Ametek, Inc., Plymouth Products Division

United States Brass Corporation

David T Underwood

A faucet-attached filter apparatus for filtering drinking water includes a unitary filter cartridge subassembly which provides a housing for the filter media, inlet and outlet porous media retainers, the filtered water outlet passage, and a quarter-turn connector with seal for simple cartridge insertion and removal from the filter housing.

Cartridge filter for faucet attachment

A stop valve has a valve body, a stem, and a handle. The valve body has a cylindrical cavity, which has a side wall and a first end wall, an inlet opening and an outlet opening, both of which communicate with the cylindrical cavity. The outlet opening has a side wall that intersects with the cylindrical cavity side wall; the intersection of which is chamfered. The valve stem has a cylindrical cavity portion which is located in the valve body cylindrical cavity and a handle portion which protrudes from the cylindrical cavity portion through an opening in the first end wall. The stem has an outlet seal ring and a stem seal O-ring. The stem seal O-ring is retained on the stem by a flange portion having a diameter slightly greater than the inside diameter of the O-ring. The stem has retaining ears to retain the stem in position in the valve body independently of the handle. The handle has a rectangular opening that matingly engages a drive portion on the stem that includes two members each with a rectangular cross-section. As the handle is assembled onto the stem, the two members flex inwardly until lips on the two members are able to matingly engage shoulders in the handle. The lips and shoulders are tapered so that as the handle is pulled away from the valve, the retaining action of the lips and shoulders is increased.

Stop valve

A portable water treatment apparatus utilizing a cylindrical filter module having a spirally wound semipermeable membrane assembly includes interior upper and lower O-ring seals and an outer brine seal, all of which may be assembled without any potentially damaging movement between the seals and the respective interfacing surfaces in contact with the seals. Each of the O-ring seals is disposed between an annular shoulder on one interfacing part and a frustoconical surface on the other part such that a sealing compression is the only movement imposed on the O-ring. The brine seal, comprising a strip of adhesive-coated tape, is attached after the filter module has been placed in the housing such that it is in its final sealing position and is undisturbed by any subsequent assembly step.

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

David T Underwood