Apparatus for creating and maintaining an ice slab
USRE29438E · kind E · reissue
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 25, 1976 |
| Grant date | Oct 11, 1977 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 25, 1996 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC —)General
Abstract
Apparatus for creating and maintaining an ice slab for skating purposes, or an ice chute for a toboggan slide, or for maintaining a layer of snow for skiing. The apparatus includes pluralities of small diameter flexible plastic tubes arranged in grids in portable mats with the tubes placed close to one another and arranged with each input or supply tube portion closely adjacent to an outlet or return tube portion providing an advantageous uniform temperature effect at a small distance above the tubes. A low temperature anti-freeze liquid is pumped through the tubes to provide the desired uniform cooling effect, and the portable mats each include a pair of sub-headers which can conveniently be coupled together with main headers to form a large grid the size of an ice skating rink, or a ski slope. For a rink these small flexible tubes may thereafter be covered with a thin layer of sand, or other protective material, and water is then introduced into the rink and is frozen by the low temperature refrigerant passing through the various tubes. By virtue of the small diameter of the tubes, ethylene glycol or other similar low temperature anti-freeze liquid (which would be very expensive …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.