Snow blower
A snow blower ( ) is a mobile snow removal machine with rotating tools that is used in both road and rail traffic.
According to DIN EN 15906 - 2012-02, snow removal machines are divided into the groups snow blowers, snow blowers, side snow blowers and snow blowers. Snow removal machines can be designed both as self-propelled work machines, as attachments for tractors , wheel loaders , trucks or locomotives , and as hand-operated tools. All snow removal machines are equipped with one or more adjustable discharge chutes to control the discharge direction. The ejection distance basically depends on the drive power.
Snow blower
The snow blower's milling drum is a rotating roller that runs transversely to the direction of travel and is mounted in front of the (carrier) vehicle . On the drum, which extends over the entire width of the vehicle or beyond, lamellae are attached in a helix that perform the following tasks:
- Milling: scraping off the snow. To increase the effect, the slats are provided with a sawtooth profile .
- Transport to the chimney: The snow is transported over the entire width of the device to the chimney (s). If there is only one ejection chute in the middle, the screw of the lamellae is made in two parts with opposite chirality. The horizontal transport works like an Archimedean screw : The tube is formed by the half-sided cladding of the drum and the mountain of snow to be milled off.
- Skidding: Finally, the snow is thrown out of the chimney. The opposing partial screws converge at the discharge chimney. There the lamellas form a U-shaped shovel in which the snow collects. The centrifugal force drives the accumulating snow radially outwards. The cladding of the drum prevents the snow from escaping, except at the recess that merges into the discharge chimney.
On the Timmelsjoch , the largest built-on snow plow in Austria, a drum plow, clears snow depths of 1.7 meters with a width of 2.75 meters in one operation. On the North Tyrolean side, up to 300,000 m³ of snow are moved. 500,000–700,000 m³ of snow are cut away on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. The greatest snow depth there was 21 m in the 1970s. Crawler-operated milling machines with 3 diesel engines each are used.
Snow blower
In contrast to a snow blower, the rotating cylinder of a snow blower is along the direction of travel; a centrifugal wheel is mounted on the cylinder. Snow blowers are also equipped with a pre-cutting propeller, which loosens hard snow and thus simplifies clearing. Side snow blowers are also equipped with a side-mounted feed plow to increase the working width. Side snow blowers are used for the quick clearing of ramparts that are created by clearing snow plows.
Rail snow blowers
The milling machines in rail transport are known as snow blowers. The first snow blowers on the railroad were built in the United States around 1890 under the Leslie patent. They worked with about ten inclined, interchangeable blades , which are mounted on a drum rotating parallel or perpendicular to the direction of travel . The wheel of a steam snow blower is operated with steam. The steam snow blower usually does not have its own drive. She is being pushed by a locomotive. They were used in snowy regions e.g. B. on the White Pass and Yukon Railway , on the Gotthard , the Lötschberg or on the Bernina Railway . In 1943, the last Henschel steam snow blowers were built in Germany .
The well-known X rot 100 (Rotary) of the Gotthard Railway , built in 1896, can be seen in the Verkehrshaus in Lucerne , which was reactivated in 1975 for a snow clearing operation because the more modern snow blowers were not on site due to avalanches. A steam snow blower built by Henschel in 1942 can be seen in the Neustadt / Weinstrasse Railway Museum. The R 12 snow blower , built in 1913 for the Rhaetian Railway (RhB), is currently (early 2011) in a section of the Furka Mountain Line (DFB) steam railway in Goldau for refurbishment and is to be used again on the DFB route over the Furka Pass come.
Two Meyer- type steam snow blowers with their own drive were built in 1910 and 1912 by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory for the Bernina Railway. The X rot d 9213 is still operational today (2018) by the Rhaetian Railway , the X rot d 9214 came to the Blonay – Chamby (BC) museum railway in 1996 .
The modern diesel-powered snow throwing vehicles of the RhB , SBB , ÖBB and DB were built by the Beilhack company, which also produces road snow throwers and now operates under the name Aebi Schmidt Holding . According to the company's website, the clearing capacity is up to 22,000 tons per hour. Also trams use sometimes milling, an example of this are the three snowblowers tram Bucharest in the Romanian capital.
SBB Xrotm Beilhack snow blower
Control of a snow blower
Rotary Xrot d 100 steam snow blower
R 12 snow blower of the Furka mountain route steam train undergoing revision
Snow blower at the Harz narrow-gauge railway
Henschel steam snow blower in Bludenz train station
Snow cutter blower
A snow blower is a snow blower that is combined with a blower wheel to achieve a higher clearing capacity.
Small appliances
For clearing sidewalks, hand-held motorized devices in a smaller version, similar to a two-wheel tractor , are available. These devices are usually equipped with a drive axle with heavily profiled pneumatic tires and, if necessary, snow chains or a rubber crawler chassis and, due to their low power, are only suitable for loose powdery snow, as they easily clog in wet snow.
Trail tiller for snow groomers
In the case of a snow groomer with a rear tiller , the snow that is removed is not transported away for clearing, but is left on the ski slope . By milling, larger clumps of snow and ice are broken up and the deep tracks of the caterpillars are smoothed.
Web links
- www.dampfschleuder.ch - Information on the Xrotd R 12 steam snow blower
Individual evidence
- ↑ Biggest snow blower on Timmelsjoch on ORF from May 3, 2011
- ↑ SNOW CLEARANCE ON THE GROSSGLOCKNER , accessed: 2019-06-09
- ↑ Snow clearance of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road , Grossglockner-Zellersee Tourist-Info, Bruck-Fush, 2011-10-07.
- ↑ Rotary snow blower system Wallack / A , Grossglockner snow blower, specialtrucks.ch
- ↑ Snow blower Intrac 2011/2011-K from Peter / CH , Gotthard snow blower, specialtrucks.ch
- ↑ [1] clearing capacity Beilhack, accessed 19 September 2010