GB2501610A

GB2501610A - Fluid cleaning

Info

Publication number: GB2501610A
Application number: GB1306133.8A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Shahzad Kareem
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-04-23
Filing date: 2013-04-05
Publication date: 2013-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2033-04-05
Also published as: GB201207035D0; GB201306133D0; GB2501610B

Abstract

A cleaning device 1 for flowable fluids, comprises a hollow body member 2 having a fluid inlet port 18/19 through which fluid can pass into the body member, and a fluid outlet port 18/19 through which fluid can pass out of the body member 2. A magnet (12, Fig 16) projects into the body member 2 and is removable therefrom for cleaning purposes. At least one filter means (16, Fig 8) is also located within the body member 2 and is capable of permitting fluid flow therethrough, but serving as a barrier for non-metallic particles above a predetermined minÂimum size, and hence capable of filtering out such particles from the fluid. The body member 2 houses a removable flow directing insert (6, Fig 8) comprising a tubular sleeve to receive a major portion of the magnet. Attached to the sleeve are pluralities of axially spaced apart discs (13, Fig 8) with an inclined web (15, Fig 8) connecting one disc to an adjacent disc. The filter means is located between adjacent discs and fluid must pass through the filter means in order to exit the cleaning device. Advantageously the cleaning device may be used to filter out magnetic and non-magnetic particles from water in central heating systems or liquid coolant in an internal combustion engine.

Description

Title of the Invention

Fluid cleansing device

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a fluid cleansing device for flowable fluids, such as the water circulation through a central heating system, but equally useable in other installations, such as the liquid coolant of an internal combustion engine, whether for water or oil; hydraulic pumping unit/pressure generator etc.

Background of the Invention -

In fluid flow systems including ferro-metallic components -such as steel valves and fittings -even if used with copper or plastics piping -there is inevitably debris detached from metallic components! including the interior surfaces of steel or iron central heating radiators, or other heat exchange surfaces, in the form of iron oxide particles and other sludge forming debris As it has been long recognised that metallic debris suspended and conveyed by a flowing fluid could damage components of value, such as pumps, or prevent effective seating of valves, it has been proposed to direct the flow of fluid into the vicinity of.a magnet whereby ferro-magnetic particles are separated by the magnet and thus extracted from the fluid involved cf GB 2402894, GB 2448232, EP008344, GB2458647. Of course, the magnet needs to be removable from the filter for the removal of debris attached to the magnet.

It is a fact of course that a magnet is only capable of attracting, and hence separating, ferro-magnetic components, and hence cannot remove non-metal ic particles such as might be detached from plastics piping, or metallic components from copper piping.

Object of the Invention A basic object of the present invention is the provision of an improved cleansing device for flowable fluids.

Summary of the Invention

According to the present invention there is provided a cleansing device for flowable fluids comprising a hollow body member having a fluid inlet port through which fluid can pass into the body member, a fluid outlet port through which fluid can pass out of the body member, and a magnet projecting into the body member and periodically removable therefrom for cleaning purposes, and at least one filter means for debris, particularly non-magnetic debris also located within the body member capable of permitting fluid flow therêthrough, but serving as a barrier for non-metallic particles above a predetermined minimum size, and hence capable of filtering out such particles from the fluid, the body member housing a removable flow directing insert comprising a tubular sleeve to receive a major portion of the magnet, to which sleeve are attached a plurality of axially spaced apart discs, with an inclined web.connecting one disc to an adjacent disc and with the filter means located between adjacent discs and through which filter means the fluid passes in order to exit the cleaning device.

Advantages of the Invention The cleansing device in accordance with the invention, enables not only the removal of ferro-magnetic particles and debris by the magnet, but also the fiRering and hence separation of particles of non-ferrous metals, and of plastics, from the circulating fluid.

Preferred or Optional Features of the Invention The body member or canister is a tubular component having a longitudinal axis.

In one embodiment, the fluid inlet port is provided at, or towards, a lower end of the body member, and the fluid outlet port is provided at, or towards, an upper end of the body member.

The ports are threaded for ready connection to industry-standard fittings for fluid supply, and fluid return, piping.

The inlet and outlets ports are offset, such that a swirling motion is imparted to the fluid upon entry to the body member. --The ports extend radially with respect to the longitudinal axis of the body member.

In another embodiment, the fluid inlet port is co-axial with the fluid outlet port.

The co-axial port is located at approximately mid-length of the body member.

The co-axial ports extend radially with respect to the longitudinal axis of the body member.

The filter means comprises at least one perforated plate.

The body member is provided at one end with a removable closure to permit insertion and removal of the flow directing insert.

The removable closure consists of a screw on ring such that an adjacent end of the insert is exposed.

The exposed end is provided with a tapped hole for retaining a valve useable for dosing.i.e.

adding chemicals to the fluid, or for bleeding air from the fluid.

The valve is a screw in, screw out valve.

The valve is a needle valve.

The body member! at its lower end remote from the closure ring, is provided with a threaded spigot. -The magnet is cylindrical.

The magnet is encased in plastics to prevent rusting if water is the fluid involved.

One end of the magnet is securable to a cap, which is a push or screw fit into a portion of the* insert.

Twelve holes are provided in each plate, arranged in three columns of four holes.

At least some of the plates have their radial length curtailed, so as to provide a rela-tively small annular gap between a radial end of each plate and the adjacent inner wall of the body member, so as to ensure that should the filter become wholly or substantially blocked e.g. by an excess of debris in the system, and/or by failure to effect timely filter in-spection and cleaning or replacement, there is no undue fluid pressure build up within the cleansing device. The filter is a gauze or wire mesh element. The filter is removable for cleaning andlor replacement by a new filter.

In the co-axial inlet and outlet embodiment, an in line valve is attachable to the body member.

The valve includes a fluid delivery tube which is co-axial with a tubular portion of the valve, the external periphery of the tube and the internal periphery of the tubular portion of the valve together defining a fluid exit annulus.

An elbow is fitted inside the body member with an upper end of the elbow capable of making fluid flow connection to the delivery tube of the valve and a fluid outlet of a lower end of the elbow located adjacent a swirl inducing wall provided at the bottom of the body mem-ber, to convey fluid from the valve to the bottom of the body member

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described ib greater detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figures 1-17 are various views of a first embodiment of cleaning device in accordance with the invention, with

S

Figures 1-5 being various views of the filter body; Figures 6-9 being various views of the flow directing insert; Figures 10-13 being various views of the removable end cap for the filter body; Figures 14-17 are various views of the magnet retaining cap; Figs 18 to 34 are similar views of a second embodiment of cleaning device in accordance with the invention, with Figs 18 to 21 showing the assembled filter; Figs 22 to 26 showing the body member or canister; Figs 27 to 30 show the filter insert; Figs 31 to 34 show the in line valve; Figs 35 to 38 show the elbow; and Figs 39 to 44 show how the elbow is fined to and removed from the body member.

Detailed description of the drawings

In both embodiments, like parts or components are accorded like reference numerals.

In the drawings, a cleaning device 1 for flowable fluids, such as the water of a central heat-ing system, is adapted, in use, to be interposed at a suitable location in the circuit of the flowable fluid and comprises a tubular, hollow body member 2, basically in the form of a can-ister, having a central longitudinal axis 3, and through which body member 2 the fluid in question is constrained to flow. The device 1 is installed upright, as illustrated for example in Figures 1 and 2, so that the body member 2 has an upper end provided with a screw thread 4 to receive a screw-on, screw-off closure ring 5 with a castellated external periphery to aid gripping by hand and/or by a tightening and release tool, such as a pair of plumbers grips.

The ring 5 permits the insertion into the body member 2 of a fluid flow directing insert 6 illus-trated in Figs 6-9, and also the removal of the insert 6 for cleaning and/or replacement. The ring 3 ensures that an upper end 7 of the insert 6 is exposed when installed as the end 7 is provided with an internally threaded hole 8 for receiving a filling carrying an industry stand-ard screw in screw out needle valve, providing a means of introducing additives to the fluid in question, or of bleeding the circuit. The upper end 7 of the insert 6 is also provided with a second, internally threaded hole 9 to receive a screw-in cap (Figs 14-17) which has a co-axial socket 11 to receive one end of a cylindrical, elongate magnet 12, which is encased in plastics, so that ferromagnetic particles within the fluid are retained on the encasing plastics- of the magnet 12 and the latter is not directly exposed to the fluid and hence is not suscepti-ble to rusting. In addition, the insert 6 is also provided with a plurality of axially spaced discs 13 attached to a sleeve 14, whilst an inclined web 15 connects one disc 13 to an adjacent disc 13, whereby the fluid is guided through and around the body member 2 by the discs 13 and the webs 15, and so to direct the flow along a predetermined path and to provide ex-tended dwell time of the fluid within the body member 2 for optimum presence in the vicinity of the magnet 12 and positive passage of all, or substantially all of the fluid through the cleaning device 1. Between each disc 13 a perforated plate 16 is provided, in which perfo-rations 17 are all illustrated as circular holes of the same diameter. However these holes need not be circular and may be graduated e.g. with the smallest diameter holes provided at the upper end of the plates 16 and the largest diameter holes at the lower end of each plate 16. Clearly, the overall aperture in each plate 16 needs to be such that the flow of fluid in not unduly throttled, which would normally lead to an increased loading on the circulation pump, yet are small enough to achieve their purpose i.e. to filter out and separate non ferro mag-netic particles entrained in the fluid in question.

In the first embodiment, the body member 2 is provide with two separate pods 18, 19 one provided towards one end of the body member and the other towards the other end of the body member, one port serving for fluid inlet to the cleansing device 1, and the other for fluid outlet. Each port is threaded at 20 so that industry standard fittings may be readily attached forfluid supply and return.

In the second embodiment, the body member 2 is provided with a single port 19, which serves for both fluid inlet and outlet from the cleaning device 1 To the port 19 is attached by means of a ring 21 a T-fitting or in-line valve 22, which not only provides two co-axial spigots 23, which are both externally threaded at 24 again for the attachment of industry standard fittings, but also includes an internal tube 25 which together with wall 26 of the T fitting de-fines an annulus 27, so that the tube 25 and the annulus 27 define two separate fluid flow routes whereby fluid may enter and exit the body member 2 through one aperture in the sidewall of the body member However, the insert 6 in this second embodiment is provided with two set of plates 16 each provided with different sized holes 17 so that separation of coarser debris can be effected by the plate 16 with th! larger sized holes! with finer separat- ed by the plate 16 with the smaller sized holes. In addition, the second embodiment is pro-vided with an elbow 28 detailed in Figs 35 to 38 for connection to the tube 25 to convey fluid from the valve 22 to the lower end ot the body member 2 and specifically from a lower outlet end of the elbow to a flow directing wall 29 of the body member as shown in Figs 39 to 44 and serving to induce a swirling flow to the fluid-For clarity, the insert 6 has been omitted from Figs 39 to 44. Specifically, Figs 39 and 40 show the elbow 28 in place, Figs 41 and 42 show that to remove (or fit) the elbow some longitudinal movement of the elbow is required followed by some radial movement, as indicated in Figs 43 and 4.4.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A cleaning device for flowable fluids, comprising a hollow body member having a fluid in-let port through which fluid can pass into the body member, and a fluid outlet port through which fluid can pass out of the body member, and a magnet projecting into the body member and periodically removable therefrom for cleaning purposes, at least one filter means for de-bris, particularly non-magnetic debris, is also located within the body member capable of permitling fluid flow theretbrough, but serving as a barrier for non-metallic particles above a predetermined minimum size, and hence capable of filtering out such particles from the fluid, and the body member or canister houses a removable flow directing insert comprising a tub-ular sleeve to receive a major portion of the magnet, to which sleeve are attached a plurality of axially spaced apart discs, with an inclined web connecting one disc to an adjacent disc, and with the filter means located between adjacent discs, and through which filter means the fluid must pass in order to exit the cleaning device.
2. A cleaning device a claimed in Claim 1, wherein the body member is a tubular compo-nent having a longitudinal axis.
3. A cleaning device as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2. wherein the body member is canister like. 0)
4. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the inlet port is pro- vided at or towards one end of the body member, and the fluid outlet port is provid-ed at or towards the other end of the body member.
5. A cleaning device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the ports are threaded, for ready connection to industry standard fittings.
6. A cleaning device as claimed in claim 4 or 5, wherein the inlet and outlet ports are offset.
7. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, wherein the fluid inlet and outlet ports are co-axial.
8. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the fluid inlet and outlet ports extend radially with respect to the body member or canister.
9.. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the body member or canis-ter is provided at one end with a removable closure in the form of a screw on/off ring.
10. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the flow direction insert, when located in the body member or canister, has an exposed end which is provided with two tapped holes, one for supporting a needle valve and the other for a cap into a socket of which one end of the magnet is located.
11. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the filtering device takes the form of plates with perforations.
12. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the filtering device takes the form of one or more metallic gauzes, similar to a panscrub.

13-A cleaning device as claimed in claim 7 and any claim appendant thereto, wherein an elbow is provided within the body member or canister to convey inlet fluid to the lower end of the body member or canister, and the latter is provided with a swirl inducing wall associated with a lower fluid outlet end of the elbow 14. A cleaning device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 17 of the accompanying drawings.15. A cleaning device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 18 to 44 of the accompanying drawings.AMENDMENTS TO THE CLAIMS HAVE BEEN FILED AS FOLLOWS:CLAIMS1. A cleaning device for ifowable fluids, comprising a hollow body member having a fluid in-let port through which fluid can pass into the body member, and a fluid outlet post through which fluid can pass out of the body member, and a magnet projecting into the body member and periodically removable therefrom for cleaning purposes, at least one filter means for de-bris, particularly non-magnetic debris, is also located within the body member capable of permitting fluid flow therethrough, but serving as a barrier for non-metallic particles above a predetermined minimum size, and hence capable of filtering out such particles from the fluid, and the body member houses a removable flow directing insert comprising a tub-ular sleeve to receive a major portion of the magnet, to which sleeve are attached a plurality of axially spaced apart discs, with an inclined web connecting one disc to an adjacent disc, and with the filter means located between adjacent discs, and through which filter means the fluid must pass in order to exit the cleaning device. *. ..2. A cleaning device a claimed in Claim 1, wherein the body member is a tubular compo- * nent having a longitudinal axis. *. * .C. *** 3. A cleaning device as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2. wherein the body member is : ** canister like. **** *. * * * * * *.4. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim * wherein the inlet port is pro- vided at or towards one end of the body member, and the fluid outlet port is provid-S at or towards the other end of the body member.5. A cleaning device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the ports are threaded, for ready connection to industry standard fittings.6. A cleaning device as claimed in claim 4 or 5. wherein the inlet and outlet ports are offset.7. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, wherein the fluid inlet and outlet ports are co-axial.8. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein the fluid inlet and outlet ports extend radially with respect to the body member.9.. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the body member is provided at one end with a removable closure in the form of a screw onloff ring.10. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the flow direction insert, when located in the body member * has an exposed end which is provided with two tapped holes, one for supporting a needle valve and the other for a cap into a socket of * which one end of the magnet is located.S..... * S11. A cleaning device as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the fllteñ means iakes S..the form of plates with perforations.". 12. A cleaning device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10. wherein the filter means-* * takes the form of one or more metallic gauzes, similar to a panscrub.
13. A cleaning device as claimed in claim 7 and any claim appendant thereto, wherein an elbow is provided within the body member to convey inlet fluid to the lower end of the body member and the latter is provided with a swirl inducing wall associated with a lower fluid outlet end of the elbow.
14. A cleaning device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 17 of the accompanying drawings.
15. A cleaning device Ubstal as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 18 to 44 of the accompanying drawings. I ** * S * .S..... * . * S S.. * S* * *5* a. S * S S* .-_,