A Metromelt is a self-propelled

snowmelter A snow melter is a piece of snow removal equipment designed to melt snow using flame burners, hot water or both. The melt-water is discharged into a storm drain or onto the ground. Melting snow artificially helps keep roads, airport tarmacs and ...

machine.

History

They were first built in 1974 for the then Toronto Metro Roads and Works department to remove major snow accumulations from roads managed by

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

. Built by Trecan Combustion Limited of

Hubley, Nova Scotia Hubley is a residential community within the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia on Trunk 3 between Upper Tantallon and Timberlea approximately 15 kilometres from Halifax. Communications * The first three digits of the postal code are ...

, the city operates a fleet of 5 machines (8 wheeled self driven (with driver cab) vehicles are stored at Toronto Works Ellesmere Yard in Scarborough) along with the 350-PD unpowered snowmelter trailer units by Trecan. Trecan Metromelt and snowmelters are used throughout

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Mobile self-propelled snowmelters were originally invented and patented in Canada, European Union and the US by Albert Z Morin, the original inventor of the Jet Melt and likewise renowned and honored by Canada's highest innovation award for inventing the aerodynamic mudflap.

Specifications

* Power plant: four-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

* Top Speed: * Length: * Height: * Width: wide * Ground clearance: * Weight: The snow machine melts approximately of snow per hour using air/fuel combustion to heat water and mix it with snow in a melting tank. The melted snow continuously drains from the tank, as it overflows, out of the melter and into storm drains or sewers along the road. The machine is self-propelled and self-loading, and resembles a large truck-mounted furnace with a snow-gathering conveyor belt at the front end.

References

External links

Snow: The Toronto snow melting machine

Trecan Combustion, makers of the Metromelt

Metromelt - Taken from Toronto Start 1975
Snow removal

History

Specifications

See also

References

External links