Finally, our website is online!

Find more information about our project here.


An attempt at freezing clear ice from the bottom upward.

July 29th, 2009 - Water valve and Nozzle mounted to the Cobra

Here are the results from yesterday's experiments. Our large-scale ice chip and snow delivery system was modified by adding a water valve on the nozzle to deliver a flat-spray of water on the deposited ice. We have also mounted it on the Cobra and programmed the valve to open from the point of origin to the finish along a straight path.



The rate of deposition was approximately 1/10" per iteration. Modifications to the nozzle and water-to-snow ratio are paramount in moving forward with this project.

Post by: Thomas Evans

July 16th, 2009 - Walk-in freezer experiement

Inside of a -20 °C freezer-room in the McGill University Engineering complex, Professor Sijpkes, Robert Pontarelli and I conducted an experiment to validate our ice-chip/snow delivery system.

Image: Professor Sijpkes and Robert Pontarelli

Our system includes a Wye-channel, extended with rigid transport tubing, which is then attached to flexible tubing, so that we have the ability to manipulate the deposition path via the nozzle which is found at the base of the entire system.

Image: Y-Channel, transport tubing, and nozzle.

Using a large air compressor, the lab-made ice chips and snow are transported via the tubing and finally out of the deposition nozzle. Thus far, the results have been extremely positive and may open up several possibilities for the development of this system and future concepts for the project.

Image: 12" long ice wall

Stay tuned for updates on the website, future experiments and project concept development!

Post by: Thomas Evans

Welcome to our blog!

This blog is a source of weekly updates and announcements about our rapid prototyping ice construction project. Please visit our website for detailed information on the project itself:

http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~rmsl/Index/ice/index.html

Thanks for reading!