Liquid purification or separation – Flow – fluid pressure or material level – responsive – Fluid pressure responsive by-pass
Patent
1997-06-17
1999-05-18
Drodge, Joseph W.
Liquid purification or separation
Flow, fluid pressure or material level, responsive
Fluid pressure responsive by-pass
1231965, 184 628, 210120, 210168, 2104165, 494 49, 417151, B01D17/12;17/038
Patent
active
059048417
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to fluid circulation systems including centrifugal cleaning devices and particularly relates to drainage of cleaned fluid from such devices.
Self-powered centrifugal fluid cleaning devices are well known for cleaning lubricating fluids of solid contaminants in engines and like mechanisms. Such centrifugal cleaning devices are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,557,831 and 4,498,898, GB-A-2160796 and EP-A-0193020.
In particular, such devices are employed with fluids in the form of liquids, and in this specification the term fluid should be construed accordingly.
It will be appreciated that notwithstanding the simplicity and efficiency with which such devices separate solids from the fluid passing therethrough, there are a number of limitations attached to their usage which have hitherto served to limit their widespread use.
A typical form of such a self-powered centrifugal cleaner is shown in part sectional elevation at 10 in FIG. 1(a), comprising a base 11, rotor 12 mounted on a substantially vertical axis 13 for rotation thereabout, a housing 14 mounted on the base and enclosing the rotor and a drain or holding sump 15 formed in the base below the rotor. A fluid inlet passage 16 is arranged to supply fluid at elevated pressure to the interior of the rotor by way of the rotation axis and a fluid drain passage 17 in the base receives fluid from the drain sump for return to a fluid reservoir. The rotor has side walls arranged to retain solid contaminants, contained in the supplied fluid, which are forced outwardly by rapid rotation of the rotor due to reaction to ejection of the supplied fluid to the drain sump by way of rotor nozzles 18, 19 in the base thereof.
In respect of use of such a cleaner in a lubrication system for an engine or a fluid operated device, the quantity of fluid which can be passed through it in a given time is limited and the fluid emerging from the rotor nozzles 18 and 19 is in a low energy state and suited only for returning by gravity flow to a system reservoir or sump.
To this end it is usual to mount the cleaner above the level of the reservoir, and indeed other parts of the circulation system whereby the static head of the fluid in the holding sump provides adequate pressure for the fluid to drain, provided of course that the gaseous atmosphere of the cleaner housing (itself a prerequisite for rotor rotation) is not at a negative pressure with respect to ambient atmospheric pressure. Usually this is achieved by having a short downwardly directed drain duct of large cross-sectional area which provide also a vent by which the housing is exposed to ambient pressure.
It has been suggested, where such a dual purpose drainage duct is not practicable, that the housing be provided with a ventilation or breather valve, such as illustrated at 14', arranged to open when the housing atmospheric pressure becomes negative to a predetermined, but finite, extent, but to ensure that the holding sump drains until the valve does open it must be sited such that the static head provides an effective drainage pressure thus further constraining its freedom of usage.
It has also been proposed to avoid draining limitations consequent upon a sub-ambient housing atmosphere pressure by exposing the housing to an above-ambient pressure, possibly from an engine crank case, although this then requires either a corresponding increase in supply pressure to maintain the pressure drop across the rotor nozzles or acceptance of a reduced rotation efficiency, or by using a suction pump driven by way of a power take off from the engine or machine being lubricated by the circulated fluid. Notwithstanding the added complexity of providing such externally powered drainage facilities which detract from the self-powered nature of the cleaner, such systems have still functioned on the basis that the cleaned and ejected fluid, whose energy has been expended in driving the rotor, is returned to the reservoir at ambient atmospheric pressure from a housing w
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Soviet Patent Abstracts Section Ch, Week 8905 Mar. 15, 1989 Derwent Publications Ltd., London, GB; Class J01, AN 89-037508 XP0020000735 & SU,A, 1 409 330 (AZOV-Black Sea AGRI), Jul. 15, 1988.
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Drodge Joseph W.
The Glacier Metal Company Limited
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