Patent Application
20130056548
This invention pertains generally to the art of fluid sprinkling and more particularly to snow making towers for ski slopes.
Snow is generally made artificially for ski slopes by the use of stationary equipment or by the use of moveable or portable equipment. Examples of stationary type equipment for producing snow are snow making towers. Other stationary snow producing apparatus consist of relatively large blower fans mounted on top of a relatively short pole or support and having a central water discharge in front of the fan.
A problem existing with stationary snow making apparatus is that due to wind and other weather conditions, such as temperature, sun exposure, etc., areas of the ski slope to be serviced by stationary equipment may not be adequately covered with snow and the only effective way to compensate for this is to bring in portable snow making units to produce smaller quantities of snow in the sparse areas.
Presently, portable snow making apparatus are generally fan blower units or portable snow making towers, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,635. A problem encountered with existing portable snow making towers is that when the portable snow making tower must be moved from one location to another, or the direction of the wind changes and the tower must be accordingly repositioned, the base of the snow making tower is usually buried in ice and snow, and must be dug out so that the tower can be reoriented or otherwise moved.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a portable snow making tower which may be reoriented with changes in wind direction without having to dig out the tower base, and also provide a portable snow making tower which is easy to manipulate and assemble for operation, is light weight and has a low center of gravity, and which maintains the base support for the tower in a relatively ice free condition.
The portable snow making tower of the present invention comprises a base frame with spaced parallel skids for sliding engagement over a ground surface and a tow tongue for towing the base frame behind a motor vehicle, such as a snowmobile. An upwardly extending snow making tower is secured to the frame and is provided with snow making nozzles at its upper end for ejecting atomized water spray into ambient atmosphere for manufacture of snow in sub-freezing conditions. Water and air connectors are provided at the lower end of the tower for connection to supplies of air and water under pressure in a conventional manner. The air and water may be mixed either internally or externally, as is well known in the industry, to provide the atomized water spray.
A tower support arm is provided with a bottom end thereof received for axial rotation in an upright tower support pipe section which is secured to the base frame. The tower may thus be rotated 360° for changing wind conditions. The support arm is provided at its upper or top end with an inclined portion which is secured to the tower for supporting the tower in an inclined upright manner from the base frame. The upright pipe section which supports this support arm is itself pivotally secured to the base frame for rotation from substantially vertical to substantially horizontal for adjustably lowering and raising the tower. Thus the tower may be readily and easily lowered for transport of the entire portable snow making tower to a new location or for service of the water or air nozzles located at the top of the tower.
The snow making tower of the present invention is extremely light in weight as the base frame, the tower, the pipe section supporting the support arm and the support arm itself are all constructed of light weight aluminum tubing.
The tow tongue is pivotal in a vertical plane so that the entire portable tower may be towed over a rough land surface without the tow arm becoming disengaged from the motor vehicle towing the portable tower unit.
A suitable wench mechanism is secured between the bottom of the upright tower support pipe section and the support base frame for pivoting the pipe section while supporting the support arm and the tower to raise and lower the tower. The wench mechanism is preferably a screw jack which provides a positive push and a positive pull, and has an easily accessible and operable hand crank for easy maneuverability and operation in sub-freezing ambient conditions.
The base frame of the portable snow making tower is also preferably provided with a hose reel for winding up and storing water and air hoses during transport of the portable snow making tower. In addition, the water hose and the air hose are preferably bundled together in tandem for joint storage of the hoses on the reel. The bundling of the hoses also permits the warmth of water traveling through the water hose to prevent freeze-up of moisture in the air hose during operation.
The upright tower support pipe section is preferably centrally located on the base frame with the pivotal connection adjacent the upper end thereof. This arrangement provides a portable snow making tower with an exceptionally low center of gravity, particularly if the base frame and support arm are combined with a tower pipe of tapered configuration wherein the top portions of the tower are lighter in weight than the lower portions of the tower pipe.
Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and claims. The accompanying drawings show, for the purpose of exemplification, without limiting the scope of the invention or appended claims, certain practical embodiments of the present invention wherein:
Referring to the drawings, the portable snow making tower 10 of the present invention is comprised of a base frame 11 constructed of aluminum tubing and having spaced parallel skids 12 for sliding engagement over a ground surface, and a tow tongue 13 for towing the base frame 11 behind a motor vehicle (not shown), such as a snowmobile. An upwardly extending snow making tower 14 is secured to frame 11 and is provided with snow making nozzles 15 for ejecting atomized water spray into the ambient atmosphere for manufacture of snow in sub-freezing conditions. In this instance the snow making nozzles 15 consist of an upper set of air nozzles 16 and four water spray nozzles 17 for external mixing of water and air to provide atomized water. However, the present invention is also applicable to towers which internally mix the water and air before ejection.
Water and air connectors 18 and 19 are provided at the lower end of the tower for connection to supplies of air and water under pressure. The water connector 18 is a male connector and the water connector 19 is a female connector so that the ground keeping personnel servicing the snow making tower cannot confuse the water and air connections.
An automatic drain 20 is also provided adjacent the water connection 18 so that when the water supplied to the tower is turned off, with the water hose still attached, the automatic drain connection 20, with the loss of water pressure, permits water remaining in the tower 14 to drain so that it will not freeze in the tower pipe.
The snow tower pipe 14 is supported from base frame 11 by means of tower support arm 21 which is received for axial rotation in upright tower support pipe section 22, which in turn is secured to base frame 11 by means of pivot connections 23. Tower support pipe section 22 is held in position by means of wench mechanism 24 which is provide in the form of a screw jack, which is sometimes used as a trailer jack. Screw jack 24 is pivotally secured at its outer end 25 to base frame cross brace 26 and the distal end 27 of screw jack 24 is a push rod of the screw jack 24 which is pivotally connected at 28 at the bottom end 29 of support pipe section 22. Screw jack 24 is also provided at its outer end 25 with a crank handle 30 which may be rotated to operate the screw jack 24 whereby support pipe section 22 may be thus pivoted about pivot point 23, while supporting support arm 21 and tower 14, to raise and lower tower 14 from substantially vertical to substantially horizontal as illustrated by dashed outline 31 and as indicated by arrow 32. A counterbalance covered stretch spring may be substituted for screw jack 24.
Support arm 21 is provided with an inclined top end 33 which is secured to support tower 14 by means of U-bolt connections 34. Tower 14 may be adjusted or shortened to provide additional height or to reduce the height thereof by loosening U-bolt connections 34 and sliding the tower 14 up or down the support arm 21 and then re-securing the U-bolts 34.
Of major importance is the fact that the support arm 21, while supporting the pipe tower 14, may be axially rotated 360° or within support pipe section 22. Thus, when the wind direction changes, the operator does not have to dig out the base 11 from ice and snow to change the direction of tower 14, but instead may simply rotate tower 14 to the desired position and re-tighten screw lock arm 39 so that the snow making nozzles 15 are pointing down wind.
The support pipe section 22, support arm 33 and the tower 14 are all constructed of light weight aluminum tubing thereby providing an extremely light portable snow making tower. In addition, the configuration of the support pipe section 22 wherein it is positioned at a low point in the base frame 11 provides an overall low center of gravity for the portable snow making tower.
The tow tongue 13 is pivotally secured to base frame cross member 36 as its proximal ends 37 are welded to pivot sleeves 38 which encompass cross member 36, thus permitting tongue 13 to pivot in a vertical plane. This permits the portable snow making tower 10 to be towed over uneven surfaces without disengaging from the towing vehicle.
For convenience, a hose reel 40 is provided on base frame 11. As seen in
Upon reaching the new location for employment of the snow making tower, the air and water hose tandem combination is unwound from reel 40 and connected at one end to water and air connectors 18 and 19, and at the other end of the hoses are connected to a source of air and water under pressure.
Snow making tower 14 is also provided with a water drip protrusion 48, in a known manner, to cause any condensation water or spray water running down pipe tower 14 to drip off at 48 so that it does not collect on the base frame 11, which would thereafter create ice. Also, any condensation water or spray water running down support pipe 21 is also permitted to run down into the inside of support pipe section 22 and drain out the open bottom end thereof at 29 to thereby minimize the collection of ice formation on the base frame 11.
The resulting portable snow making tower of the present invention is much lighter in weight than previous portable snow making towers and has a much lower center of gravity. For example, prior art portable snow making towers generally have a center of gravity at approximately ten feet above the ground surface and a total weight of approximately seventy pounds. However, the portable snow making tower of the present invention will generally have a center of gravity which is only eight feet above ground and have a total weight of only forty pounds.
