How innovative snow-clearing technology is developing across continents
Excessive snow can quickly become the bane of everyday transport. Here are three firms making its removal their business, whether behind the wheel, by hand – or with the help of an ice-shovelling robot.
1.
Kahlbacher
Austria
Kahlbacher, a family firm founded in Kitzbühel in western Austria, produces some of Europe’s largest and most powerful snow-blowing machines. It has supplied snow-clearing systems since its origins in 1949, when Toni and Marianne Kahlbacher established the company from their Alpine home.
Today their rotary-blower technology (in which blades at the front of the machine cut through snow and ice, before funnelling and firing it all from a chute up to 30 metres away) is a staple of the slopes. Large engines ensure that the vehicles can tackle mountain inclines and shelves of snowfall on everything from ski runs to cold-climate airfields.
2.
Wado
Japan
Despite their modest size and hand-operation, Wado’s snow throwers pack a punch. The Japanese manufacturer was established in 1941 in Hanamaki in northern Japan, where lengthy winters are the norm. Today it is Japan’s largest maker, offering more than 20 models that are sold and exported globally, including in countries such as the US, Switzerland, Austria and France.
With the aid of a Honda engine, the company’s most popular model, the SXC1070HE, can remove 60 tonnes of snow per hour, according to Jugo Ono, Wado’s general manager. “By hand-operation standards, they’re powerful,” he tells Monocle. “All of our snow blowers are crawler models. In Japan, the population living in areas with heavy snowfall is among the highest in the world.”
3.
Yarbo
USA
Robotics start-up Yarbo has developed the first snow-blowing robot. The autonomous device can be programmed to clear driveways and precisely deposit snow in specified zones. “We have a percentage of customers who say, ‘I like the idea of a robotic lawnmower but I enjoy getting the mower out in the sun,’” Kenneth Kohlmann, Yarbo’s co-founder, tells Monocle. “But that perspective doesn’t exist when it comes to shovelling snow in a blizzard. So the market for a snowblowing robot is much larger.”
The company had to develop technology to ensure that the robot would function in harsher weather. “Batteries don’t like the cold,” says Kohlmann. “So we created a patented one that has interwoven heating elements within it. Yarbo is designed to work through snowstorms. It can handle five feet of snow as well as it can handle a dusting of it.”
Illustrations: Andy Carter
