Deere & Company

Richard Lane Hockenberry

Mohamad S El-Zein

Harold Eugene Krause

John Robert Cerny, Jr

Vehicle chassis surface

An apparatus and a method of measuring the filterability of a fluid which includes a cold box having a temperature regulating mechanism connected thereto. Enclosed in the cold box is a filter holder connected between first and second cylinders. The filter holder has a housing divided into two parts which are joined together by a quick attachment and release mechanism. The mechanism permits a calibrated filter to be inserted into or to be removed from the filter holder quickly and easily. The filter holder also has an inlet and an outlet with the inlet connected to the first cylinder and the outlet connected to the second cylinder. The first cylinder contains a free piston which separates a quantity of fluid which is present in one section of the cylinder from a pressurized inert gas which is supplied to an opposite side of the piston. By allowing the pressurized inert gas to impinge on the piston, the fluid is urged from the first cylinder through the calibrated filter. After passing through the filter, the fluid is conveyed to the second cylinder where it impinges on another free piston. The free piston in the second cylinder can be biased by gas pressure to a given position such that back pressure is created across the filter to simulate actual conditions which would occur in a full-size device, such as an engine. Such an apparatus and a method of using it permits the testing of lubricating oil within a laboratory environment.

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Viola, IL, United States of America

Richard Lane Hockenberry