JPH0996261A - Air cleaner for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve filtering power by enlarging a surface area also reduce a number of times of maintenance, by forming an element, mounted in an air cleaner main unit for a vehicle, in an L-shaped section, and arranging the element with its inside facing a dirty side and outside facing a clean side. SOLUTION: In a motorcycle, this air cleaner 3 for dust collecting of intake air in a carburetor 2, supplying a mixture to an engine, has a cleaner main unit 20 comprising an upper/lower case 8, 10, an element 7 of L-shaped section is mounted in this cleaner main unit 20. In the cleaner main unit 20, the element 7 serves as the boundary, a dirty side 3b, which is an air intake side, communicates with an intake passage 6, and a clean side 3a, which is an air outlet side, communicates with a venturi of the carburetor 2. In this way, an element surface area is enlarged, filtering ability is improved, also a capacity of the clean side 3a is increased, and intake resistance is effectively decreased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle air cleaner, and more particularly to the shape of its element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle using a general internal combustion engine uses an air cleaner for cleaning intake air. In this air cleaner, an element made of a filter medium is mounted in the cleaner body. It is desirable that the surface area of such an element be as large as possible in order to reduce the air flow resistance and increase the filtration efficiency. Also, it is desirable to make the volume of the cleaner body as large as possible in terms of performance, and in this case, make the volume of the downstream side (clean side) closer to the engine larger than the volume of the element on the upstream side (dirty side) to maximize the performance of the engine. It is desirable to reduce the intake resistance to and improve the output.

On the other hand, conventionally, in a motorcycle or the like, when the vehicle is traveling, the wind from the front is taken into the intake passage so that the passage internal pressure is made higher than atmospheric pressure (this pressure is called ram pressure), and this ram pressure is vaporized. In addition to being introduced into the venturi of the carburetor, it was also introduced into the float chamber of the carburetor through an air vent passage branched from the intake passage, and an air vent device for the carburetor was developed to apply ram pressure to the venturi and the float chamber. ing. By applying such a ram pressure, the high-density air-fuel mixture is supercharged, the air-fuel mixture charging efficiency of the engine is improved, and the output during high-speed traveling is improved.

[0004]

The element shape of the conventional air cleaner is restricted by the shape of the cleaner body that houses it, and the cleaner body is also restricted by the layout of the peripheral members. However, it was difficult to secure the surface area of the air cleaner element. With such a small surface area,
The passage velocity of the intake air increases, dust easily passes, the filtration capacity decreases, and the number of maintenance times increases, which causes inconvenience.

Further, there is also a structure in which the surface area is increased by bending a conventional element (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-20071, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-275562). This is related to the improvement of the layout configuration.In these conventional technologies as well, due to the restriction of the space for arranging parts and the like, the cleaner volume is sufficiently effectively utilized to reduce the intake resistance to the engine and improve the output. In addition, maintenance was also troublesome.

Further, in the motorcycle equipped with the conventional air vent device, the air vent passage bypasses the air cleaner and is connected to the carburetor, which may cause increase in passage resistance and decrease in supercharging pressure. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and provides an air cleaner for a vehicle, which has a large element surface area, improves the filtering ability in the installation space, and improves the maintainability. To aim.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, a vehicle air cleaner according to the present invention is an air cleaner for a vehicle in which an element is mounted in a cleaner body, wherein the element is formed in an L shape and the inside thereof is formed. Is the dirty side and the outside is directed to the clean side.

Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cleaner main body is composed of a lower case and an upper case, and the L-shaped element is housed in the lower case. The lower case has a recess for avoiding the air vent passage. It is configured to have.

[0010]

The air containing the sucked dust passes through the L-shaped element having a large surface area at a low flow rate, and the dust is reliably filtered. At this time, air passes through the element from the inside dirty side of the L-shaped element, is cleaned, is directed to the outside clean side, and is supplied to the engine. The outside of the L-shape can have a wider space than the inside. Therefore, the intake resistance on the engine side can be reduced to achieve a smooth intake action.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the basic construction of an embodiment of the present invention. This example shows a motorcycle equipped with an air vent device. An air cleaner 3 for removing dust from intake air is connected to a carburetor 2 that supplies an air-fuel mixture to an engine.

This air cleaner 3 has an upper case 8
The cleaner body 20 is composed of the lower case 10 and the lower case 10. An element 7 made of a sponge-like filter material having an L-shaped cross section is mounted in the cleaner body 20.

An intake passage 6 is connected to a lower case 10 of the air cleaner 3 via an inlet 9.

In the cleaner body 20, the dirty side 3b on the air intake side is connected to the intake passage 6 at the inlet 9 with the element 7 as a boundary, and the clean side 3a on the air outlet side is a venturi (not shown) of the carburetor 2. Be communicated to. The carburetor 2 is of a down-draft type and supplies an air-fuel mixture to the engine 1. A float chamber (not shown) of the carburetor 2 is connected to an intake passage 6 via an air vent passage 4. The intake passage 6 forms a ram chamber whose open end is directed forward and takes in traveling wind to create a ram pressure higher than atmospheric pressure. In addition, the element 7 is formed in an L shape in order to increase the surface area, a dirty side 3b is formed inside the element 7, and a clean side 3a is formed outside the dirty side 3b. According to the L-shaped element 7, since the surface area is large, the flow velocity of the traveling wind is reduced, dust is easily collected, the filtering ability is improved, and the number of maintenance can be reduced.

Further, since the clean side 3a is formed outside the L-shaped element 7 and the dirty side 3b is formed inside, the volume of the clean side 3a communicating with the engine 1 can be increased, The intake resistance can be effectively reduced.

According to the air vent device of the carburetor having such a structure, when the motorcycle is traveling, the traveling wind from the front is introduced into the intake passage 6, and the air cleaner 3 serves as the ram pressure.
To the venturi of the carburetor 2 and through the air vent passage 4 to the float chamber of the carburetor 2.

As a result, the venturi of the carburetor 2 and the float chamber become the ram pressure, and the high-density air-fuel mixture is supercharged to the engine 1.
The output of the engine 1 increases.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a more specific embodiment of the air cleaner 3 according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a sectional view seen from the front, FIG. 4 is a plan view of the lower case, and FIG. 5 is FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV of FIG. In this example, the cleaner body 20 is composed of a lower case 10 and an upper case 8. In this embodiment, the intake passages 6 are arranged on the left and right sides of the lower case 10, and two inlets 9 for taking in air are provided on the left and right sides. It is provided. Further, the lower case 10 is provided with four outlets 11 for sending clean air to the carburetor 2. As shown in FIG. 5, a recess 13 is formed in the center of the lower case 10 so as to avoid the air vent passage 4. The L-shaped element 7 is housed in the lower case 10 with its inside facing the dirty side 3b and its outside facing the clean side 3a. As will be described later, the element 7 is made by insert molding in which a sponge of filter medium is put in a small mold and then resin is poured to integrally mold the frame of resin and the filter medium. In this case, the mold is molded as a flat element with L extended. Therefore, the depth of the product can be made shallower than the L-shaped molding, and the molding part of the mold can be simple and small. As shown in the front view of FIG. 6 and the rear view of FIG. 7, the element 7 is composed of an upper piece 7a and a lower piece 7b, and the upper and lower pieces 7a, 7b are connected to each other via a thin hinge portion 14. The element 7 is used by being bent into an L shape along the fold line LL by the hinge portion 14. When the L-shaped element 7 is attached, first, the lower end of the lower piece 7b is inserted into the groove 15 provided in the lower case 10, and the upper piece 7a bent in the L shape is provided along the upper edge 16 of the lower case 10. It is configured to be fitted and then pressed by the upper case 28.

In such a structure, when the filtering ability of the air cleaner deteriorates, the element 7 can be taken out by simply removing the upper case 8, and the maintenance is easy.

The element 7 taken out is replaced or washed, but in the case of washing, it can be returned to the flat plate state and can be easily washed.

In the figure, 12 is a backfire prevention net.

[0022]

As described above, in the present invention, the L-shaped element has its inner side facing the dirty side and its outer side facing the clean side, so that the surface area can be increased and the clean side can be improved. It is possible to make the volume of the larger than the volume of the dirty side,
The filtration capacity can be improved and the number of maintenance can be reduced. Further, since the cleaner main body of the air cleaner is composed of the lower case and the upper case, and the lower case for accommodating the L-shaped element is formed with the concave portion for avoiding the air vent passage, the layout of the air vent passage is not hindered, and the air cleaner can be installed without any trouble. It is possible to sufficiently satisfy the filtration function, and it is possible to effectively achieve the air vent function with the air vent passage having a simple piping configuration.

Further, if the structure is bendable through the hinge portion, the mold structure for insert molding can be simplified and the cost can be reduced, and at the time of maintenance, it can be returned to a flat plate shape and the handleability is improved. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a more specific embodiment of the air cleaner according to the present invention.

3 is a cross-sectional view of the air cleaner of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a lower case of the air cleaner shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front view of an element of the air cleaner of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a back view of the element of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

3: Air cleaner, 3a: Clean side, 3b: Dirty side, 4: Air vent passage, 7: Element,
8: upper case, 10: lower case, 13: recess,
20: Cleaner body.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle air cleaner in which an element is mounted in a cleaner body, wherein the element has an L-shaped cross section, the inside of which is the dirty side,
An air cleaner for vehicles, the outside of which faces the clean side. 2. The cleaner body is composed of a lower case and an upper case, and the lower case houses the L-shaped element, and the lower case has a recess for avoiding an air vent passage. The air cleaner for vehicles as described in.