Dana Corporation

Ronald Ray Puckett

Edward Allen Covington

William F Dunfee

Wendell L Jacobson

Demetrios A Tsengouras

Sam Tieu

Norman C Dell

Edward L VanEgdom

John A Kroha

A fuel filter and pressure regulator assembly includes a housing, an inlet tube, an outlet and return tube each made of stainless steel. An annular filter element is disposed within the housing and abuts at one end a pressure regulator element which is mounted within an O-ring retainer that is fixed within the housing. A resilient device, such as a wave washer or O-ring, is compressed as the assembly is assembled. In operation, fuel flows in through the inlet tube which is radially offset at a first end of the housing and into an annular space around the annular filter element. The fuel then flows through the filter media and the filter element and out of the outlet tube which is aligned with a hollow core of the filter media. If fuel pressure is too high, the fuel then flows through the pressure regulator, out of the return tube and back to the fuel tank.

Fuel filter with internal pressure regulator

In order to prevent the formation of flash on a gasket used to seal a filter element when the filter element is mounted in a housing to filter a fluid, such as air for an internal combustion engine, a molding method and apparatus utilizes a pair of mold components which abut along a mold line and define a cavity for forming the gasket. As the expandable material expands to fill the cavity and form the gasket, a portion of the material adjacent the mold line is received in an annular groove in one of the mold components so that flash is not formed at the mold line. One of the mold components also has an upwardly sloping ramp surface so that air and gas move along the ramp surface as the material expands and does not become trapped in the cavity, thus avoiding defects and blemishes in the gasket due to trapped air bubbles.

Molding apparatus

A replaceable filter element is installed in a filter assembly including a filter housing. There is a substantially annular space between the filter element and the housing and an air inlet for introducing inlet air tangentially with respect to the annular space. The filter element employed has a closed top and an open bottom communicating with a hollow core. An annular filter media is included in the filter element, the filter media having a top end and a bottom end with an outwardly projecting flange at the bottom end. The outwardly projecting flange has an annular rib thereon, spaced from the filter media, to define a trough between the annular rib and the filter media for retaining debris thereon. When the filter element is removed for replacement, debris accumulated on the flange is retained in the trough.

Air filter element and air filter assembly employing the filter element

Molding process for forming a sealing gasket on filter media

Growing community of inventors

Gastonia, NC, United States of America

Ronald Ray Puckett