A planar railgun mounted on the front of the vehicle shoots iron bearings downwards to ablate ice from the concrete; a revolving electromagnetic drum in the midsection recovers most of the iron for reuse; finally a streetsweeping attachment at the rear throws the ice-grains to the side of the road, or into a hopper.

Ejection speed and bearing sizes are operator controllable to allow for different conditions.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 25 2008

Zamboni http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamboni
A vehicle designed for resurfacing ice rinks. [DrBob, Nov 26 2008]

The Result http://www.google.c...ng%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
Is there a name for this phenomena? Self-searching? [MikeD, Jul 14 2009]

My knowledge of the world is now richer to the tune of one Zamboni. I'd never heard of it before.

Not so sure about this idea though. The road surface is not made from concrete but from blacktop which would be just as liable to be damaged as the ice that you are trying to remove. Also, your grains of iron would become embedded in the road surface which would lead to increased tyre wear for vehicles. On the other hand though, you do have a railgun involved so I'll stay neutral for the time being.
-- DrBob, Nov 26 2008


Posting edited to reflect that iron grain size and speed is variable depending on road-surface conditions.

(I posted this idea mostly just to use the phrase "planar railgun")
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 27 2008


[+] for removing ice by abrasion rather than heating or chemical dissolution.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 28 2008


This is remarkably similar to the method for runway rubber residue removal - Google this: "airport runway rubber removal shot blasting"
-- canabenoid, Nov 28 2008


OK, why not use abbrasive gritblasting instead? The advantage here is that any grit that isnt recovered for re-use is left on the road - as useful grit for the next layer of ice that forms...
-- Custardguts, Jul 12 2009


[Cg] 'cuz I wouldn't be able to use the phrase "planar railgun" which was actually the whole purpose of the post.

Abrasive grit-blasting would tend to erode the road; I see your point but grit on the road is not good for the road surface. This idea is to take advantage of the fact that ice is less bendy than asphalt: an impact will momentarily compress the asphalt but will break the ice.
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 13 2009


One would start the abrasive blasting with a small charge of sand, and then reuse ice recovered from the road itself for additional blasting.
-- bungston, Jul 13 2009


//Google this: "airport runway rubber removal shot blasting"//

I did:

Apparently, this HB idea is the only place in the google-known universe where "airport runway rubber removal shot blasting" is uddered.

sans quotation marks, however ...
-- MikeD, Jul 14 2009


//sans quotation marks// probably brings entirely new genres to light [edit]: nope, it's what it should be: they even use steel balls to abrade the rubber... but they haven't got a planar railgun. :)

//reuse ice recovered from the road itself for additional blasting//
An idea; different system though... compressed air ?
-- FlyingToaster, Jul 14 2009



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