working or handling ice
  • F25C5/02—Apparatus for disintegrating, removing or harvesting ice
  • F25C5/04—Apparatus for disintegrating, removing or harvesting ice without the use of saws
  • F25C5/046—Ice-crusher machines
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F25—REFRIGERATION OR COOLING; COMBINED HEATING AND REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS; HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS; MANUFACTURE OR STORAGE OF ICE; LIQUEFACTION SOLIDIFICATION OF GASES
  • F25C—PRODUCING, WORKING OR HANDLING ICE
  • F25C2303/00—Special arrangements or features for producing ice or snow for winter sports or similar recreational purposes, e.g. for sporting installations; Special arrangements or features for producing artificial snow
  • F25C2303/042—Snow making by using solid ice, e.g. ice crushing

Definitions

• An apparatus shown in FIG. 7, for example, has a structure in which a rotor blade 34 for crushing is provided inside a casing 33 provided on a base 36 and the rotor blade 34 is covered with the casing 33.
• a supply port serving both as a blast port 30 from which a blast for blowing artificial snow 38 away is supplied and a supply port 31 from which lumps of ice which are raw materials are supplied is provided at one end on the base 36 at the lower end of the casing 33, and a discharge port 32 from which the artificial snow 38 composed of crushed ice is blown away is provided at the other end on the base 36 at the lower end of the casing 33 on the opposite side to the supply port 31.
• a supply port 41 from which lumps of ice are supplied and a blast port 40 from which a blast for delivery is supplied are provided at separate positions of a casing 43 of the blast-type crusher, and the supply port 41 for lumps of ice 47 is provided in the upper portion of the casing 43.
• the front face of the large lump of ice is shaved with the rotary cutter crusher to make artificial snow composed of snow mingled with ice while being moved forward by a conveyor.
• the apparatus is extremely large-sized, and the producing capacity thereof is inferior in efficiency to that of the aforesaid apparatus in which the pieces of ice are beaten by the rotor blade and the base.
• the obtained artificial snow is supplied to the rotary snow throwing machine by sending the artificial snow flying by only mechanical force of the rotary cutter. Consequently, a large quantity of artificial snow can not be supplied, and therefore supply efficiency is low.
• a partition is provided in the impeller to separate the artificial snow and air so that the artificial snow and air do not abut on the same portion of the impeller.
• the artificial snow that is, flaky pieces of ice adhere to a beating portion of the rotating impeller, which causes the impeller to lose its balance and increases the load.
• an excess current occurs in a drive motor, which requires the stop of operation.
• the flaky piece of ice is scaly ice with a thickness of 2 mm to 3 mm and a size of 100 mm 2 and the surface area thereof is large, it has a property of being prone to adhere as compared with another block-shaped ice. Accordingly, hitherto there never exist any appropriate snow producing and throwing apparatus for which flaky pieces of ice are used.
• An object of the present invention is to provide a method of efficiently supplying flaky or platy pieces of ice by primary crushing to a secondary crusher with strong discharge pressure of a forced blast and secondarily crushing the supplied pieces of ice into smaller pieces to produce firm artificial snow suitable for slope skiing and similar to natural snow, and throwing the artificial snow far away by an increase in the discharge pressure of the forced blast in addition to centrifugal force given from a rotor blade, and a compact apparatus for carrying out the method and ef iciently producing and throwing a large quantity of artificial snow.
• the main aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for producing artificial snow from flaky or platy pieces of ice and releasing the artificial snow, comprising a rotating shaft, a rotor blade having a plurality of blades disposed along the direction of rotation of the rotating shaft, means for rotationally driving the rotating shaft, a casing enclosing the rotor blade and having a supply port from which the pieces of ice and a forced blast are supplied toward the rotor blade in the shaft direction of the rotating shaft and a delivery port from which the artificial snow produced from the pieces of ice and the forced blast are sent out nearly in the direction of a tangent of the rotational outer periphery of the rotor blade.
• FIG.8 is a view schematically explaining another prior snow producing apparatus. Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention
• the rotation of the rotor blade 16 at high speed and the supply of the forced blast together from the supply port 6 combine to eliminate even the adhesion of flaky pieces of ice to beating portions of the blades 17 of the rotor blade 16, thereby never causing an excess current in the drive motor of the rotor blade 16.
• the rotating shaft 9 is rotatably supported by bearings 19 on a base 15 and rotationally driven by the motor 11 disposed above the bearings 19 via a belt 20.
• the rotational speed of motor 11 is changed by frequency conversion, for example, in an inverter method.
• the tip of the rotating shaft 9 is disposed inside the rotor blade casing 8 overhanging from the bearing 19, and the conical cover 18 is attached to the tip of the rotating shaft 9.
• six blades 17 the tip side portions of which are tapered off to the root are provided at even intervals around the conical cover 18 to form the rotor blade 16.
• a flat surface of each blade 17 is nearly orthogonal in relation to the direction of rotation.
• the delivery port 7 is formed with one end thereof extending along a tangent of a cylinder of the outer periphery of the rotor blade casing 8.
• the artificial snow 13 which is produced after being secondarily crushed by the aforesaid rotor blade 16 rotating at high speed is sent to the snow throwing hose 10 linked to the delivery port 7 via a flange 25 with bolts 26 by the forced blast and the centrifugal force given from the rotor blade 16, and thrown to a skiing slope from the tip of the snow throwing hose 10.
• the snow throwing hose 10 is 100 m to 200 m in length.
• FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 are views showing another embodiment of a high speed rotary snow producing and throwing apparatus 5 according to of the present invention.
• This high speed rotary snow producing and throwing apparatus 5 is not different from the previously explained high speed rotary snow producing and throwing apparatus 5 except the position of the supply port 6 for the primarily crushed flaky or platy pieces of ice disposed in the lid 14.
• the supply port 6 is provided at a position offset from the center of the lid 14 which is the other side wall 21 of the rotor blade casing 8.
• the supply port 6 is offset leftward (to the side opposite to the delivery port 7) as shown in FIG.5.
• the rotational speed of the rotor blade rotating at high speed in the aforesaid apparatus of the present invention can be changed within the range of 1800 r.p.m. to 3600 r.p.m by converting the frequency of the motor 11 within the range of 30 Hz to 60 Hz by means of an inverter.
• the snow producing capacity of the apparatus of the present invention is from 50 tons(t) per day to 600 t per day.
• the discharge pressure of the blower for the forced blast used for the apparatus is from 0.12 kgf/cm 2 to 0.40 kgf/cm 2 , and the quantity of snow to be thrown is from 2.0 t/hr to 25 t/hr.
• the area necessary for the installation of the apparatus of the present invention is from 64 m 2 to 180 m 2 .

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Thermal Sciences (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Crushing And Pulverization Processes (AREA)
• Vending Machines For Individual Products (AREA)
• Container Filling Or Packaging Operations (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=11736973

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (11)

• 2001
  • 2001-01-31 AT AT01902711T patent/ATE373214T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-01-31 EP EP01902711A patent/EP1356244B1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-01-31 DE DE60130491T patent/DE60130491D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-01-31 WO PCT/JP2001/000673 patent/WO2002061353A1/en active IP Right Grant

Patent Citations (11)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events