Ratnik Industries, Incorporated

John L Stephens

H Ronald Ratnik

Mark R Meadows

Millie B Stephens

Apparatus for repeatedly sweeping a snow-gun nozzle through a desired angular range to more evenly distributed man-made snow produced by a snow-gun. Such apparatus comprises a bi-directional electric motor for driving a rotatably mounted snow-gun support in opposite directions about an axis of rotation, a pair of mechanical stops for limiting rotational movement of the snow-gun support to a predetermined angular range which defines a maximum sweep angle for the nozzle, and circuitry for sensing motor current. A comparator circuit, operatively connected to the output of the current-sensing circuit, functions to reverse the current flow through the motor, thereby changing the direction of rotational movement of the snow-gun support, whenever the current through the motor exceeds a preset threshold level. Such level is reached whenever the support's rotational movement has been limited by one of the two mechanical stops. A variable timer operates to reverse the motor current when a sweep angle less than the maximum sweep angle is desired.

Snow-gun oscillation control apparatus

A remote-controlled snow-making system responds to certain electrical signals to control the quality (i.e., moisture content) of the snow produced by such system and the direction in which the snow is projected. The system comprises a plurality of conventional snow-guns, each being connected to water and compressed air supplies via motor-controlled valves. The relative settings of such valves determines the water-to-air ratio within the gun and, hence, snow quality. Each snow-gun is movably mounted so that the direction in which it projects a spray of machine-made snow can be adjusted in both elevation and azimuth. Separate motors control the elevation and azimuth positions of each snow-gun. A control circuit, remotely addressable, e.g., by radio waves, controls the operation of the motor-controlled valves and the gun-position motors. By virtue of the invention, man-made snow can be produced more efficiently, more reliably, and with substantially less human involvement and, hence, cost.

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Geneva, NY, United States of America

John L Stephens