Sealed Edge Frame With Inward Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air filter frames require complex manual manipulation and excessive glue usage for mounting pleated filter media, leading to potential air leakage and reduced rigidity.
Innovation Solution
An air filter frame design featuring inwardly open sealing channels along the front ends of profiled elements, with L-shaped angle pieces and outwardly directed gasket channels, allowing for simplified mounting and reduced glue usage, while ensuring air tightness and stability through symmetrical sealant expansion and machine-assisted assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If glue is applied along the whole width of the filter pack sides, then sealing reliability is improved, but glue consumption increases and manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing channel is divided into three distinct segments: a rearwardly extending part, an inwardly extending part, and a forwardly extending part. This segmentation allows glue to be applied only in the critical front end region where sealing is most needed, rather than along the entire width of the filter pack sides, thereby reducing glue consumption while maintaining sealing reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing channel is designed with varying dimensions at different locations - the forwardly extending part has a smaller dimension than the rearwardly extending part. This local variation in channel geometry concentrates the sealing function where it is most critical (at the front end), allowing reduced glue usage in less critical areas while maintaining overall sealing effectiveness.
2Ease of manufacture
If angle pieces are manually assembled, then ease of manufacture is improved, but productivity decreases and manufacturing precision may suffer
Solution Approach 1:
The angle pieces are designed with self-aligning features including recesses that fit into protrusions on the profiled elements, and guide surfaces that automatically align the angle pieces during machine assembly. This self-service design eliminates the need for complex manual manipulation while enabling high-speed automated assembly, thereby increasing productivity without sacrificing ease of manufacture.
3Reliability
If the sealing channel extends along the whole width of the filter pack, then sealing reliability is improved, but the risk of air leakage due to sealant shrinkage increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of extending the sealing channel along the entire width of the filter pack (traditional approach), the invention inverts the approach by concentrating the sealing channel only in the front end region. This inversion eliminates the problem of sealant shrinkage over long distances while maintaining effective sealing where it is most critical, thereby reducing air leakage risk.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing channel extends only partially along the filter pack width (specifically, only in the front end region), rather than providing full-width sealing. This partial action is sufficient to achieve the required sealing reliability while avoiding the harmful effects of excessive sealant application over long distances, which causes shrinkage and air leakage.
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 simplifies filter pack mounting, reduces glue consumption, minimizes air leakage risk, and enhances frame stability with efficient machine-assisted locking of angle pieces, ensuring all air passes through the filter medium while maintaining structural integrity.
Implementation Method 1
enables a sealant filling the gasket channel to expand outwardly in a symmetrical fashion
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an air filter pack frame constituted of four profiled elements being held together by angle pieces and surrounding an opening there between, in which a pack of pleated filter medium is intended to be mounted, said profiled elements having a front side, which when a pack of filter medium is mounted in the frame is adjacent to an inlet side thereof, and a rear side, which when a pack of filter medium is mounted in the frame is adjacent to an outlet side thereof. According to the invention an inwardly open sealing channel extends along each profiled elements in the front end thereof.