Liquid purification or separation – With alarm – indicator – register – recorder – signal or... – Fluid pressure responsive
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-23
2001-07-31
Reifsnyder, David A. (Department: 1723)
Liquid purification or separation
With alarm, indicator, register, recorder, signal or...
Fluid pressure responsive
C210S132000, C210S136000, C210S223000, C210S232000, C210S315000, C210S316000, C210S338000, C210S424000, C210S443000, C210S456000, C210SDIG009, C184S006240, C184S006250, C123S1960AB
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267875
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to liquid filters and more particularly the present invention relates to disposable filters suitable for use in connection with internal combustion engines.
BACKGROUND ART
Environmental concerns regarding soil and atmospheric contamination, caused by automotive related pollutants are becoming increasingly important issues for all governments. New passenger vehicles that come off the production line typically requires an average of 6 to 8 oil and oil filter changes every year for a 12 to 14 year period, typically average driving life for North American passenger vehicles. Commercial vehicles require 12 or more oil and oil filter changes every year. Older vehicles require even more frequent changes.
The disposal of used oil filters and waste oils is costly. The waste generated from filters and discarded oil amounts to billions of units daily world wide.
Conventional oil filters presently on the market are made for disposal after each usage. The filtering pore size of these filters varies from 20 to 120 microns. Conventional oil filters on the market are equipped with a safety valve but some are not. Of those filters, oil starvation to the engine may occur as they are prone to pressure breaks, which opens the paper fibre element and forces the oil to channel through the filter thus eliminating its filtering efficiency. Under proper operation a conventional filter restricts main oil flow from the filter medium clogging. Oil pressure then forces the built-in safety valve to open to allow unfiltered oil to flow back freely to the engine, preventing oil starvation which will lead to serious engine damage. Clearly, unfiltered oil may then flow through the engine and due to the high pressure of the oil particles on the surface of the fully clogged paper medium are transported through the engine and contact delicate engine parts.
In terms of materials of which typical filters are made, generally metals are employed for the canister and paper fiber for the filter medium. These materials and the energy used to produce them can be conserved by practicing the present invention.
Other than the full flow oil filters, auxiliary bypass filtering systems for finer micron filtrations are also commonly found on the market. An auxiliary bypass system works like a dialysis machine, a small amount of fluid is taken, cleaned, and returned into the source for merger with the main source. As an example, approximately 30 minutes to about one hour is one cycle for a full sump tank of 4 litres of motor oil to be cleaned by a bypass system. Some of the full flow filters allow for 16 gallons per minute of oil to be filtered through the engine. The bypass system does not emphasize oil flow but the efficiency in filtering particles in the smallest micron sizes, usually in 1 to 3 microns. Generally speaking the conventional bypass oil filters on the market are bulky units, installed separately from the existing full flow system. They are extremely labour intensive to install and are much more expensive than the full flow filters. These bypass filters are designed to be disposed of at the time the engine oil is changed.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
The invention has applicability in the filter art and more particularly the invention has distinct applicability in the internal combustion engine lubricant filtration art.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved oil filter.
A further object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a reusable oil filter, comprising:
a hollow container having opposed ends;
a plurality of spaced apart concentric filtration members removably mounted in concentric relation within the container, each member having a different porosity for filtering;
removable filter head means releasably mounted to the hollow container; and
filter base means removably mounted to the container, the filter base means having an inlet to receive oil to be filtered and an outlet to discharge filter oil.
The filter includes upper and lower filter body members and an annular oil flow space between the filter body members and the housing.
In a further aspect, flow guide means are provided to direct the flow of oil within the filter towards the filtration media. The various aspects of the invention are directed towards enhancing the effectiveness of the filter in a manner not hereto achieved by the prior art. In particular reference may be had to German Patent Publication 1,416,434 (Gray) disclosing a multistage filter having a bypass valve means, but not featuring a filter head as identified above.
The filter head may be circular in shape, preferably a solid piece, it can be made out of materials such as; plastic, cast iron, steel or aluminum depending on its intended applications. For example; for highly corrosive liquids, high quality stainless steel is used. For motor oil filtration, aluminum alloy is adequate for the invention. The versatile design of the filter head allows for its transformation to multifarious functions from simple filtration to multiple stage filtration within multiple filtering systems.
The filter head of the invention has added to its basic form a threaded cap as well as having an outer thread at the bottom of the filter head. Within the lower part of the filter head is a set of openings generally subscribing to a tunnel shape. The single tunnel is made by drilling a hole horizontally at right angles from one side of the filter head through to the other side. At this stage of the invention the filter head configuration forms a single functional filter head after having adapted to it a cylindrical shaped full flow filter medium. This basic form can be transformed into a much more complex filter head. The transformation is facilitated by the addition of various sized tunnels at designated points making oil passages associated with multiple filtering chambers. These chambers and tunnels may be located on different levels within the filter head. The number of tunnels or chambers required depend on the complexity of various filtering requirements. As an example, the one solid piece, single open tunnel filter head is appropriate for one filtering stage of a full flow filtering system which is a simple application of the invention. A two piece, multiple level, filter may have eight tunnels in the filter head. Some tunnels could be inter-connected and lead to two or more filtering chambers for specific filtering requirements. Oil filtering chambers within the filter head are formed to accommodate circular sheet filtering media by providing recess spaces. Circular disks containing the medium supporting members and filtering media join the parts of the filter together and are sealed by O rings. This system allows for a single filtering system or if the addition of filter medium connecting members or brushings are added a multiple stage filtering is achieved. This system not only allows for the above multiple stage filtering implementations, but also allows for the accommodation of additional component parts as required. Various porosity of filtering media which are flat circular sheets of tailor cut stainless steel cloth made from course to fine meshes are sandwiched between the recessed bushings. This multiple chamber filter head is a multiple stage filtering device, a bypass filtering system and it is one of the three distinct progressive filtering systems of the invention.
The versatility of the invention allows for implementation of either single stage or multiple stage filtering which is dependent on the number of filtering media and medium bushing disks implemented within the filter head. To extend the function of the filter head, and maximize the filtering effects by utilizing various flow tunnels built-in the filter head, a consolidated three piece full flow filtering device all in cylindrical configuration with both circular ends open, can be incorporated at the bottom part of the filter head. At this stage, the filter head itself can be in the single filtering stage or in the multi
McFadden Fincham
Reifsnyder David A.
LandOfFree
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