Snow cannons. How to make snow How a snow gun works
Artificial snow is formed from small drops of water sprayed by nozzles into a strong flow of cold air created by a fan. The gun can operate at air temperatures below −1.5 degrees Celsius. Snow cannons are often used at ski resorts, supplementing or replacing natural snow cover and extending the ski season.
Features of artificial snow
Alpine skiing enthusiasts believe that artificial snow is inferior in its characteristics to natural snow. This happens because natural snow consists of snowflakes, and artificial snow consists of not always completely frozen drops of water, as a result of which the density and humidity of the snow cover created in this way is much higher. Artificial snow lies longer than natural snow, thereby affecting the soil, vegetation and hydrological regime of the surface.
Artificial snow-throwing performance
Productivity depends on the power of the freezing unit, the snow-thrower and the motor that drives the mechanism. The average productivity of a snow-thrower is approximately several hundred m² per minute.
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Excerpt characterizing the Snow Cannon
The glow of the first fire that started on September 2nd was watched from different roads by fleeing residents and retreating troops with different feelings.That night the Rostovs' train stood in Mytishchi, twenty miles from Moscow. On September 1, they left so late, the road was so cluttered with carts and troops, so many things had been forgotten, for which people had been sent, that that night it was decided to spend the night five miles outside Moscow. The next morning we set off late, and again there were so many stops that we only got to Bolshie Mytishchi. At ten o'clock the gentlemen of the Rostovs and the wounded who were traveling with them all settled in the courtyards and huts of the large village. The people, the Rostovs' coachmen and the wounded's orderlies, having removed the gentlemen, had dinner, fed the horses and went out onto the porch.
In the next hut lay Raevsky’s wounded adjutant, with a broken hand, and the terrible pain he felt made him moan pitifully, without ceasing, and these groans sounded terribly in the autumn darkness of the night. On the first night, this adjutant spent the night in the same courtyard in which the Rostovs stood. The Countess said that she could not close her eyes from this groan, and in Mytishchi she moved to a worse hut just to be away from this wounded man.
One of the people in the darkness of the night, from behind the high body of a carriage standing at the entrance, noticed another small glow of a fire. One glow had been visible for a long time, and everyone knew that it was Malye Mytishchi that was burning, lit by Mamonov’s Cossacks.
“But this, brothers, is a different fire,” said the orderly.
Everyone turned their attention to the glow.
“But, they said, Mamonov’s Cossacks set Mamonov’s Cossacks on fire.”
We have the lowest prices!
Below is a list of snow guns offered for sale, their brief characteristics and photographs. All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.
1. Nivis® Ecostick snow gun
Special offer!!!
VS Park LLC is the only official dealer of the Italian company Nivis in Russia. Only our company offers Nivis® Ecostick snow guns for sale.
The Nivis® Ecostick snow gun is the world's only snow gun using injection technology, which does not require an air compressor or central compressed air supply. Special patented Nivis® injection nozzles, using directly atmospheric air, create a water-air mixture, which is then sprayed through the nozzles of the head. Nivis® Ecostick snow guns operate without the use of electricity.
Technical characteristics of the Nivis® Ecostick snow gun
| Nivis® Ecostick | Duo | Trio |
| Number of nozzle groups | 2 | 3 |
| Control | Manual | |
| Water consumption | 2 -10 m 3 per hour | 2 - 16 m 3 per hour |
| Electrical connection | Not required | |
| Operating pressure | Min. 20 bar | |
| Gun tube weight | 25 kg. | 58 kg. |
| Weight of individual components | Max. 16 kg. | |
| Height | Up to 10 m. | |
| Foundation | Mine/reinforced concrete/anchor | |
Benefits of compressor-free snowmaking with Nivis® Ecostick
– Electricity savings of about 4 kW per gun, which is usually consumed with compressor snowmaking systems.
– Cost savings on the purchase of compressors and air ducts.
– Saving costs for servicing and operating compressors (for example, changing oil).
– Savings on maintenance work due to the simple, static design of snowmaking systems.
– Favorable for environment resource-saving technology.
– Due to the fact that Nivis® systems are compressor-free, the use of Ecostick guns when expanding existing snowmaking systems is possible without problems. Nivis® systems are compatible with any installation.
– Possibility of using many single-stage guns at extreme temperatures instead of fewer multi-stage guns, since the need for compressed air, regardless of the number of guns, always remains zero.
– Easy to maintain manual installations.
– Possibility of a snow system with zero electricity consumption when connected to a water supply with its own pressure.
– The most efficient, reliable and innovative way to make snow by saving on energy, equipment weight and materials, as well as reducing noise pollution and operating costs.
2. Snow gun Vector SGS-8
This snow gun is produced in-house. During the 2016-2017 season. 2 such snow guns were used at the Zayachya Gora ski complex. The number of these snow guns has now been increased to six. They have proven themselves to be reliable and productive snow generators.
All components are in stock and, if necessary, can be sent within 24 hours.
Technical characteristics of the snow gun Vector SGS-8
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And if you find it cheaper somewhere else, we will make a discount!
3. Snow generator Demac SET-AMK
Technical characteristics of the snow generator DEMAC SET-AMK
| Year of issue | 2005 | |
| Serial number | S 10 05 840 | |
| Snow performance | 30 m 3 per hour | |
| Fan power | 15 kW | |
| Compressor power | 7.4 kW | |
| Heating | 1.6 kW | |
| Total power consumption | 24 kW | |
| Current strength | 48 A | |
| Voltage | 400 V | |
| Water pressure | 10 – 50 bar | |
| Max. water consumption | 530 l/min. | |
| Number of water jets | 48 | |
| Number of nucleation nozzles | 24 | |
| Turn | 360 degrees | |
| Weight | 810 kg. |
Country of origin: Austria.
There are more and more people skiing and snowboarding, but there are fewer and fewer places suitable for skiing.
Global warming has meant that the season on some of the oldest ski resorts decreased from four months to one or two. There are forecasts that the center of the European ski industry will soon shift from the Alps to Scandinavia. Americans have already begun to explore Alaska in search of snow. That's it, there's nowhere to go further. All that remains is to use the weapon. Special. If you haven’t gone beyond the Arctic Circle for snow, then most likely at your favorite resort you ski on ersatz - artificial, or technical, as the professionals call it, snow. Today, not a single resort can do without special snow-making machines, from Chamonix in France to Volen near Moscow. Almost every skier has seen snow cannons and their lighter versions in action more than once - snow guns. From the outside, the process of snow formation looks simple: giant fans spray water, which turns into snow in the cold. But this is only from the outside.
Real snow
Natural snow is formed from atmospheric water vapor. When water vapor, which is the gaseous form of water, is cooled to the point of condensation, it changes from gaseous to liquid or solid form. The clouds we are familiar with consist of just such condensed drops, albeit so small that they are easily held aloft by currents of rising air. When the droplets become too heavy, they fall to the ground as rain. If the temperature is well below the condensation point, water vapor passes through the liquid phase, forming small crystals. For the most part globe The rain we are used to begins, oddly enough, with snowfall, but the snowflakes manage to melt as they approach the ground. The fact is that at the height of cloud formation there is always a negative temperature, comparable to the Yakut frosts. A simple confirmation of this fact is hail in the hot summer.
However, water does not automatically freeze when the temperature drops below freezing. Distilled water can be cooled to a fairly low temperature of -40°C, and it will remain a liquid. However, in real life, vapor in clouds begins to crystallize already at 0 °C. The fact is that in order for the condensation process to take place, water needs tiny particles around which its molecules could settle. Such centers of condensation in the atmosphere are tiny particles of soot, urban smog, bacteria and other materials. For example, this is how clouds are dispersed by spraying special reagents (for example, silver iodide) from airplanes above them, which act as just such condensation centers.
As water crystallizes in the clouds, it forms bizarre six-ray fractal shapes called snowflakes. The longer the crystallization process takes, the more complex the snowflake pattern. In the clouds, this process takes tens of minutes. Artificial snow is formed in seconds, so upon closer examination its crystals look like hexagonal ones with ray nuclei, and resemble cereals to the touch. However, such snow melts more slowly than natural snow, and skis glide on it differently.
Snow cannons
The idea used to disperse clouds (water condensation around artificial condensation centers) was also perfect for making artificial snow. One of the most common crystallizer reagents used for snow production is the special natural protein Snowmax, which does an excellent job of attracting water molecules.
In early snow gun designs, water was mixed with compressed air and released through high-pressure nozzles into an air stream created by a powerful fan. Compressed air performed three tasks at once: it atomized water, threw the resulting droplets into the air, and further cooled the water. The latter effect is based on the fact that gases cool during adiabatic expansion. Try to open a can of carbon dioxide - it will instantly cool to sub-zero temperatures, risking freezing your hands.
The disadvantage of this scheme is the high air consumption. Therefore, more modern guns operate in a two-stage process. First, by mixing compressed air and a small amount of water, tiny ice crystals are formed - the embryos of artificial snow. Then these “embryos” fall into a stream of water sprayed by powerful fans, which, crystallizing on them, quickly forms ready-made snow crystals.
Distinctive feature All guns have a powerful fan that throws out the water-air mixture over tens of meters. During such a flight, crystals of artificial snow have time to form, and the high “range” makes it possible to cover large areas with snow. At ski resorts you can see another type of snow weapon - snow guns. Their difference from guns is the absence of a fan.
The process of snow formation in them is as follows. The spaced air and first water nozzles supply a limited amount of water and air to a mixing zone located 810 cm from the gun, where snow crystals nucleate. These mini-crystals move further by inertia; at a distance of approximately 20 cm from the gun, they fall into the flow of water from the second nozzle, where water adheres to them. Snow crystallization occurs when crystals freely fall to the ground from a height of at least 4 m.
Snow conditions
Having snow artillery does not mean solving snow problems. Much also depends on the conditions of snow formation, the most important parameters of which are temperature and relative humidity (the ratio of the water vapor actually contained in the air to the amount of water vapor corresponding to the saturation state). The fact is that water is cooled by its own partial evaporation, that is, the transition of part of the liquid into steam. However, the higher the relative humidity, the slower the process of evaporation and therefore cooling will be.
Therefore, at low relative humidity The process of snow formation is possible at temperatures above 00C. At high humidity and low temperatures, it is possible to get regular rain instead of snow. At a relative humidity of 30%, snow cannons can be launched at a temperature of -1°C, this is considered good conditions for snowmaking. If the temperature drops below -6.7°C, then you can make snow even at a relative humidity of 100%. At temperatures below -10°C, you don’t have to pay attention to humidity.
IN last years Europe is quite warm even in winter. “No snow” - in the mountains this is no longer a joke, but a harsh truth of life. Because of this, starts are postponed, training camps are cancelled, and training sessions are postponed. Moreover, “no snow” does not always mean that there really is no snow at all. It just lies in the wrong place, or doesn’t cover the entire slope, or even covers it, but is unsuitable for skiing - it’s too wet... It happens that alpine skiing tournaments are held in a city park or square, where so much snow never falls, how much is needed for this, and there have never been mountains: instead of slopes, an artificial track several floors high is being built, and the snow on it can be real - just non-local.
We had a similar experience: we transported snow from Siberia, 4,000 kilometers by car,” Ekaterina Selyametova, president of the New League sports directorate, tells RR. - We agreed with the management of the local ski slopes, they willingly met us halfway. In this case, the snow is compressed so that it does not melt, folded into special plastic containers - big bags - and delivered to the location by truck.
Last year, the “New League” transported snow to Moscow in several stages, which was needed by the organizers of the Freestyle World Cup stage. The tournament was supposed to take place in the city center, in Gorky Park, the weather was very cold - minus fifteen, but completely dry. The organizers didn’t count on this, they didn’t install snow cannons, and the participants had already arrived from all over the world. There was not a snowflake in the air, and the snow package brought from Siberia on the last day before the tournament came at just the right time. Athletes and coaches themselves dragged the bags to the top of the artificial track - to the height of an eight-story building.
Water salvo
In general, natural snow is much less suitable for professional competitions - only artificial snow is usually used. Simply because it is much easier to fit it into the required quality framework to provide all athletes with perfect gliding.
Artificial does not mean synthetic. Nothing to do with sparkling polyethylene, snowdrifts lying around Christmas trees in apartments. Artificial means created not by nature, but by technology. But otherwise, this snow is no different from the real thing.
We are talking about the so-called snow cannons - the most common means of correcting weather problems. Today, such guns (officially they are called snow generators) are located at all ski resorts.
The principle of their operation does not seem very complicated from the outside, but one such generator is served by a huge, expensive system. It includes not only the cannon itself (masted, in the form of a tall stick, or a fan, like a large turbine), but also devices for collecting water, filters, good resorts even bactericidal, pump high pressure, pipes for supplying water to each gun and an electrical cable. In this case, pipes are usually buried in the ground to prevent them from freezing.
Snow is made from water supplied under pressure, explained RR at the company Is-SpoRt, which produces and trades equipment for ski slopes. - The system has two types of nozzles, mechanical sprayers. One is nucleators: here water supplied by a high-pressure pump is mixed with compressed cooled air from a compressor, and a “snowflake embryo” is obtained. The second is ordinary water nozzles, through which water is simply sprayed under high pressure.
Water particles, mixed with air in the nucleator, are forcefully thrown out of tiny holes - with a sharp expansion, the air cools and freezes the water. At the same time, tiny drops of ordinary water from another nozzle are glued to the “embryo”. The cannon fan drives all this away, the water freezes, falling to the ground like snow. The farther the water flies from the generator, the more time it has, the better the snow will turn out. That's all. No chemistry.
As a result, banal water spraying turns into real science. It’s easy to check its ingenuity; you just have to try spraying water from a spray bottle on a frosty night. Even if it manages to freeze, there will be no snow - there will be ice. And all because to get the perfect snowflake you need to take into account the temperature of the air, water, humidity and the required pressure.
Many conditions must be strictly observed,” says Ekaterina Selyametova. - If you need a large volume of snow, then the necessary condition is the air temperature is minus five or below, and the temperature of the water that is poured into the snow cannons should not be higher than plus three. If you don’t need a very large volume or have a lot of time left for preparation, then you can use guns that create ice crumbs - they can be used even at high temperatures above zero: up to plus thirty. However, there is a caveat: crushed ice is not suitable for professional competitions. It can be used as a base for snow or for recreational skiing.
The quality of snow is determined by its density. If for tourist trails the suitable density is from 380 to 420 kilograms per cubic meter, then for high-speed snow descent it should be 500 kilograms per cubic meter. Its density depends on the structure of the snowflake: the less fluffy it is, the denser it is. All this can now be controlled on a snow machine, automatically setting the quality of the snow. For example, I ordered “snow quality No. 5” - and the equipment itself will do everything to ensure that the output has a certain density. The weather station will determine the air temperature and humidity, and then the required water temperature and the required pressure. Hypothetically, now all this can be done without human participation, but you don’t have to press the button mindlessly.
Unfortunately, nothing can be solved by pressing a button, and there must be a person responsible for the quality of snow,” Selyametova assures. - They call him snowman. His task is to fully study a specific route, delve into its features, calculate what problems, including weather ones, may arise, and be ready to quickly solve them. And the quality of the snow is checked by hand.
Making snow on a slope is not a cheap pleasure: 1 km of piste costs a good European resort 1 million euros. The price depends on the time it takes to achieve the result: the more time, the cheaper. Therefore, our resorts prefer to stretch the process for two weeks, while abroad they do it in a couple of days - until weather conditions change. After all, artificial snow must be protected from direct sunlight and rain, and rain is especially dangerous.
And yet, despite all the difficulties, artificial snow is wildly popular. Installing such a system allows you to extend tourist season for several months and almost always carry out the necessary starts. And if something is covered, you can bring snow from afar. The only condition is that for all this a sub-zero temperature is still desirable. So it won’t be possible to hold a snowboard contest in the middle of the Sahara yet. But in the city center in winter or even spring - no problem.
Fan snow generators (snow guns) are designed for use outdoors at subzero temperatures. The snow generator includes:
Base in various designs (sleigh, wheeled chassis, bed, etc.)
Compressor
Fan
Water supply system
Nozzle block (manifold)
Control unit (manual or ESGC-AUTO system)
The range of supplied fan snow generators (snow guns) produced by the Ecosystem company and their main specifications and cost
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* - the maximum performance of the snow generator is achieved at a temperature of -15 degrees Celsius. At a temperature of -4 degrees Celsius, the productivity of a snow cannon is no more than 20-30% of the maximum.
** - the pressure and water flow necessary for the operation of the snow generator can be obtained using a stationary or mobile pumping station .
*** - the standard package includes: manual snow gun, electrical cable - 20 m, water supply hose - 20 m, spare parts kit, headlight.
It is possible to replace the standard air compressor with an improved oil or oil-free compressor of the Snow version (at an additional cost).
Snow gun ESG-310 in operation
Snow blowers are supplied from stock or on order. Commissioning, commissioning, warranty and service are carried out by specialists from our company. Equipment delivery time is from 4 to 12 weeks depending on configuration and performance.
Automated monitoring and control system ESGC
All models of the ESG-2XX, ESG-3XX series can be equipped with automated system control and management of ESGC, developed by Ecosystem. The automated control and monitoring system for a snow cannon is a hardware and software complex that includes:
ESGC-AUTO- the system controls environmental parameters (ambient air temperature, relative humidity, supply water temperature, etc.), allows you to launch a snow gun with one button, automatically changes the operating modes of the snow gun depending on changes in environmental parameters, provides a warning or stops the operation of the snow cannon if it is impossible to obtain high-quality snow or in the event of an emergency. The system also allows you to control the snow gun in manual mode with an indication of the current environmental parameters. It is possible to connect the system to an external controller via the RS-485 interface via the MODBUS protocol.
ESGC-COM- the system consists of a head controller and automated workplace operator, which controls environmental parameters (including wind direction and strength), as well as the operating parameters of each snow gun equipped with the EGSC-AUTO system. The system allows you to fully simultaneously control the functioning of all snow cannons, pumping stations, power stations, as well as program their operation based on the objectives of high-quality snowmaking of the facility. The connection of the head controller, as well as controlled devices, is made via the RS-485 interface (twisted pair), providing a bus length of up to 1200 meters without repeaters. Data exchange is carried out using the industrial MODBUS protocol, which makes it possible to connect and control devices and structures from third-party manufacturers.
Equipment for snowmaking complexes
Snow generators are part of an artificial snowmaking system, therefore, for effective artificial snowmaking of an object, a number of engineering structures and devices are required, which includes:
Water intake structure;
Filtration system;
Water cooling system (if necessary)
Stationary or mobile pumping stations ;
Fittings, power stations, pipelines;
Control and management system;
High-pressure hoses;
Snow generators;
The Ecosystem company installs turnkey snowmaking systems. Our specialists carry out calculations, design, production, and commissioning of the snowmaking complex both on the basis of our own equipment and on the basis of equipment from other manufacturers. Snowmaking complexes make it possible to obtain a uniform, stable surface snow cover with little or no natural snow in the area. winter period, thereby extending the ski season by 1-3 months. Practice shows that The return on investment for a ski slope snowmaking system is limited to one season.
Snow gun ESG-360 in operation
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