JP3331809B2 - Filter manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is made of a nonwoven fabric or the like Fi
The present invention relates to a method for producing ruta .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An intake system of an internal combustion engine such as an automobile engine is provided with a dust collecting device for removing dirt, dust and the like contained in the intake air. Generally, the dust collecting device includes a housing and a filter mounted in the housing.

[0003] The above-mentioned filter is composed of a filter element and a resin frame for holding the outer periphery of the filter element and assisting the filter element in the housing. The filter element is a sheet-like filter medium made of non-woven fabric, which has a pleated shape.
It is constructed by folds in a wavy or pleated shape. Further, a seal member made of rubber is adhered to the outer periphery of the resin frame in order to secure a seal between the filter element and the housing.

[0004] A method of manufacturing the above filter will be described below. First, a sheet-shaped filter medium is fold-folded.
Next, the sheet-like filter medium is cut into a desired length to obtain a filter element. The filtration element is inserted into a preformed resin frame in a separate step. Thereafter, a rubber seal member formed in advance is assembled to the resin frame. Thereby, the filter can be obtained.

[0005]

However, in manufacturing the above-mentioned filter, it is necessary to assemble a filtration element, a resin frame and a sealing member formed as separate parts made of different materials in a process different from the above-mentioned molding. For this reason, the above-mentioned filter manufacturing method is a complicated and time-consuming method. Further, the manufacturing cost of the filter is high for the above reasons.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is intended to provide a filter which can be manufactured at low cost and has excellent filtration performance .
It is intended to provide a manufacturing method .

[0007]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS] The present invention relates to a raw material fiber and an adhesive fiber.
Prepare a cotton-like filter medium intermediate mixed with
The pleated filter medium part formed in
Laminate the filter media intermediate with a hole in the part,
Using a mold, apply the above filter media intermediate to the side of the pleated filter media.
To form a pleated filtration part, and the pleated filtration
It is characterized by performing heat forming to form a brim around the part
In a method of manufacturing a filter .

The above-mentioned collar portion is a portion which is held by a mating member when the filter is assembled to a mating member such as a housing. It is also a part that retains the shape of the filter. Further, the pleated filtering section is composed of a plurality of ridges.

Next, the above manufacturing method will be described in detail.
I do.

As the raw material fiber, polyester, polypropylene, rayon, glass, acetate and the like can be used. As the adhesive fiber, a fiber made of polyester, polypropylene, rayon, glass, acetate, or the like having a surface coated with a resin having a low melting point can be used. As the low melting point resin, modified polyester, modified polyethylene, modified polypropylene and the like are used.

The mixing of the raw fiber and the adhesive fiber can be performed, for example, by an air laid method. In the air laid method, first, a fiber mass as a raw material is defibrated into fibers. Then, after the fibers are scattered in the air, the fibers are accumulated on a card or the like by an air current.

The pleated filter member is a member obtained by previously folding the filter member and cutting it to a desired length. As the material constituting the pleated filter material portion, any material may be used as long as the material has filtering performance. However, as the above material, a nonwoven fabric made of the same raw material fibers as the filter medium intermediate is preferable from the viewpoint of adhesion to the filter medium intermediate.

[0013] The above-mentioned heat molding is to perform press working in a heating atmosphere on a filter medium intermediate placed in a molding die. According to this method, the filter medium intermediate can be easily formed into a filter portion having a desired shape. Further, the mold has a cavity having the same shape as a desired pleated filtration portion. The temperature of the heating atmosphere is high enough to melt only the components for bonding the bonding fibers, for example, the low melting point resin on the surface.

Next, when a sheet-like filter medium intermediate is used, the outer peripheral portion of the filter medium intermediate binds the side surface of the pleated filter medium portion by the above-mentioned heat molding to form the side surface of the pleated filter portion. On the other hand, the center portion of the filter medium intermediate is pressed thinly and becomes a part of the pleated filter portion because the mold has a cavity having the same shape as the pleated filter portion (FIG. 3).
reference).

Further, a sheet-like, and is a portion facing to the wrinkled filtration portion that have a hole. The above-mentioned filter medium intermediate binds the side face of the pleated filter medium part by the above-mentioned heat molding, and becomes the side face of the pleated filter part. Therefore , the pleated filter portion can be obtained only by forming only the outer periphery of the pleated filter material portion in the heat forming. Therefore, manufacture of the filter becomes easier.

The pleated filter medium portion has a density gradient, and it is preferable that the filter medium intermediate is laminated on the side where the pleated filter material portion has a higher density. Thereby, the joining state between the flange portion and the pleated filtering portion becomes better. In addition, since the pleated filter portion is formed by the filter medium having the density gradient, when the fluid to be filtered passes through the filter, the fluid to be filtered is subjected to a filtering action such that it is coarse at first and fine at the end. For this reason, the filtering performance of the filter is improved.

The above filter can be mounted and used alone on a housing or the like, but may be mounted on a resinous frame. In addition, a sealing member such as a sponge may be attached to the flange to provide a sealing property.

[0018]

In the filter obtained in the present invention, at least the side face and the flange of the pleated filter are formed of the same material. Therefore, the filter is easy to manufacture as described later, and the manufacturing cost is low.

In the method of manufacturing a filter according to the present invention, a pleated filter material portion is laminated on a filter material intermediate body, and is subjected to heat molding. That is, the raw fiber and the adhesive fiber are fused together during the heat molding, and the filter medium intermediate in which only the fibers are accumulated changes to a nonwoven fabric having a fiber structure. And since the said heat shaping is performed in a shaping | molding die, the said filter medium intermediate | middle changes into the state of a nonwoven fabric, and simultaneously binds the side surface of the preformed pleated filter medium part, and integrates with the pleated filter medium part, A pleated filter is formed. Also,
At the same time, the filter media intermediate forms a collar.

According to the above-described manufacturing method, a filter having a flange portion and a wide filtering surface having a pleated shape can be manufactured by an easy method of heat molding using a molding die.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a filter which can be manufactured at low cost and has excellent filtration performance .
A fabrication method can be provided.

[0022]

Reference Example 1 A filter according to a reference example of the present invention and a method of manufacturing the filter will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the filter 1 of the present embodiment includes a pleated filter portion 11 composed of a plurality of pleated peaks 110 and a flange portion 12 provided around the pleated filter portion 11. Are formed from the same material.

As shown in FIG. 3, the pleated filter 11 has a filter layer 129 made of the same material as the collar 12. In the filter 1 described above, filtration of the fluid to be filtered is performed by passing the fluid to be filtered from the closed side of the pleats 110 toward the opening side.

As shown in FIG. 4, in manufacturing the filter 1, a cotton-like filter medium intermediate 106 in which raw fibers and adhesive fibers are mixed is prepared. Then, the pleated filter medium portion 105 preliminarily formed into a pleated shape and the filter medium intermediate member 106 are laminated, and as shown in FIGS. It is bound on the side surface of the filter medium part 105.

Thus, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the pleated filter portion 105 and the filter medium intermediate 106 form a pleated filter portion 11 and the pleated filter portion 11 is formed around the pleated filter portion 11. Heat molding for forming the collar portion 12 by the intermediate body 106 is performed.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the molding die 2 is composed of an upper die 21 and a lower die 22, both of which have cavities 210 and 220 of the same shape as the pleated filtration portion 11 to be obtained. I have. In the figure, reference numeral 23 denotes a press machine,
Reference numeral 24 denotes a press table.

The above manufacturing method will be described in detail below. First, a pleated filter medium portion 105 having the shape shown in FIG. 4 is prepared. As shown in FIG. 5, three mixed layers obtained by mixing the raw fibers and the adhesive fibers are sequentially laminated on the card by the air laid method.

The mixed layer 101 is composed of 40% polyester (weight%, hereinafter the same) of 1.5 denier polyester fiber as raw material, 30% polyester of 2 denier, and 30% polyester of 4 denier as adhesive fiber. Have been. The supply amount of the raw material fiber and the adhesive fiber to the card per unit area is 80 to 300 g / card.
m ² . The above-mentioned adhesive fiber is a fiber obtained by coating the surface of 2-denier polyester with a binder (low-melting resin) made of modified polyester.

The mixed layer 102 is made of 70% of a 2-denier polyester as raw material fiber and 30% of 4-denier polyester as adhesive fiber. The supply amount to both cards is 40 to 150 g / m ² . The mixed layer 103 is made of 20% polyester 2 denier polyester fiber, 6 denier polyester 5
0%, 30% of 4-denier polyester which is an adhesive fiber. The supply amount to both cards is 25
１００100 g / m ² .

Next, the mixed layers 101 and 10
The fiber bonding process by needle punch is performed on 2, 103 using a hook-shaped metal needle 29 to obtain a laminate 100. Here, the Bene number (density of needle) for the above mixed layer
Was 35 to 45 lines / cm ² . Further, the laminate 1
00 is subjected to a fiber bonding step of bonding fibers with an adhesive binder and then dried to obtain a sheet-shaped filter medium. Here, the method is classified into an immersion bonding method, a spray method, and a foam method according to a method of applying an adhesive binder. The above-mentioned sheet-shaped filter medium is subjected to a fold processing and cut into a desired length. As a result, a pleated filter medium portion 105 is obtained.

Next, the raw material fiber and the adhesive fiber are mixed and laminated on a card by an air laid method to obtain the filter medium intermediate 106. The raw material fibers are 18% denier polyester 30% and 15 denier hollow polyester 30%. On the other hand, the adhesive fiber is made of 30% polyester of 4 denier and 10% of recycled polyester of 8 denier.

The above-mentioned adhesive fiber is a fiber in which the surface of polyester is coated with a low melting point resin made of modified polyester. The supply amount to both cards is 700 to 1050 g / m ² .

Next, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the pleated filter medium portion 105 and the filter medium intermediate 106 are connected to the lower mold 22.
In the cavity 220 at At this time, the pleated filter medium portion 105 is arranged so that the portion having the highest density faces the filter medium intermediate 106.

Next, the upper die 21 is placed on the pleated filter material portion 105, and is subjected to heat molding by a press machine 23. The heat molding is performed in an atmosphere at a temperature of about 120 to 160 ° C. in which only the binder of the adhesive fiber constituting the filter medium intermediate 106 is melted. The temperature atmosphere varies depending on the type of the modified polyester. Thus, a filter in which the side surface 13 of the pleated filtering portion 11 and the flange portion 12 are made of the same material is obtained.

Next, the operation and effect of this embodiment will be described. In the filter 1 of the present embodiment, the pleated filter 11
Are formed of the same material. Therefore, the filter 1 is easy to manufacture as described later, and the manufacturing cost is low.

In the method of manufacturing the filter 1 according to the present embodiment, the pleated filter material portion 105 is laminated on the filter material intermediate 106 and heat-formed. That is, the raw fibers and the adhesive fibers are fused together during the above-mentioned heat molding, and the filter medium intermediate 106 in which the fibers are merely accumulated changes into a nonwoven fabric having a fiber structure.

Since the heat molding is performed in the cavities 210 and 220 of the molding die 2, the filter medium intermediate 106 changes into a nonwoven fabric state, and at the same time, its outer peripheral portion is formed in a preformed corrugated filter medium. Part 1
The side surface 05 and the flange portion 12 are formed by binding the side surface 05 of the pleated filter 11. On the other hand, the filter medium intermediate 106
The central part is spread by the molding die 2 so that the raw fiber and the adhesive fiber have a coarse density, and is pressed thinly to form a filtration layer 129 on the surface of the pleated filtration part 11.

Therefore, according to the above-mentioned manufacturing method, the filter 1 can be manufactured by an easy method of heat molding using the mold 2. In addition, since the side surface 13 of the filter 1 manufactured by this method is also made of a filter medium for filtering air, the filtration area is increased and the filtration performance is improved.

The filter layer 129 has a pleated filter material portion 105.
It is important to exhibit the required air permeability under the lamination of the filter layer 129, and the side surface 13 also exhibits substantially the same or lower air permeability than that of the laminated portion of the filter layer 129 and the pleated filter medium portion 105. This is very important. The filter 1 is installed in, for example, an intake passage of an engine so that the filtration layer 129 is located on the downstream side of the pleated filter material portion 105.

The pleated filter material portion 105 has a density gradient, and is arranged in the molding die 2 such that the portion having the highest density faces the filter material intermediate body 106 during heat molding. Thereby, the pleated filter 11 of the filter 1
Has a density gradient which, for the fluid to be filtered,
At first it gives a coarse filtering action, which is fine at the end. Therefore, the filtering performance of the filter 1 is further improved. Further, the joining state between the collar portion 12 and the pleated filtering portion 11 is further improved.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to provide a method of manufacturing a filter which can be manufactured at low cost and has excellent filtration performance.

Example1  In this example, as shown in FIGS.
5, a sheet-like shape having a hole 109 at a part facing
The method of manufacturing the filter 1 using the filter medium intermediate 106
is there. In the method of manufacturing the filter 1 of this embodiment, first,
The pleated filter medium intermediate 105 shown in FIG.referenceSame as Example 1
Prepare by the same method.

Next, a sheet-like filter medium intermediate 106 having a hole 109 shown in FIG. 8 is laminated on a card by an air laid method while mixing raw fibers and adhesive fibers in the same manner as in Reference Example 1. Prepare by doing. It is to be noted that a mold having the shape of the hole 109 is previously arranged on the card.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 in Reference Example 1, the pleated filter medium portion 105 and the filter medium intermediate 1 were used.
06 are stacked as shown in FIG. 9, placed in the cavity 220 of the mold 2, and subjected to heat molding. Thus, the filter 1 is obtained as shown in FIG. The details of the above manufacturing method are the same as in Reference Example 1.

In the method of manufacturing the filter 1, since the filter medium intermediate 106 is provided with the hole 109, the filter medium intermediate 106 is formed by the heat molding so that the flange 12 and the pleated filter are formed as shown in FIG. Only the side surface 13 of the part 11 is formed. The pleated filter portion 11 is formed almost entirely from the pleated filter material portion 105.

Therefore, the pleated filter 1 of the filter 1
The thickness of 1 is thin, and the passage of the fluid to be filtered is hardly alienated. Therefore, the filter 1 has excellent filtration performance. Others
It has the same function and effect as Reference Example 1.

In the above-described embodiment, the adhesive fiber was obtained by coating the surface of the fiber with a low-melting resin, but the whole was made of a low-melting resin or the raw fiber was bonded to the low-melting resin by half. The same can be done by using.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a filter in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of a filter in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a filter in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a pleated filter medium portion and a sheet-shaped filter medium intermediate in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a laminate in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of heat forming of a filter in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of heat forming of a filter in Reference Example 1.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a filter medium intermediate having a pleated filter medium portion and a hole in Example 1 .

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a state in which a pleated filter medium portion and a filter medium intermediate are laminated in Example 1 .

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a filter according to the first embodiment.

[Explanation of Codes] . . Filter, 105. . . Pleated filter media, 10
6. . . Filter media intermediate, 109. . . Hole, 11. . . Pleated filtration section, 12. . . Collar section, 13; . . side,
2. . . Mold,

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-45311 (JP, A) JP-A-7-204438 (JP, A) Tokuyohei 5-500628 (JP, A) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B01D 46/52

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A material fiber and prepare the adhesive fiber and cotton-like filter medium intermediate mixing, in advance pleated into molded wrinkled filtration portion and said pleated filter medium unit
The filter medium intermediate having a hole in a part facing the filter medium is laminated, and the both are bound using a molding die on the side surface of the pleated filter medium part to form a pleated filter part. A method for producing a filter, comprising: performing heat molding for forming a collar portion around a filter-like portion. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the filter medium intermediate is in the form of a sheet. 3. The filter according to claim 1 , wherein the pleated filter medium has a density gradient, and the filter medium intermediate is laminated on a high density side of the pleated filter medium. Manufacturing method.