Tyco Flow Control supplied valve technology for the recently opened Chill Factore, the UK’s biggest indoor, real-snow Alpine ski village (590ft long and 328ft wide at the base). 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 -15.5C, 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 –6C, 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 -1.5C. Typical snow depth on the slopes is kept around 1.5ft. 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.
