COOLING UNIT FOR COLD AIR GENERATION

Abstract

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.

Claims

1. A cooling unit for cold air generation, having a plurality of tube layers of refrigerant guide tubes and having a mechanically acting de-icing device for removing the ice and frost build-up from the refrigerant guide tubes, the de-icing device comprising removal elements which are displaceable along the refrigerant guide tubes, wherein the de-icing device comprises at least one rotary shaft, which extends between two tube layers transversely to the refrigerant guide tubes and is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes, and a rotary drive for rotating the rotary shaft, and in that 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.

2. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the removal elements have contour cutting edges which form a cutting edge profile adapted to the circumference of the refrigerant guide tubes, which extends over at least one third of the circumference of the refrigerant guide tubes.

3. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the removal elements are made of a metal that has a lower hardness than the refrigerant guide tubes, or in that the removal elements have scraper lips on which the contour cutting edges are formed and which are made of a hard plastic or hard rubber or of a metal that has a lower hardness than the refrigerant guide tubes.

4. The cooling unit according to claim 2, wherein the removal elements are designed in such a way that the contour cutting edges are at a distance of 0.5 to 3 mm from the refrigerant guide tubes.

5. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the removal elements are designed as brushes.

6. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the removal elements are flexibly mounted on the rotary shaft in such a way that the position of the removal elements relative to the rotary shaft can be adapted to the position of the refrigerant guide tubes.

7. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the rotary shaft has radially projecting retaining lugs, on which the removal elements are retained.

8. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of removal elements are integrally formed in the form of a removal strip that can be fastened along the rotary shaft.

9. The cooling unit according to claim 8, wherein the removal strip extends over all refrigerant guide tubes of a tube layer.

10. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the cooling unit further comprises multiple tube layers arranged one above the other, between each of which a rotary shaft with removal elements is arranged, adjacent rotary shafts being arranged offset in the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes.

11. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the rotary shaft is rotatably mounted at the end on a side support arrangement which is movable in the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes, the rotary drive being fastened to the side support arrangement and being movable together therewith.

12. The cooling unit according to claim 11, wherein the rotary drive comprises at least one motor which drives a plurality of rotary shafts together via a transmission.

13. The cooling unit according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerant guide tubes are radially floatingly mounted in end plates which are designed as perforated plates.

14. The cooling unit according to claim 13, wherein the end plates are heated.

Description

[0026] FIG. 1: shows a three-dimensional depiction of a cooling unit according to the invention;

[0027] FIG. 2: shows the cooling unit of FIG. 1, wherein outer frame elements and the drive for moving the de-icing device along the refrigerant guide tubes have been omitted;

[0028] FIG. 3: shows a frontal view of the cooling unit of FIG. 2;

[0029] FIG. 4: shows a depiction as in FIG. 2, but without refrigerant guide tubes;

[0030] FIG. 5: shows a greatly reduced number of rotary shafts and refrigerant guide tubes for clarity, wherein three rotary shafts arranged between three layers of tubes, each with two refrigerant guide tubes, are shown;

[0031] FIG. 6: shows a side view of the elements of FIG. 5;

[0032] FIG. 7: shows an enlarged view of detail VII from FIG. 5;

[0033] FIG. 8: shows an enlarged view of an end portion of a single rotary shaft arranged between two refrigerant guide tubes;

[0034] FIG. 9: shows a three-dimensional depiction of the cooling unit of FIG. 1, wherein the majority of the refrigerant guide tubes and rotary shafts have been omitted to illustrate the rotary drive and the linear displacement drive;

[0035] FIG. 10: shows a three-dimensional depiction of a single motor of the rotary drive and the rotary shafts driven by said motor; and

[0036] FIG. 11: shows a side view of the elements of FIG. 10.

[0037] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a cooling unit 1 for cold air generation in snow-making systems.

[0038] The cooling unit 1 has a substantially box-shaped or cuboid outer contour, which is bounded by a housing frame 2. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the air inlet side is at the bottom and the air outlet side is at the top. The air to be cooled by thus flows through the cooling unit 1 from the bottom upwards in the direction of the arrows 3.

[0039] Another orientation of the cooling unit 1, in which the airflow passes through the cooling unit 1 for example from top to bottom or in a horizontal direction, is also conceivable within the scope of the invention.

[0040] The cooling unit 1 comprises multiple straight refrigerant guide tubes 4 through which a refrigerant, for example a glycol-water mixture, can be passed. The refrigerant guide tubes 4 are connected at one end to an external chiller, not shown, which cools the refrigerant to a low temperature of, for example, −30° C. The refrigerant cools the refrigerant guide tubes 4 accordingly, which then have a correspondingly cold surface.

[0041] In the exemplary embodiment shown, the refrigerant guide tubes 4 are arranged horizontally and parallel to each other with a predetermined spacing in such a way that they form a stack/a bundle. A certain number of refrigerant guide tubes 4, for example 10 to 100 refrigerant guide tubes 4, form a row or tube layer 5 of horizontally adjacently arranged refrigerant guide tubes 4 which lie in a certain horizontal plane. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the cooling unit 1 comprises multiple, for example 20 to 100, tube layers 5 of this kind arranged one above the other.

[0042] The cooling unit 1 can thus comprise a very large number of refrigerant guide tubes 4, for example 100 to several thousand. The number is variable to a large extent and is determined by the size of the cooling unit 1 and the desired refrigeration transfer capacity.

[0043] The refrigerant guide tubes 4 are preferably stainless steel tubes which have a very exact, constant outer diameter with only very small tolerance deviations over their entire length.

[0044] The mutual distance of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 in the vertical direction, i.e. the vertical distance between the individual horizontal tube layers 5, is preferably the same and is advantageously 0.5-4 times, particularly preferably 0.8-2 times, especially 0.9-1.2 times the outer diameter of the refrigerant guide tubes 4.

[0045] The mutual distance of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 in the horizontal direction can be the same or different from their vertical distance.

[0046] The cooling unit 1 further comprises a de-icing device for mechanically removing ice or frost formed on the refrigerant guide tubes 4. This de-icing device is designed in such a way that it can operate permanently and very effectively during ongoing operation of the cooling unit 1, wherein the cooling and the flow of air through the cooling unit 1 are not or only insignificantly hindered.

[0047] FIG. 4 shows the de-icing device without linear displacement drive. The de-icing device comprises multiple rotary shafts 6 arranged one above the other, which are rotatably mounted on both sides in lateral supports 7a, 7b and can be set in rotation by means of motors 8a, 8b. The lateral supports 7a, 7b can together be referred to as a lateral support arrangement. As can be seen in particular from FIG. 2, they extend over the entire height of the stack of refrigerant tubes 4.

[0048] As can be seen from FIG. 3, in the exemplary embodiment shown, three motors 8a are fastened to the left-hand support 7a so that they act on the left-hand end of some rotary shafts 6, while two other motors 8b are fastened to the right-hand support 7b so that they act on the right-hand end of some rotary shafts 6. Because of the alternating arrangement of the motors 8a, 8b, a relatively large number of motors 8a, 8b can be fastened to the side support arrangement so that only a small number of rotary shafts 6 need to be driven by a single motor 8a, 8b. This reduces the power required per motor 8a, 8b.

[0049] A rotary shaft 6 extends between each two adjacent tube layers 5 transversely to the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes 4, as will be explained in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8.

[0050] The rotary shafts 6 can be moved along the entire length of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 by means of a linear displacement drive acting on the lateral supports 7a, 7b in a manner shown in FIGS. 1 and 9.

[0051] The linear displacement drive comprises two motors 9a, 9b which are stationarily mounted on a support structure 10 (FIG. 1) in the opposite side regions of the cooling unit 1 and can drive vertical shafts 11 in rotation, each of which is rotationally coupled at the end to a drive pinion 13 (FIG. 9). The drive pinions 13 mesh with four horizontally guided toothed racks 12 which are arranged parallel to one another in the edge regions of the stack of refrigerant guide tubes 4 and are displaced in their longitudinal direction relative to the housing frame 2 by the rotary movement of the drive pinions. Since the toothed racks 12 are firmly connected to the lateral supports 7a, 7b, the lateral supports 7a, 7b and thus the rotary shafts 6 are correspondingly entrained and moved along the refrigerant guide tubes 4.

[0052] As can be seen from FIGS. 5 to 8, the rotary shafts 6 extend transversely to the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes 4. A rotary shaft 6 is provided between each tube layer 5. All rotary shafts 6 are at least substantially the same.

[0053] The rotary shafts 6 have two opposing rows of retaining lugs 14 which project radially beyond the tubular or cylindrical shaft body 15 and are preferably welded to the latter. Instead of two rows, another number of rows, for example one to four rows of retaining lugs 14, may also be provided, which are preferably arranged regularly around the circumference of the shaft body 15. The retaining lugs 14 are arranged and designed in such a way that they each project into the intermediate region between two adjacent refrigerant guide tubes 4 with some clearance.

[0054] The retaining lugs 14 are used to fasten removal elements 16, which can be used to remove a build-up of ice or frost that has formed on the refrigerant guide tubes 4. For this purpose, the removal elements 16 each have a contour cutting edge 17, i.e. a cutting edge adapted to the circumferential contour of the refrigerant guide tubes 4, which can be guided past the circumference of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 at a very small distance when the rotary shafts 6 are rotated. The removal elements 16 are thus milling elements with which the ice or frost build-up is milled off.

[0055] The contour cutting edges 17 of the removal elements 16 protrude beyond the retaining lugs 14. Furthermore, the removal elements 16 extend so far into the space between horizontally adjacent refrigerant guide tubes 4 that the contour cutting edges 17 enclose up to half of the circumference of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 with a narrow spacing when the removal elements 16 are aligned vertically.

[0056] The removal elements 16 of a row arranged next to each other thus form a removal strip 18, which has semi-circular indentations formed by the contour cutting edges 17 and spaced apart according to the spacing of the refrigerant guide tubes 4, and fastening portions 19 arranged between the indentations.

[0057] The fastening means for fastening the removal elements 16 to the retaining lugs 14 are not shown in detail in FIGS. 7 and 8. The fastening means may in particular consist of screws which are passed through bores 20 provided in the retaining lugs 14 and fastening portions 19 of the removal elements 16. The fastening means can in particular be designed in such a way that the removal elements 16 are mounted on the retaining lugs 14 in a floating manner, i.e. with some lateral flexibility. This can be realised, for example, by sleeve-like rubber inserts that are inserted into the holes 20.

[0058] The removal elements 16 of a row can be integrally formed in the form of a single continuous removal strip 18 extending over the entire width of a tube layer 5. Alternatively, it is also possible for a removal strip 18 to be formed by individual removal elements 16 separated from each other or by several groups of continuous removal elements 16. In the case of separate removal elements 16, it is expedient if the dividing line is located in the centre of the contour cutting edges 17, i.e. at the deepest point of the indentations.

[0059] As can be seen in particular from FIG. 6, adjacent rotary shafts 6 arranged one above the other are offset from one another in the longitudinal direction of the refrigerant guide tubes 4. This means that the removal elements 16 of adjacent rotary shafts 6 cannot touch each other even if they extend beyond half of the tube circumference. The rotary shafts 6 are arranged in two parallel, spaced vertical planes.

[0060] With reference to FIGS. 10 and 11, the rotary drive for the rotary shafts 6 is explained in greater detail, with a single motor 8a and the rotary shafts 6 driven by this motor 8a being shown.

[0061] Each rotary shaft 6 has an end portion 21 to which at least one sprocket 22, 23 is fastened for conjoint rotation. The sprockets 22, 23 can also be toothed pulleys. In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, a total of nine rotary shafts 6 arranged one above the other are driven by a single motor 8a.

[0062] The drive is provided by four drive chains 24a, 24b, 24c, 24d or corresponding toothed belts, which are only shown schematically. Each drive chain 24a, 24b, 24c, 24d runs over the sprockets 22, 23 of three rotary shafts 6 arranged one above the other as well as over a tensioning sprocket 25, with which the tension of the drive chains 24a, 24b, 24c, 24d can be adjusted.

[0063] The third, fifth and seventh rotary shafts 6, counted from the bottom in FIGS. 10 and 11, each carry two sprockets 22, 23 arranged one behind the other. The drive chains 24a, 24c are engaged here with the front sprockets 22, while the drive chains 24b, 24d are engaged with the rear sprockets 23. In this way, all nine rotary shafts 6 are rotationally coupled to each other.

[0064] The rotary drive can thus be realised in that one of the rotary shafts 6, in the illustrated exemplary embodiment the fifth rotary shaft 6 from the bottom, is coupled in a rotationally fixed manner to the output gear shaft of the motor 8a, which is not shown in greater detail. The other eight rotary shafts 6 are then rotated accordingly.

[0065] FIG. 9 also shows suggestively that the refrigerant guide tubes 4 are guided through end plates 26, which are designed as perforated plates. The refrigerant guide tubes 4 are hereby positioned radially. The end plates 26 form the end of the displacement path for the rotary shafts 6.

[0066] In order to allow a radial expansion of the refrigerant guide tubes 4 in the event of temperature fluctuations and a certain degree of flexible mounting in the radial direction, the refrigerant guide tubes 4 are preferably mounted floatingly in the end plates 26, for example by means of an elastic O-ring.