Replying to Did you know?
Today I got a tour of Ski Roundtop's snow making facilities. It was really cool. They have 12 air compressors, 10 electric 400hp ones and 2 diesel 800 hp ones. There total cfm with all compressors running is a whopping 30,000! 30,000 CFM!!!! They have 6 kinds of guns. 2 types of fan guns. 2 types of internal mix guns. 1 type of external mix gun. 1 type of airless gun. The airless gun is actually airless meaning uses NO air. It basicly sprays water into a small fan/turbine blade. I am not sure if it sprays a mist into the blades or not but you get the idea. It can make snow at optimum snow conditions or below.(25 degrees or below F) I thought it would be cool to experiment with this idea. I know you say its impossible to make snow with no air unless its -40 degrees but THIS may work. Another type is called an Aereco fan gun and is the most powerful gun they have. They are very big red fan guns on trailers. The Aerecos can pump out about 6 inches per hour in a very large area. They also have very big BYB external guns. Those have 6 water nozzles(3 on each side)pointed forward and to the side. Then there are holes drilled in the pipe just in front of the nozzles. There are 4 air holes and 6 nozzles so the two back nozzles are optional. These guns are interesting because they dont use tubing to each nozzle. Instead they use 3 aluminum pipes that telescope with about an inch of room between each and the center pipe is about 1 inch in diameter. The two outer spaces run water to the water nozzles and the center pipe is air. These guns cost $3000 each and use 100cfm of air each. For water they have 5 very large water pumps. The water pumps are quiet and are mounted above a resivor of water that is filled from the ponds. Roundtop uses 400psi or less of water in all guns. That is about all I have to say.
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