Air Filter End Plate Sealing for Modular Stacking Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional air filters with hollow-cylindrical chambers are unstable and prone to leaks due to open end faces, making them sensitive to vibrations and difficult to handle and seal when stacked.
Innovation Solution
The air filter design features continuously closed annular end plates firmly connected to the cylinder shells and partitions, forming a mechanically stable unit with gas-tight seals, allowing for secure stacking and improved handling by using beveled edges and ring-shaped beads for sealing rings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If hollow cylindrical chambers are open on end faces to allow modular stacking, then the filter can be enlarged modularly, but the filter becomes unstable and susceptible to vibrations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses flexible sealing elements (sealing rings or sealing lips) at the open end faces of the hollow cylindrical chambers. These flexible sealing components allow the chambers to be stacked and connected while maintaining stability and preventing leakage, resolving the contradiction between modular adaptability and structural stability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If hollow cylindrical chambers are open on end faces for stacking, then modular enlargement is enabled, but seals between chambers can slip and become leaky
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible sealing elements such as sealing rings or sealing lips made of elastomeric materials at the end faces of chambers. These flexible seals conform to the mating surfaces and maintain reliable sealing under vibration and thermal expansion, preventing slippage and leakage while enabling modular stacking.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing system uses composite construction combining rigid chamber housings with flexible sealing materials (elastomers, rubber compounds). This composite approach allows the rigid structure to provide mechanical strength while the flexible sealing layer ensures reliable, leak-free connections during modular assembly and operation under various conditions.
3Reliability
If individual hollow cylindrical chambers are sealed separately, then each chamber is gas-tight, but the overall filter becomes complex and difficult to handle
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the sealing function into the modular chamber design itself, where each chamber is equipped with integrated sealing elements at its end faces. This allows multiple chambers to be stacked and connected in series, with each interface providing gas-tight sealing independently, thereby maintaining reliability while simplifying the overall assembly process and reducing handling complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design enhances stability and sealing, preventing leaks and ensuring effective filtration even under vibrations, allowing for easy and secure stacking of air filters without individual chamber sealing, maintaining mechanical stability and efficient air purification.
Implementation Method 1
a gas-impermeable sealing material, resiliently pre-tensioned against the filter material contained in the chamber
Implementation Method 2
resiliently pre-tensioned against the filter material contained in the chamber
Implementation Method 3
The spring-loaded, gas-impermeable sealing material then exerts sufficient preload on the filter material
Implementation Method 4
a chamber located closer to the air inlet comprises a particle filter
Implementation Method 5
another chamber located closer to the air outlet contains gas-absorbing material, such as activated carbon in particular
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~2c
Figure 3
AI summary
The present invention relates to an air filter for removing solid particles and/or gases, including biological and chemical warfare agents and radioactive substances, from ambient air, comprising a hollow cylindrical housing (20) having an inner cylindrical shell (11) and an outer cylindrical shell (12), each of which is a gas-permeable cylindrical shell, one of which serves as an air inlet and the other as an air outlet, and with cylindrical partitions (17, 18) which divide the space between the inner and outer cylindrical shells (11, 12) into substantially concentric, hollow cylindrical chambers (21, 22), wherein a chamber (21) oriented closer to the air inlet comprises a particle filter (6) and a further chamber (22) oriented closer to the air outlet contains gas-absorbing material, in particular activated carbon (9).In order to create an air filter of the above-mentioned type which is easier to handle and provides a better seal against an outer housing and in particular against the end faces of similar and stacked air filters, it is proposed according to the invention that both end faces of the hollow cylinder are each closed by a continuous, annular end plate (30, 30'), wherein the end plates (30, 30') are each firmly and gas-tightly connected to the inner and outer cylinder shells (11, 12) and the cylindrical partitions (17, 18).