The Hochfirst ski jump in the Black Forest is one of the largest national and international competition ski jumping sites in the world. The conditions for safe and exciting ski jumping have been optimised using an original cooling system.
To enable the ski jumping stronghold of Titisee-Neustadt to remain competitive with other sites and improve jumping condtions, the Hochfirstschanze is fitting a new cooling system for the ramp. The challenge is to adapt a condensing unit, which was previously used in a supermarket warehouse, to a number of very specific requirements.
To transform the system at the most effective cost possible, it was important as far as possible to maintain all of the existing production and control equipment and make sure it could provide good quality ice on the track to meet the requiremens of this top-level sport.
It was with these needs in mind that Joachim Hafker, the general secretary of the Neustadt Ski Club, turned to the company Heinz Moritz GmbH in Gundelfingen, which has designed and built cooling technology facilities for 49 years. The project was conducted in partnership with other businesses from the area, as well as volunteers from the ski jumping team. It was also very important for the Neustadt Ski Club that the heat transfer fluid used in the cooling system was environmentally friendly.
An individual refrigerated mat was designed and fitted to the ramp, made up of a single cooling pipe some two and a half kilometres long, with 6,000 cable clips arranged on 18 rows and fixed on a metal grid. The power supply for the chiller is composed of three two-stage Bitzer S6J-16.2 compressors. The pump used is an ETALINE (20,000 m/h) with an output of 6,000 Watts and a discharge head of 40 metres. The total volume of the facility is 1,200 litres.
The quality of the ice is the central issue. The ice on the ramp must be neither too hard nor too soft. Furthermore, all warming and the appearance of cracks must be prevented. As a result, it is crucial to take into account prevailing weather conditions. Because of these stringent demands in terms of temperature and physical characteristics, the natural choices were the Thermera R heat transfer fluid and the R-404A refrigerant. Thermera R is cooled to between -15 and -2°C by a plate heat exchanger. In order to regulate and control the frequent changes in refrigeration needs caused by the very changeable conditions, an E CAREL E3V45ASR00 electronic expansion valve is used with a CAREL pCO2/IR automatic control system.
The managers of the ski jump have been delighted by Climalife’s environmentally betaine-based Thermera R heat transfer fluid, both with regard to its physical characteristics and its ecological properties. This sugar beet by-product produces the desired temperature in the refrigerant without any envionmental risks and provides protection down to -35°C. The facility is automatically controlled and optimised using the Testo sensors which monitor the temperatures in the various zones of the system.
For the Neudstadt Ski Club, this new indirect cooling system for the ramp is an original, economic and ideal environmentally friendly solution to improve competition level ski jumping conditions.
Company : Heinz Moritz GmbH
Activity : Planning, delivery, and construction of cooling systems
Loaction : Gundelfingen – Germany
Date established: 1964
Employees: 14