|Publication number||US4028076 A|
|Application number||US 05/605,345|
|Publication date||Jun 7, 1977|
|Filing date||Aug 18, 1975|
|Priority date||Aug 18, 1975|
|Publication number||05605345, 605345, US 4028076 A, US 4028076A, US-A-4028076, US4028076 A, US4028076A|
|Inventors||Gerald S. Fields|
|Original Assignee||Parma Industries, Inc.|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (8), Referenced by (37), Classifications (9)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present invention relates generally to air precleaners for internal combustion engines and, more particularly, to centrifugal type air precleaners.
Air precleaners of the centrifugal type are exemplified by the precleaner described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,573 to Lewis A. Borsheim, owned by the assignee of the present invention. The Borsheim precleaner has been and still is manufactured commercially, but it is a relatively costly and complex structure to manufacture in mass production.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved centrifugal air precleaner that can be efficiently mass produced at a relatively low unit cost.
Another object of the invention is to provide such an improved centrifugal air precleaner that also offers improved performance.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved centrifugal air precleaner of the foregoing type that is relatively compact.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a centrifugal air precleaner embodying the invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged section taken generally along line 2--2 in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a section taken along line 3--3 in FIG. 2, on a reduced scale;
FIG. 4 is a section taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 2, on a reduced scale; and
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary elevation and partial section taken along line 5--5 in FIG. 4.
While the invention will be described in connection with a certain preferred embodiment, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to that particular embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Turning now to the drawings and referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a centrifugal air precleaner 10 which draws ambient air inwardly through an intake screen 11 by means of a suction fan 12 located at the dust outlet 13. Additional suction is provided by the air intake of the internal combustion engine to which the precleaner 10 supplies precleaned air via an air intake stack 14. The entire precleaner assembly is mounted on the stack by telescoping a depending central conduit 15 over the top of the stack 14 and then securing the conduit 15 to the stack 14 by means of a clamp 16. The suction fan 12 is driven by an electric motor 17 mounted alongside the conduit 15 and powered by the electrical system associated with the internal combustion engine served by the precleaner 10.
Within the precleaner 10, dust is removed from the incoming air by directing the air around a semi-cylindrical wall 20 formed by a housing 21. As used herein, it will be understood that the term "dust" refers to any solid contaminants or particulate material contained in the ambient air entering the precleaner. As the air flows around the semi-cylindrical wall 20, centrifugal action causes the dust to collect along the surface of the wall 20 so that it can be separated from the relatively clean air that remains in the central region of the precleaner. The relatively clean air is withdrawn from this central region through an opening 22 formed in the side of a vertical extension of the conduit 15 inside the precleaner. This clean air then passes down through the stack 14 to the air intake of the internal combustion engine.
In accordance with one important aspect of the present invention, the semi-cylindrical wall 20 of the housing 21 is substantially concentric with the central conduit 15, and an internal baffle integral with one side of the intake opening extends between the wall 20 and the conduit 15 to form a restricted passageway that increases the velocity of the incoming air at the upstream end of the wall 20, and to form a dust-receiving chamber at the downstream end of the wall 20. Thus, in the illustrative embodiment, the arcuate or semi-cylindrical wall 20 is substantially concentric with the central conduit 15. The internal baffle includes a planar section 30 which extends inwardly from one side edge of the intake screen 11 toward a planar section 31 of the housing side wall that is perpendicular to the opposite side edge of the intake screen 11. Thus, the two walls 30 and 31 form a converging restricted passageway that increases the velocity of the incoming air at the upstream end of the arcuate wall 20. This increase in the velocity of the incoming air stream is desirable to increase the centrifugal action which causes the dust in the incoming air to collect along the arcuate wall 20. As the planar section 30 of the entrance baffle approaches the upstream end of the annular chamber formed by the arcuate wall 20 and the conduit 15, the baffle is curved inwardly to form an arcuate section 32 which is substantially concentric with both the housing wall 20 and the central conduit 15. This curved section 32 of the internal baffle is spaced away from both the housing wall and the conduit 15, but is located much closer to the conduit 15 than to the housing wall 20. The effect of this curved section 32 of the internal baffle is to maintain the restricted passageway, and thus the relatively high velocity of the incoming air stream, along the first 60° of the semi-cylindrical wall 20 of the housing 21.
At the point where the curved section 32 of the internal baffle terminates, the air passageway expands to the full width of the annular chamber formed between the housing wall 20 and the central conduit 15. The air stream expands to fill this increased volume, with an attendant reduction in velocity, but the velocity is still sufficiently high to continue to carry the dust-laden air along the housing wall 20. Meanwhile, the reduced velocity and increased width of the air passageway facilitates entry of the relatively clean air from the inner region of the annular chamber into the discharged port of the conduit 15.
The remainder of the internal baffle structure forms an exit baffle 33 which splits the air stream into two components, namely an outer component heavily laden with dust and an inner component comprising relatively clean air. The exit baffle 33 is formed as an integral part of the entrance baffle, merging with the entrance baffle in the transition region where the planar section 30 joins the curved section 32. From the entrance baffle, the exit baffle 33 extends around the center conduit 15 in the form of an involute, so that the space between the conduit 15 and the exit baffle 33 gradually decreases in the direction of air flow. The terminus of the exit baffle 33 overlaps about the final 20° of the semi-cylindrical housing wall 20 at a radial position which has been found to represent the boundary between the dust-laden air in the outer region of the outer chamber and the relatively clean air in the inner region of that chamber. The clean air, of course, passes through the relatively wide space between the terminus of the exit baffle 33 and the conduit 15 and enters the port 22 for passage into the air intake stack 14. Any clean air that does not enter the port 22 passes on through a relatively narrow passageway 34 between the inner surface of the curved entrance baffle section 32 and the conduit 15 for recirculation within the annular chamber between the arcuate housing wall 20 and the conduit 15.
As the dust-laden air flows along the outer surface of the exit baffle 33, it enters a dust-receiving chamber defined by the outer surfaces of the exit baffle 33 and the planar section 30 of the entrance baffle, and a corner section 35 of the housing 21. As can be seen most clearly in FIG. 2, this dust-receiving chamber is completely sealed off from the rest of the precleaner so that the dust-containing air must exit through the dust outlet 13 formed in the bottom wall 36 of the housing within the dust-receiving chamber. Of course, the suction fan 12 located directly beneath this dust outlet 13 draws the dust out of the receiving chamber and discharges it to the atmosphere or a suitable receptacle, through a discharge port 37 (FIGS. 4 and 5). The dust-receiving chamber is preferably located at least 180° away from the air intake in the direction of air flow through the housing.
As can be seen most clearly in FIGS. 3 and 4, the conduit 15, the internal baffles 30, 32, and 33, and the bottom and side walls of the housing 21, including the depending housing for the suction fan 12 and the support flange for the drive motor 17, are all formed as a single unitary molded piece. The housing 21 and the internal baffles 30, 32 and 33 are all of substantially uniform height. A number of different materials may be used in molding this piece, but it is preferred to use a shock resistant material such as ABS plastic. In the particular embodiment illustrated, the dust outlet 13 is formed by an insert 40 seated on a flange formed just above the fan housing and held in place by plurality of screws 41. The use of this insert permits the motor 17 and fan 12 to be seated in their respective cavities from the open topped end of the cleaner. The insert 40 is then dropped into place, after which a separately molded cover 42 is applied to the housing and fastened by a screw 43. Thus, the entire precleaner assembly can be efficiently and economically manufactured from a small number of parts and requiring only a few simple assembly operations. It will be appreciated that the molding of the precleaner is facilitated by the use of baffles and side walls of uniform height throughout the precleaner.
In addition to facilitating manufacture, the precleaner provided by this invention also provides improved operating performance. To demonstrate this improved performance, a precleaner having the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings was compared with a commercial precleaner embodying the invention of the aforementioned Borsheim U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,573. Both precleaners had a center conduit with a nominal six-inch diameter. These two precleaners were tested according to the Society Of Automotive Engineers Air Cleaner Test Code J726b, feeding 990 grams of dust into each unit at a rate of 11 grams per minute at eight different flow rates. It was found that the Borsheim cleaner had an efficiency of 66.02%, while the precleaner of the present invention had an efficiency of 85.4%. Moreover, the precleaner of this invention also had significantly lower pressure drops, which is an important operating advantage because lower pressure drops provide improved fuel-air ratios which contribute to improved efficiency of the engine being served by the precleaner. More specifically, the pressure drops required to produce the eight different air flow rates in the comparative tests were as follows:
______________________________________Air Flow Rate Pressure Drop (inches of water)(SCFM) Borsheim Present invention______________________________________100 .4 .3200 1.0 .7300 1.9 1.4400 3.4 2.4500 5.5 3.9600 7.8 5.6700 10.5 7.5800 13.4 9.6______________________________________
As can be seen from the above data, the precleaner of this invention produced the desired air flow rates at significantly lower pressure drops.
As can be seen from the foregoing detailed description, this invention provides an improved centrifugal air precleaner that can be efficiently mass produced at a relatively low unit cost. Furthermore, this precleaner offers improved performance, and it is also relatively compact.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US325521 *||Sep 1, 1885||finch|
|US1720536 *||May 27, 1927||Jul 9, 1929||Westinghouse Electric & Mfg Co||Heat exchanger|
|US1753490 *||Sep 8, 1926||Apr 8, 1930||Davidson & Company Ltd||Dust collector or separator|
|US2139736 *||Nov 19, 1936||Dec 13, 1938||Durham Kenneth P||Vortical muffling device|
|US2747687 *||Aug 9, 1952||May 29, 1956||Superior Separator Company||Centrifugal separators for particleladen gaseous media|
|US3792573 *||Apr 6, 1972||Feb 19, 1974||L Borsheim||Air cleaning structure|
|US3907529 *||Feb 11, 1974||Sep 23, 1975||Lewis A Borsheim||Air cleaning structure|
|GB539188A *||Title not available|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US4097256 *||May 20, 1977||Jun 27, 1978||Melroe Industries, Inc.||Powered contaminant discharge evacuator in connection with air cleaner|
|US4136911 *||Jul 15, 1977||Jan 30, 1979||Schubert & Salzer||Apparatus for feeding a card with fiber material|
|US4218223 *||Nov 25, 1977||Aug 19, 1980||Donaldson Company, Inc.||Pre-cleaner for combustion engines|
|US4519822 *||Jul 12, 1983||May 28, 1985||Mitsubishi Mining And Cement Co.||Cyclone|
|US4578840 *||Jun 4, 1984||Apr 1, 1986||General Resource Corp.||Mobile vacuum machine|
|US4721561 *||Apr 15, 1985||Jan 26, 1988||Gebruder Buhler Ag||Centrifugal force separator|
|US5472463 *||Jun 14, 1994||Dec 5, 1995||Cummins Engine Company, Inc.||Pressure side integrated air filter and filtering networks for engines|
|US6019822 *||Aug 12, 1997||Feb 1, 2000||Misuzu Machineries & Engineering Ltd.||Apparatus for air dehumidification having a unitary casing for a cyclone separator, a primary filter, a secondary filter, and a separation membrane element|
|US6294001 *||Oct 31, 1997||Sep 25, 2001||Foster Wheeler Energia Oy||Apparatus and a method for separating particles from hot gases|
|US6681726||Jun 6, 2002||Jan 27, 2004||Andreas Stihl Ag & Co.||Intake system for the combustion air of an internal combustion engine in a portable handheld work apparatus|
|US7681690||Jul 8, 2008||Mar 23, 2010||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise abatement device for a pneumatic tool|
|US7735603 *||May 28, 2008||Jun 15, 2010||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise reducing device for a pneumatic tool|
|US7845464||Dec 7, 2010||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise abatement device for a pneumatic tool|
|US8034143 *||Oct 11, 2011||Uti Limited Partnership||Cyclone|
|US8151774 *||May 13, 2009||Apr 10, 2012||Deere & Company||Engine combustion air cyclonic pre-cleaner embodying throttling member adjusted in accordance with engine load|
|US8215449||Jul 10, 2012||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Muffler system for noise abatement and ice control|
|US8641792 *||May 12, 2009||Feb 4, 2014||Agco Sa||Air intake system|
|US8741035||Jul 14, 2009||Jun 3, 2014||Gea Process Engineering A/S||Spray dryer absorption process for flue gas with entrained coarse particles|
|US8801819||Feb 15, 2013||Aug 12, 2014||Kohler Co.||Air cleaner assembly|
|US8808432||Jun 2, 2009||Aug 19, 2014||Kohler Co.||Cyclonic air cleaner|
|US9042425 *||Jan 25, 2012||May 26, 2015||Leco Corporation||Vacuum cleaning structure for electrode furnace|
|US9206721||Oct 31, 2013||Dec 8, 2015||Kohler Co.||Cyclonic air cleaner|
|US20090090530 *||Jul 8, 2008||Apr 9, 2009||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise abatement device for a pneumatic tool|
|US20090235823 *||Mar 18, 2008||Sep 24, 2009||Zhongchao Tan||Cyclone|
|US20090294211 *||May 28, 2008||Dec 3, 2009||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise reducing device for a pneumatic tool|
|US20090308250 *||Dec 17, 2009||Rotter Terrence M||Cyclonic Air Cleaner|
|US20100155174 *||Mar 10, 2010||Jun 24, 2010||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Noise abatement device for a pneumatic tool|
|US20100288230 *||May 13, 2009||Nov 18, 2010||Mccauley Courtney William||Engine Combustion Air Cyclonic Pre-Cleaner Embodying Throttling Member Adjusted In Accordance With Engine Load|
|US20110072769 *||May 12, 2009||Mar 31, 2011||Agco Sa||Air intake system|
|US20110126541 *||Dec 2, 2009||Jun 2, 2011||Longyear Tm, Inc.||Muffler system for noise abatement and ice control|
|US20110139004 *||Jul 14, 2009||Jun 16, 2011||Niels Jacobsen||Spray dryer absorption process for flue gas with entrained coarse particles|
|US20120213244 *||Jan 25, 2012||Aug 23, 2012||Leco Corporation||Vacuum cleaning structure for electrode furnace|
|USRE30409 *||Dec 22, 1978||Sep 30, 1980||Powered contaminant evacuator|
|CN100521987C||Jun 20, 2006||Aug 5, 2009||豪尼机械制造股份公司||Tangential separator|
|WO2004041411A1 *||Oct 14, 2003||May 21, 2004||Mann+Hummel Gmbh||Device for separating particles from a gas flow|
|WO2005080238A1 *||Jan 7, 2005||Sep 1, 2005||Hauni Maschinenbau Ag||Tangential separator for separating tobacco products from an air tobacco product flow|
|WO2010006618A1 *||Jul 14, 2009||Jan 21, 2010||Gea Process Engineering A/S||Spray dryer absorption process for flue gas with entrained coarse particles|
|U.S. Classification||55/394, 55/467, 55/431, 55/459.3, 55/337, 55/426|