Patent · US Expired

Device for making artificial snow

US4793554A · kind A · utility

23Cited by
6References
6Claims
0Family size

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 5, 1988
Grant dateDec 27, 1988
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 5, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC F)Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
  • CPC primaryF25C2303/0481
  • WIPO fieldOther special machines
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a method for making artificial snow involving the induction of compressed air into an annular disposed chamber and through a multitude of circumferentially and longitudinally spaced, radially inward directed orifices to be mixed with a steady stream of water. The mixture is then forced through a multitude of longitudinal directed orifices, where a substantial pressure drop subsequent to egress from the orifices causes a first stage atomization of the water into tiny, uniformly sized droplets and the concurrent pre-cooling of the droplets. The droplets are ten accelerated through an exit nozzle, where the final expansion of still partially compressed air to atmospheric pressure causes the final atomization, and the projecting of a thereby produced plume of water droplets through an trajectory within the cooler atmosphere along which the droplets are allowed to freeze into tiny, crystalline particles of ice before falling to the ground.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.