Patent Application
20160101381
This invention relates generally to filtration systems and more particularly to filtration systems used to remove air-borne particulates.
Air filtration continues to be an ever increasing problem. Manufacturing sites are generating more and more air-borne contaminates which must be removed from the workplace as well the environment in general. Tunneling operations generate an inordinate amount of dust and other airborne debris whose removal is critical for operation.
To address these applications, a number of solutions have been developed which utilize bag houses. Bag houses are specially designed buildings which contain a large number of filtering mechanisms. Dirty air is pumped or drawn through the filters to remove the airborne contaminates. Unfortunately, these bag houses require the construction of buildings and are difficult to clean or remove. Often the entire mining, manufacturing, or drilling operation must be shut down during the cleaning operation of the bag house.
To address the cleaning of the filters, the use of pulsed jets has been widely employed. The pulsed air jet periodically sends a high blast of air through the filter in the opposite direction of normal air flow to dislodge the collected debris so that the dislodged debris falls into a hopper where it can be removed.
All too often though, the systems that employ the pulsed jet are incapable of being “ganged” together to address the very large applications such as the tunneling example. As gangs of multiple air purifier units are created, the efficiency and portability of the ganged unit is diminished to such extent that often it is not feasible or effective to add more filtering units.
The overall effect is that air filters are often designed for the specific application, eliminating the ability to mass produce filter systems which can be grouped to meet the specific purpose. Without this economy of scale, the costs associated with air filtration on a large scale remain high.
It is clear there is a need for more effective and easier to operate filtration systems.
The present invention creates a versatile air filtration system which allows the units to be efficiently “ganged” together to address a wide variety of application.
The individual units or cells form a filtration system which uses a frame being a multi-sided tube positioned substantially horizontal. In a single cell/unit embodiment, the tube is closed at a first end and has a multitude of filters extending outward.
In the preferred embodiment the tube is six sided but is not intended to be limited only to that configuration. In one embodiment the tube is hexagonal and in others the tube has a generally circular cross section.
Those of ordinary skill in the art readily recognize a variety of filters which are applicable to this application, including, but not limited to, U.S. Pat. No. 7,985,343, entitled “Modular Filter Assembly” issued Jul. 26, 2011, to Haldopoulos et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,959,699, entitled “Collapsible Filter with Folding Arms” issued Jun. 14, 2011, to Privitt et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 7,981,187, entitled “Filter System Element Configuration; and Method” issued Jul. 19, 2011, to Gieseke et at., all of which are incorporated hereinto by reference.
The filters are used to clean the ambient air flowing from the “dirty” exterior into the “clean” interior of the multi-sided tube.
A motor mechanism rotates the multi-sided tube around a horizontal axis. The motor slowly rotates the multi-sided tube. Ideally the motor engages a gear affixed to one end of the tube or gang of tubes. The tube or gang of tubes are supported by a set of rollers while the motor rotates the assembly.
In the ideal embodiment, the rotation of the multi-sided tube around the horizontal axis is continuous. This provides for a simple mechanism to drive the multi-sided tube while reducing mechanical stress in the mechanism which might be caused by a step motor.
A fan draws air from the open end of said multi-sided tube, or gang, thereby pulling the ambient air through the filters. In some applications, the fan is powered by electricity although in certain applications, such as where the threat of explosion is present, the fan is pneumatically operated.
The dirty air is drawn into the plenum surrounding the multi-sided tube at a lower portion of the plenum. Since the dirty air is passed through a duct into the plenum, the speed of the dirty air's velocity reduces on entry, permitting some of the entrapped particles in the airflow to precipitate readily into the catch hopper located at the bottom of the plenum.
This arrangement, directing the dirty air into the lower portion of the plenum, reduces the filtering strain on the fitters since a good portion of the particles within the dirty air flow is precipitated out of the dirty air well before the dirty air is introduced to the filters.
Fans are well known in the art and include such examples as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,080, entitled “Fans or the Like” issued Mar. 10, 1981, to Wilson et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,500, entitled “Rolling Barrel Fan” issued Mar. 14, 2006, to Matson, both of which are incorporated hereinto by reference.
The speed of the fan is typically in a set condition although in some embodiments, the speed of the fan is controlled by an operator to meet the demands of the situation.
Control of the fan is provided by any number of systems well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, including, but not limited to: U.S. Pat. No. 7,953,520, entitled “Cooling Fan Controlling Revolving Fan Based Fluid Temperature and Air Temperature” issued May 31, 2011, to Hayashi, incorporated hereinto by reference.
As the tube or gang of tubes is rotated, each of the tube's faces with attendant filters passes across the bottom most position. In this situation, a pulsed air jet is directed at a bottom group of filters. The pulsed jet dislodges the collected debris and as such cleans the filters. This allows the debris to fall into a catch basin where an auger pulls the debris away.
In this manner, the filters are periodically cleaned so that their maximum efficiency is maintained as the tube or gang of tubes continues in its rotation.
The invention, together with various embodiments thereof will be more fully explained by the accompanying drawings and the following description thereof.
In this illustration the multi-sided tube 10 has eight sides but those of ordinary skill in the art recognize that the invention is not so limited and can have a minimum of three sides and is not limit as to the maximum number of sides.
Tube 10 has secured thereto a multitude of filters 11. Filters 11 are chosen to clean the “dirty” air within plenum 12 to the level desired for the specific application as the dirty air is pulled through filters 11. Once the “dirty” air passes through filters 11, the air within tube 10 is “clean” and can be used as desired.
Dirty air 9 is drawn into plenum 12 via duct 8 and opening 7. Plenum 12 surrounds the multi-sided tube 10. Opening 7, through which the dirty air 7 flows, is positioned less than halfway up plenum 12. The dirty air 9, on entering plenum 12, experiences a significant reduction in air pressure permitting some of the entrapped particles to precipitate readily into catch hopper 6 located at the bottom of the plenum 12.
This arrangement, directing the dirty air into the lower portion of the plenum 12, or proximate to a bottom/base of plenum 12, reduces the filtering requirements on filters 11 since a portion of the particles within the dirty air flow are precipitated out of the dirty air well before the dirty air is introduced to the filters 17.
In this embodiment, at the top of dirty air plenum 12 are openings 13 which have doors (not shown) to seal the dirty air plenum 12. Openings 13 are used for access to the filters 11 at the upper-most face of the multi-sided tube 10. The upper-most filters can be easily replaced through openings 13. Although this embodiment illustrates openings 13 at the top of plenum 12, alternative embodiments use openings on any of the sides of plenum 12 for this purpose.
One end of tube 10 is sealed 18 allowing a fan (not shown) positioned at the open end of tube 10 to pull air from the dirty air plenum 12 position through filters 11 into the interior of tube 10; thereby cleaning the air and creating a flow of clean air.
Tube 10 is continuously rotated using geared motor 17 which engages geared collar 16 attached to tube 10. Continuous rotation of the multi-sided tube 10 around the horizontal creates a smoothly operating mechanism and reduces mechanical stress on the entire mechanism.
Geared motor 17 rotates tube 10 with its attendant filters 11 via geared collar 16 so that at all filters are sequentially placed at a bottom position 11A. During this time, filters 11A are subjected to a reversed pulsed jet mechanism 14 which communicates with all of filters 11A via tubing 15. The pulsed jet so created, causes the debris which has been collected by filters 11A to be ejected from filters 11A and fall into a catch basin (not shown). In this manner, the filters are periodically cleaned so that the efficiency of the mechanism is maintained.
In this illustration, the dirty air plenum is illustrated by ribbing 20 which encircles tube 10. As discussed earlier, one end of tube 10 is sealed 18. Holes 22 allows the filters (not shown in this illustration) to be secured to tube 10 and to allow air to pass therethrough during operation of the system.
Tube 10 is rotated using geared motor 17 which engages the geared collar 16 which is secured to tube 10. While this embodiment places the geared collar 16 and the geared motor 17 at the open end of tube 10, an alternative embodiment places the geared collar and the geared motor at the closed end 18.
Tubing 15 is used to communicate the pulsed jet of cleaning air to the appropriate filters.
At the opposing end from geared collar 16 is a roller mechanism 21 which supports the distal end of tube 10, thereby allowing tube 10 to be easily rotated by geared motor 17.
Because of the invention's overall design, the basic units can be easily placed in a gang relationship allowing any number of units to be joined in a linear relationship 12, 12A, and 12B as shown. Although the present invention shows three units, any number may be so joined.
In this type of situation, only the most distal end (on unit 12B in this illustration) is closed allowing the interior of the different units to be addressed with a single fan (not shown).
In this fashion, a single “cell” or unit is created and then combined with other “cells” or units to address the specific application. As example, a manufacturing site may require only a single unit while a mining or tunnel boring application might require five or six units.
Dirty air flows as illustrated by arrows 40A into plenum 20 and through holes 20 into the interior of tube 10 as drawn by fan 41. The dirty air, after flowing through the filters (not shown) is “clean” and is directed by fan 41 into ducting 42 so that clean air 40B is passed to the desired location.
In some situations clean air 40B is directed back into the workplace while other applications call for the clean air to be exhausted into the environment. This latter application is used to clean an air-flow to eliminate environmental effects from contaminates being collected on the filters.
Tube 10 includes filters 11 as described above and is rotated around a central axis. Dirty air 50A is pulled through filters 11 into an interior of 51 of tube 10.
When the filters on a face of the tube are in the bottom position during the rotation of tube 10, as illustrated by filters 11A, tubes 15 communicate a reversed pulsed jet into filters 11A, forcing debris 52 to fall therefrom. Debris 52 is collected by hopper 53 which communicates debris 52 to auger 54 which pulls debris 52 to a waste disposal location (not shown).
In this manner, filters 11A are cleaned, the dislodged debris 52 is properly discharged, and the mechanism continues in its rotation using now cleaned filters.
The present invention creates an effective and easily operational filtration system.
This is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/199,653, filed on Nov. 6, 2011, and entitled “Enhanced Air Filtration Mechanism”.
