Rotary De-Icing Cooling Unit for Snow-Making Systems in High Humidity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooling units for snow-making systems face significant icing issues, especially in high humidity environments, leading to reduced efficiency and potential functional failure, and existing de-icing methods are laborious and energy-intensive.
Innovation Solution
A cooling unit with a de-icing device featuring a rotary shaft and rotary elements that remove ice and frost through a milling movement, allowing for efficient, automatic, and energy-saving de-icing, even in high humidity conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a fin-type cooling unit is used to cool high humidity air, then cooling efficiency is improved, but icing occurs quickly reducing reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The de-icing device is activated before icing completely disables the cooling unit. The control unit detects ice accumulation on the refrigerant guide tubes and triggers the rotary shaft with removal elements to clear the ice proactively, preventing complete functional failure and maintaining reliable operation in high humidity conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling unit incorporates its own de-icing capability through the integrated rotary shaft and removal elements that rotate along the refrigerant guide tubes. This self-service mechanism allows the system to remove its own ice accumulation without external intervention, maintaining continuous operational reliability.
2Ease of manufacture
If manual scraping devices are used to remove ice, then de-icing is achieved, but the process is laborious and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The manual back-and-forth scraping action is replaced by an automated rotary mechanical system. The rotary shaft with rotationally moving removal elements continuously clears ice along the refrigerant guide tubes, eliminating manual labor and significantly reducing de-icing time while maintaining effective ice removal capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The removal elements rotate periodically along the refrigerant guide tubes, creating a continuous cycling de-icing action. This periodic rotary movement ensures thorough ice removal across all tubes without requiring manual intervention, dramatically reducing the time loss associated with manual de-icing.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If back-and-forth scraping movement is used to remove frost, then ice removal is achieved, but energy expenditure is high
Solution Approach 1:
The linear back-and-forth scraping motion is replaced by a rotary circular motion of the shaft and removal elements. This rotational movement distributes the de-icing action more efficiently along the refrigerant guide tubes, reducing the total energy required to achieve the same ice removal effect compared to repeated linear scraping cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The high-energy manual scraping mechanism is substituted with a more efficient rotary mechanical system driven by a motor. The rotational motion provides continuous contact with the ice buildup while requiring less energy input than the repeated acceleration and deceleration of back-and-forth scraping movements.
4Reliability
If two cooling units are provided for alternating use, then icing problem is mitigated, but device complexity and space requirement increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling unit is given multi-functionality by integrating both cooling and de-icing capabilities into a single system. The rotary shaft with removal elements serves the dual purpose of maintaining cooling efficiency while actively removing ice, eliminating the need for separate backup cooling units and reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The separate functions of cooling and de-icing are merged into a single integrated unit. The de-icing device is combined with the cooling unit's refrigerant guide tubes, allowing one system to perform both cooling operations and self-maintenance, thereby avoiding the need for multiple cooling units and reducing space requirements.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The de-icing process is fast, effective, and energy-efficient, preventing icing-related failures while maintaining cooling unit operation, suitable for environments with high humidity.
Implementation Method 1
the removal elements are designed as rotary elements fastened to the rotary shaft, which remove the ice and frost build-up from the refrigerant guide tubes by means of a rotary movement
Implementation Method 2
The cooling unit comprises multiple straight refrigerant guide tubes through which a refrigerant is passed
Implementation Method 3
spraying water into a cold air stream, which cools the water droplets accordingly and converts them into snow or snow crystals and ice crystals
Data Source
AI summary
A cooling unit for cold air generation, in particular for snow-making systems, has a mechanically operating de-icing device which comprises at least one rotary shaft (6), which extends between two tube layers (5) transversely to the refrigerant guide tubes and is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes (4), and a rotary drive for rotating the rotary shaft (6). The removal elements (16) are designed as rotary elements which are fastened to the rotary shaft (6) and which remove the ice and frost build-up from the refrigerant guide tubes (4) by means of a rotary movement.