A nucleation nozzle for forming freezing nuclei for devices for making artificial snow, starting from a jet of pressurised liquid, comprising a compressed air duct having an inlet opening and an outlet opening. A first stretch of the compressed air duct has a cross section which decreases in the flow direction of the compressed air, from the inlet opening to the outlet opening. The first stretch is followed by a second stretch having a cross section which increases in the flow direction of the compressed air from the inlet opening to the outlet opening. There is provided at least one water duct having an inlet opening and an outlet opening. The water duct is separate from the compressed air duct. The outlet opening of the water duct is positioned close to the outlet opening of the compressed air duct.

A nozzle device and method for creating a fluid nucleation in situ, is disclosed. The nozzle has a housing having a hollow interior, an outer cylindrical wall, and inlet and an outlet, and a diffuser disposed in the cylindrical tube at a first end toward the inlet. The diffuser is configured to break bonds between adjoining fluid molecules and create a nucleation event. The nozzle further has a mesh framework disposed in the cylindrical tube and extending longitudinally within the tube in the nucleation zone, and is configured to manipulate the bonding and un-bonding of water molecules within a pressurized environment for the production of snow, clean water or both.

The invention is a dual auto hydrant configured to interface independent pressurized water and compressed air sources with snowmaking equipment, such as a snowmaking gun and methods of using same.

A nucleator nozzle (20) for producing ice nuclei is designed as convergent-divergent nozzle. The nozzle channel (25) has a section (27) that is widening. The ratio of the cross-sectional area of the outlet opening (23) to the cross-sectional area of the nozzle channel (25) in the region of the nucleus diameter (26) is at least approximately 4:1. A snow lance (1) having at least one nucleator nozzle (20) and having at least one water nozzle (30; 30) is designed such that water droplets (32) produced by the water nozzle (30; 30) pass through a droplet path (31; 31) of at least 20 cm until they reach ice nuclei (28) from the nucleator nozzle (20) in a germination zone E.

A snow environment test apparatus includes an injector including a two-fluid nozzle, a temperature setting section for setting an indoor temperature, an air conditioner for cooling an inside of a test chamber, a temperature control section for controlling the air conditioner, a water flow rate setting section for setting a flow rate of water to be supplied to the injector, a water supply section for supplying water having a predetermined temperature to the injector, a snow quality selection section for selecting snow quality, a related information storage section that stores information in which a temperature in the test chamber, a flow rate of water to be supplied to the injector, a pressure of air to be supplied to the injector, and a snow quality are related with each other, and a pressure regulation section for regulating the pressure of the air to be supplied to the injector to a pressure obtained by using the information stored in the related information storage section.

A snow environment test apparatus includes a first nozzle that injects water particles, a second nozzle that injects water particles smaller in size than the water particles from the first nozzle, an air conditioner that regulates a temperature in a test chamber to a set temperature, a state selection section that sets a state of snow to be caused to fall, and a flow rate regulation valve that regulates a ratio between quantities of water to be supplied to the first nozzle and to the second nozzle for obtaining the state of the snow set by the state selection section at the set temperature as a temperature at which a snow environment is obtained.

The invention is a snowmaking automation system and snowmaking automation modules for use with snowmaking guns and hydrants. Embodiments of the snowmaking automation modules described herein may be battery powered, and thus do not require fixed electrical infrastructure, but are designed to use such infrastructure if present on the mountain. In some embodiments, various components of the snowmaking automation system may be wireless and thus do not require hard-wired communications, for example between base stations, servers, databases, repeater nodes and remotely controlled snowmaking guns and hydrants with their snowmaking automation modules installed.

Disclosed is a fan gun snowmaker that utilizes an external nucleation device to create atomized water mist that is broken apart and frozen by a transverse air jet to create frozen nuclei, or snow seed. Further, flat spray nozzles that are normally used for spray washing and power washing are used that create a flat fan spray at the opening of the fan gun, rather than typical cone-shaped sprayers. The fan spray better disperses the water molecules into the cold, ambient air, which then combine with the frozen nuclei to create snowflakes. The fan gun is portable and lightweight and has anchors at each end that also function as jacks.

The invention is a dual auto hydrant configured to interface independent pressurized water and compressed air sources with snowmaking equipment, such as a snowmaking gun and methods of using same.

A nozzle device and method for creating a fluid nucleation in situ, is disclosed. The nozzle has a housing having a hollow interior, an outer cylindrical wall, and inlet and an outlet, and a diffuser disposed in the cylindrical tube at a first end toward the inlet. The diffuser is configured to break bonds between adjoining fluid molecules and create a nucleation event. The nozzle further has a mesh framework disposed in the cylindrical tube and extending longitudinally within the tube in the nucleation zone, and is configured to manipulate the bonding and un-bonding of water molecules within a pressurized environment for the production of snow, clean water or both.