Tyco Flow Control (www.tycoflowcontrol.com) supplied valve technology for the recently opened Chill Factore (www.chillfactore.com), the UK”s biggest indoor, real-snow Alpine ski village. A range of Keystone valves and actuators, offered exclusively by Tyco Flow Control, are at the heart of the Manchester facility”s operations.
A package of nearly one hundred Keystone valves, chosen because of their certification to operate at temperatures as low as -15.5 degrees Celsius (approximately 4 degrees Fahrenheit), help enable the operation of the blast coolers, which are positioned around the slopes.
During the evenings when the ambient air temperature within the closed complex is lowered to -6 degrees C (approximately 21 degrees F), a mixture of compressed air and chilled water is fired into the air, which then falls as snow. During the day when the facility is open, the temperature is maintained around -1.5 degrees C (approximately 29 degrees F). Typical snow depth on the slopes is kept around 1.5 feet.
Butterfly, commissioning and check valves, as well as some Premitork electric actuators, are all part of the package that helps produce snow. Some are fitted with EPDM seats to suit the glycol water mix in the cooling circuits, which is vital to the facility”s operations.
The nearly $47 million Alpine ski village is home to the UK”s longest and the world”s widest real snow indoor ski slope (590 feet long and 328 feet wide at the base). Chill Factore also features a climbing wall, a cresta-inspired luge run, and a children”s winter wonderland.
