Filter Adapter Seal Injection Molding Tolerance Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing adapters for fastening filter elements in cylindrical openings require separate assembly of seals, which can lead to incorrect installation or omission, and altering tolerances between the adapter and receiving opening to accommodate seal deformation, limiting compatibility with existing systems.
Innovation Solution
The seal is injection molded onto the base surface of the circumferential groove, positioned at a distance from the groove's side walls, eliminating the need for separate assembly and allowing for volume deformation, ensuring correct sealing with the same tolerances, thus enabling use with both new and old adapters in existing openings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If seals are assembled separately into the adapter, then the adapter can be manufactured with standard tolerances, but the risk of incorrect installation or omission increases and assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is integrated directly into the adapter body through injection molding, merging two previously separate components (adapter and seal) into a single unit. This eliminates the need for separate assembly steps and reduces the risk of incorrect installation or omission, while maintaining sealing reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal is pre-formed and positioned within the adapter during the injection molding process itself, rather than being assembled separately afterward. This preliminary integration ensures the seal is always correctly positioned and present, eliminating assembly errors.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the seal is injection molded onto the base surface at a distance from side walls, then volume deformation space is available, but the groove structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The groove structure is designed with differentiated regions: the base surface provides a mounting area for the seal, while the sides are spaced away to create deformation volume. This local differentiation allows the seal to deform radially outward during installation without requiring complex overall groove geometry, enabling compatibility with both new and existing adapters.
3Ease of operation
If tolerances between adapter and receiving opening are changed to accommodate seal deformation, then seal installation is facilitated, but compatibility with existing filter housings is lost
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of accommodating seal deformation through axial tolerance changes (length dimension), the groove design provides deformation space in the radial dimension by spacing the seal from the groove side walls. This allows the seal to expand radially outward during installation without requiring changes to the axial tolerances between adapter and receiving opening, thereby maintaining compatibility with existing filter housings.
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
This solution ensures a secure, fluid-tight seal without separate assembly and maintains original tolerances, allowing both new and old adapters to function correctly in existing filter housings, ensuring efficient filtration without dead space or leakage.
Implementation Method 1
the seal (4, 7, 28) is connected to a base surface (6, 27) of the circumferential groove (3, 5, 26) by injection molding
Implementation Method 2
the seal (4, 7, 28) is at a distance (16, 17, 31) from at least one side wall (12, 13, 32, 33) of the groove (3, 5, 26) delimiting the base area (6, 27), in particular from both side walls (12, 13), delimiting the base area (6, 27), so that a space for accommodating a deformation volume of the seal (4, 7, 28) is created when the adapter (1, 1') is inserted into the cylindrical receiving opening (18) of a base part (19)
Data Source
Figure 1~2
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AI summary
The invention relates to an adapter for fastening a filter element in a cylindrical receiving opening of a bottom part of a lower piece of a filter housing. Said adapter comprises at least one seal that is arranged in a peripheral groove on the circumference of the adapter in order to fluid-tightly separate a filtrate-free chamber, which surrounds the external jacket of the filter and from which medium to be filtered can be delivered to the filter, from a filtrate chamber into which the filtrate can be introduced from the filter. The seal is injection-molded in a connecting manner onto a base area of the peripheral groove and is located at a distance from at least one sidewall of the groove, said sidewall delimiting the base area.