Denso Corporation

Naoki Maki

Kenji Okabe

Kunihiro Umetsu

Akiyoshi Mukaidani

Hideyuki Nakai

The filter apparatus is composed of a filter housing made of non-conductive material, a filter element made of conductive material contained in the filter housing, and a conductive plug with a sealing element. The filter housing has a bore and the conductive plug is inserted into the bore of the filter housing so that the clearance between the conductive plug and the filter housing is hermetically sealed by the sealing element. The conductive plug is connected in circuit to the filter element in a manner that a part of the plug is exposed out of the filter housing and an earth wire attached to the exposed portion of the plug. The static electricity generated in the filter apparatus is released via a conductive path extending from the filter element through the plug to the earth wire so that the electrostatic discharge may be prevented. The conductive plug is made of material having 10,to 10,&OHgr;&middot;cm resistivity. Such a value of resistivity serves to assure not only an adequate conductivity for releasing the static electricity but also an adequate resistance for preventing the electrostatic discharge from the conductive plug, if the earth wire becomes off or its connection is forgotten.

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Kariya, Japan

Naoki Maki