SURFACES AND AREAS

Field of application of the invention. The invention is referred to a system for the removal and melting of snow and ice from urban roads, parking lots, sidewalks, roofs of houses, sports fields, or more generally snow-covered fields. More precisely it is related to systems that produce hot air and insulate snow and ice from the temperatures of the external environment, producing runoff water after contact, for a short time interval, between hot air and snow.

State of the art. Commonly known are "snowblower" and "snowplow" vehicles that remove snow from roads, with several variations, such as the vehicles described in documents US2004/074114, US4785561 and MI2009A001018. Also well-known are vehicles that remove snow from sidewalks and parking lots, also in this case with different variants, however, creating snow accumulations that in urban areas can lead to a difficult traffic circulation for vehicles, such as cars parked in advance, and the very complicated transit of people in those points. With regard to the sloping roofs of houses, there are known systems with shades with mobile bases that when rewind or unfold allow to the snow to slide, or systems that allow the melting of snow through the application of chemical solutions sprayed there, as shown by the devices described in documents B02009A000768, DE202007009739 and IT1213733.

Summary of the invention. Since ancient times, cold, snow and ice have created hostile conditions for people's lives, especially in the winter season by creating barriers to both pedestrian traffic and means of transport for people. Not only that, but such prohibitive conditions are often the cause of deterioration of vehicles due to wear and tear from exposure or contact with ice and more frequent incidents due to skidding or similar. Last but not least, there is the problem of removing snow or ice from parking lots, roads and/or driveways in order to gain access to the entrance of houses, leading many people to have to spend a lot of time and effort in order to remove barriers made up of snow and ice. This results in the formation of sometimes very high piles of snow and ice that, in the case of parking islands and sidewalks, obstruct the passages and sometimes become impassable. Roofs of houses covered with snow and ice, for long periods of the year, also cause damage to their surface cover, often at high maintenance costs. Probably the hostile weather conditions described above and the lack of direct access to the domestic alternating current, with all the appliances that make our daily life comfortable, have prevented us from inventing any solution to the above problem. It is opportune to provide a snow-ice collection point in a place agreed upon by a group of inhabitants and located just a few meters from the parking areas (or pedestrian or possibly roadside walking, etc.). Such a site should be located in the immediate proximity of a road inlet, leading to the sewer system or in a flower bed having sand underneath where the water from the melting snow- ice can be absorbed by the soil (or end up in the sewer system) and should not be stationed in puddles that could freeze again, creating further dramatic problems for both pedestrians and vehicles. The aim of the following proposal is to melt the snow or ice and no longer move or accumulating them: the water resulting from this melting will have to flow into the sewer system, as easily as possible, so as not to park further on the surface where the snow and/or ice was previously located. Another purpose of the invention is to use hot air and not hot water (or salt) to promote the melting of snow and ice from the sites. This because heating air involves less energy consumption than what heating water does, but also because it is known that hot water could cause significant damage to the glass parts of vehicles. Another objective of the invention is to create insulation between the hostile temperature conditions where snow and ice are stationed. Conditions that are being reproduced in order to promote the melting of snow and ice in a time acceptable to the users, as well as suitable costs that make it accessible to the largest part of the population to benefit from the new technological tool introduced. A further focus of the invention is to provide users with a portable device that, in the case of a person with a car, can be easily stowed in the trunk and in the case of large outdoor areas or surfaces (residential roofs), can be larger but still easily transportable. Another purpose of the device is to reduce to the maximum the physical fatigue in the operation of dissolving snow and ice, in order to make the use of what has been designed accessible to all and to improve the living conditions of the largest number of people living in such prohibitive climatic conditions.

Brief description of the drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the invention applied to a vehicle.

Figure 2 is a view of the invention placed in bags and transported to the place where it is used by sledge.

Figure 3 is a schematic view of the main components used.

Figures 4 and 5 are upper views of the invention around and above a vehicle.

Detailed description.

In one version, the user is provided with a sheet to be placed over the vehicle as soon as the parking operation is finished. The sheet must be made out of waterproof material and composed of five parts: one that covers the upper part of the vehicle, the other four parts that cover the side parts to the ground (even a little further) and with said sheet joined in four points 1, 2, 3 and 4. The five parts of the sheet shall be joined by means of known zipper and snap fastener systems. In addition, the sheet at the front and rear of the car is provided with an anchorage system so that it does not fly away in the wind or otherwise. A very common anchorage system is a spring system that attaches to a part of the bodywork of the front or rear vehicle. When the user of the vehicle returns and finds the sheet covered with snow or ice, he can easily separate or open the five parts of the sheet and take the snow, contained in each of the five parts, to a snow collection point where it will be melted and disposed of. The aforementioned place will be a short distance from the car where you may use a sledge to place the sheet (or any part of it) on top and reach the melting and disposal site. In this way, the user's effort will be really minimal and the snow and ice will not simply moved or accumulated, as it happens today, but completely eliminated. The collection point will be the place in charge to melt the snow-ice in water and where the resulting water will flow, either into underground or into the sewerage system of the city center. As already mentioned, we will not be able to benefit from alternating current for domestic use. Two elements will be here fundamental in order to carry out the melting: a three-dimensional metal grid 5 and a melting system. The three-dimensional metal grid 5 can be of variable dimensions but sufficient to meet the needs of the locals who will pour snow and removed ice. It is easy to understand that within such a grid, 5 the snow and ice melting system shall be positioned and then activated on command, designed so that from both upper and lower part of the grid hot air 6 is released to melt the snow and ice. The metal grid 5, made in various basic shapes according to its use, has a slightly sloping upper cover and is equipped with suitably positioned holes so that hot air escapes from the holes and no water from the melting of snow and ice can enter. The side parts of the grid can be empty in order to facilitate the insertion and extraction of the melting system 7, 11, 12. The reason why it is necessary for the above mentioned grid to emit hot air ,from both the upper and the lower part, is related to the fact that if we are in the presence of a basement and not of road pavement, the soil could be frozen and therefore would not allow the absorption of the produced water. On the other hand, if hot air is produced, the ice in the ground will melt and the water that enters the ground from above will end up in the depths of the ground, creating no discomfort but only the benefit of making the snow disappear. The snow and ice melting system consists of three parts: a heat source 11, a mixer 12 and a hot air container 7 which will then end up on the outside, both from the top and the bottom. The heat source 11 can be given by a butane canister that produces a flame at about 1400°C and is easily available on the market. The mixer 12, which is not currently available on the market, consists of a Venturi Tube 10 in which, on the one hand, the flame of the heat source 11 enters, on the other hand air enters at room temperature (most likely below 0°C) and a mixture is obtained at the exit which allows the snow to melt in a reasonable time for the user, for example 100°C. To complete this component, a casing can be used to finalize the mixing operation with small coils inside and possibly an air compressor to push the air 9 or a cascade system of the last two components. The hot air container 7 can be obtained from a common air mattress with built-in electric battery compressor and on/off control, already available on the market and from an opening and closing system of holes 8 positioned, in this case, in the upper and lower part of the aforementioned mattress. The opening and closing system of holes 8 can be regulated in various ways: for example, in a preferred but not exclusive form, the holes are in a rest condition closed with felt, you can think that when the pressure of hot air inside the mattress will reach a certain value then the holes will allow the constant output of hot air that will melt snow and ice in a few minutes turning them into water. The hot air container block 7 can be closed easily with already known technologies facilitating its portability. All three parts, of the above mentioned system, are easily resealable occupying a very modest resting space compared to the space of a common car trunk. The system in the invention also includes a further version, in case the user does not have the car cover (or does not use it) and on his return he finds his car covered with snow and ice. In this case, it is necessary to melt snow and ice on the spot to free the car both on the upper part and on the perimeter parts from the obstruction that has been created in the meantime. To do this, a snow and ice melting system with a different version than the previously described is used. This melting system in another version also has three components: a heat source 11, a mixer 12 and a hot air container 13, 14 which will then end outwards. The first two parts, heat source 11 and mixer 12 are identical components to those described in the first version. The other version foresees, instead, a different component given by a hot air container 13, 14. This hot air container is inflatable through an air compressor powered by portable batteries, but in this case the holes 8 for the hot air exits are only in the lower part of container 13 and not also in the upper part. This is because, in this second version of the system, there is no need to disperse hot air in the external environment, while in the previous case, above the inflatable mattress we had a metal grid and then the snow and ice, placed on top of it, to melt. It remains in any case the function of thermal insulation of the hot air container block 13, 14 which, lying above the upper part of the car, or on the perimeter flooring of the car, insulates the snow and ice from the outside temperature. The second fundamental difference of the hot air container block 13, 14, compared to the one placed in the collection point 7 of the first version, is given by the fact that in this case this block must be implemented with a different geometry compared to the previous one, which is a perimeter geometry of the car, but significantly narrower while the height it can reach is similar. Since the block has to adapt, both to the upper part of the car and to the perimeter part of the parking floor, it can be thought that each side of the perimeter rectangle of the car of container 13 is connected by a thin cavity 14, flexible but not inflatable (in which hot air is released), so that approaching the four sides you can easily create a geometry close to that of the upper part of the car where it will be placed, possibly with the help of binding ropes. The hot air container provided for the second version must provide, as for the container provided for the previous version, a system for emptying the hot air accumulated inside (for example, an air compressor that works in reverse) to compact its dimensions and store it in a minimal space in the trunk of the car. In further operational forms with systems similar to the second version described, but with different geometries of bases (square, rectangular or other) and different dimensions (even some or several meters of side) you can develop solutions that allow to melt snow and ice from the roofs of houses and buildings, with the help of drones that bring on the roof the hot air container 13, 14 and the duct that connects to the other two parts (heat source and mixer) that can be laid down to the ground. It may be planned to place a sheet covering the roof (and it is well blocked on it), before the winter season and then occasionally melt the snow and ice that has been laid on it with the process described in the second version of the system (with template designed for this particular situation). In addition, the second version of the system can be used for sports field surfaces and bleachers of sports facilities, for sidewalks, for outdoor surfaces and areas in general, for garden surfaces or similar and for indoor and outdoor driveways. It should be considered that, for the surfaces listed above, if you want to provide the surfaces with a covering sheet before the snow falls, the parts that make it up must vary according to the geometry to be covered until they are reduced to a single piece. Finally, the mixer 12 can be external to the hot air container, both in the first and second version, or internal, this to favor a better final solution. Furthermore, the container 9 can be of various shapes and with various solutions of its coil inside. An air compressor can also be provided that works at different speeds, depending on whether you are in the inflating phase or in the phase of the air escaping from the hot air container, in order to obtain a better final result than the temperature of the air escaping from holes 8. By using the found object of the invention, the various components of the second version described and possibly the sheet, can be purchased and stored in the trunk of the vehicle of each user (the design and use are such as to make the system very popular) while the components used in the first version can be purchased by groups of users at a single expense, with the organization of a collection point in a convenient location for everyone and where they will carry out the melting of snow and ice. It will be sufficient, for the individual user, to bring the butane gas canister 11 as a heat source to activate the melting system as described in the first version of the invention. It should be considered that the snowfall, in many places in the world, is never such as to be excessively abundant and repeated for too long periods of time. This makes the solution of dissolving snow and ice, without having to repeat the operation every day or even several times a day, even more interesting. It is in fact to be considered, that it will never happen anywhere in the world that there is a snow precipitation, of one meter per day, for every day of the winter months.