JPH04330366A - Air cleaner device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the length and the weight of a developing engine by forming small holes for sound arresting in the peripheral surfaces of the inner and outer pipes of a filter element having a filter member located between inner and outer cylinders, in an air cleaner device for an engine for a vehicle. CONSTITUTION:A cleaner casing 14 comprising a cylindrical body 26, an air inlet pipe 28, and an air outlet pipe 30 is integrally molded by using a resin material. Meanwhile, a filter element 12 comprises inner and outer cylinders 16 and 18 made of a metallic sheet and a filter member 20 located in an annular space between the inner and outer cylinders and contained in the cleaner casing 14 to communicate the inner cylinder 16 to an air outlet pipe 30. No hole part 40 is formed in the outer peripheral surface of the inner cylinder 16 throughout a range of a size L' in an axial direction starting from a bottom sheet 26' of the cylindrical body 26 of the cleaner casing 14 and a number of small holes 22 for the flow of air are formed in other part. In this case, the small holes 22 are closed by means of a tape to investigate a sound arresting effect and decide the size L'.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air cleaner device suitable for use in engines for vehicles such as trucks.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art A typical configuration of an air cleaner device in a conventional truck engine will be explained with reference to FIG. The air cleaner device, generally indicated by the reference numeral 10 in the figure, is composed of a filter element 12 and a cleaner casing 14 that accommodates the filter element 12. The filter element 12 includes an inner tube 16 and an outer tube 18 arranged coaxially, and an inner tube 16 and an outer tube 1.
8 and a filter member 20 housed within an annular cavity. Normally, the inner tube 16 and the outer tube 18 are each made of a cylindrical member made of a thin steel plate, and a large number of small diameter holes 22 and 24 for air circulation are bored in the outer peripheral surface of each of the tubes over the entire circumference. (In order to avoid excessive clutter in the drawing, only a portion of the small diameter hole 22 of the inner tube 16 is shown.) The cleaner casing 14 is a cylinder with a bottom that also accommodates the filter element 12. a cylindrical body 26 having a shape and an air inlet pipe 28 connected to the outer wall of the cylindrical body 26;
and an air outlet pipe 30 fixed to the bottom plate 26' of the cylindrical body 26 and extending coaxially within the cylindrical body 26. were all made of thin steel sheets. A U-shaped bolt fitting 32 is fixed to the end of the air outlet pipe 30 extending into the cylindrical body 26, and a bolt extending coaxially to the cylindrical body 26 is attached to the fitting 32. 34 is fixed. As shown in the figure, the bolt 34 extends outside through an end plate 36 of the filter element, and by screwing a wing nut 38 onto the end of the bolt 34, the filter element 12 can be detachably attached to the cleaner casing 14. It is set to be fixed.

In the air cleaner device 10 described above, intake air from the engine flows into the cylindrical main body 26 from the air inlet pipe 28, passes through a large number of small diameter holes 24 provided in the outer pipe 18 of the filter element 12, and enters the filter member 20. pass through,
The air is supplied from a large number of small diameter holes 22 in the inner pipe 16 through an air outlet pipe 30 to the intake pipe of the engine. At this time, air outlet pipe 3
By appropriately setting the insertion length L into the cylindrical body 26 of the cylinder 0, a silencing effect that effectively reduces intake noise can be obtained. The insertion length L of the air outlet pipe 30 into the cylindrical body 26 is individually adjusted to obtain the best noise reduction effect depending on the configuration of the specific engine and its intake system. For example, this adjustment work is performed by preparing a large number of rings with the same diameter, the same wall thickness, and unit length as the air outlet pipe 30, and preparing the air outlet pipe of the test cleaner casing 14 in which the insertion length L of the air outlet pipe 30 is small. Then, the rings of the above unit length are sequentially fixed one by one with tape etc., and each ring is set to a different insertion length L1~
The intake noise of the air cleaner device 10 of Ln is experimentally investigated, and the insertion length L with the smallest intake noise is determined.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Recently, there has been a demand for lighter air cleaner devices as part of efforts to reduce the weight of vehicles such as trucks.In order to meet this demand, the cleaner casing 14, which was conventionally made of steel plate, It is currently being considered that the product will be manufactured using resin materials. In this case, it is desirable from the viewpoint of cost reduction that the sleeve body 26, air inlet pipe 28, and air outlet pipe 30 of the cleaner casing 14 are integrally molded. Therefore, when the steel cleaner casing 14 is simply made of a resin material by changing the material and the insertion length L of the air outlet 30 is determined by the same adjustment method as above, first the cleaner casing 14 for testing is
After making a mold and performing adjustment work using the same cleaner casing to determine the insertion length L of the air outlet pipe 30,
It is necessary to modify the above-mentioned mold or to make a new mold with insertion length L and start production. However, as is well known in the art, refurbishing or manufacturing a new resin mold has the disadvantage of requiring great expense and a long period of time.

The present invention was devised in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air cleaner device that is inexpensive to manufacture, has a short development period, and is lightweight.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an inner tube and an outer tube made of thin metal plates, each of which has a large number of small diameter holes on its outer peripheral surface and is coaxially arranged. a filter element comprising a filter member inserted into an annular space between an inner tube and an outer tube; a cylindrical body housing the filter element; an air inlet tube connected to a side wall of the cylindrical body; and the tube. an air outlet pipe connected to one end of the shaped body and communicating with the inner pipe of the filter element; the cleaner casing is integrally molded from a resin material; The present invention proposes an air cleaner device characterized in that a non-porous portion having no small-diameter holes is provided on the outer circumferential surface of the air cleaner in order to produce a noise reduction effect over an appropriate range in the axial direction.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the cleaner casing consisting of the cylindrical body, the air inlet pipe, and the air outlet pipe is integrally molded from a resin material, so that weight and manufacturing costs can be reduced. In addition, instead of extending the outlet pipe into the cylindrical body in conventional air cleaner devices to create a silencing effect, the inner pipe of the filter element has a small diameter hole for air circulation in the part of the inner pipe on the air outlet pipe side. The axial dimensions of the imperforate portion of the filter element inner tube should be adjusted depending on the specific engine and intake system configuration, since an equivalent noise reduction effect can be produced by providing a non-porous portion. This eliminates the need to modify the mold for the cleaner casing. Changing the axial dimension of the non-porous part of the filter element inner tube after the above adjustment is possible in a short period of time and at low cost, unlike modifying the resin mold, since the inner tube is made of thin metal plate. can be done.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. (Members and portions that are substantially the same as or correspond to those in the previous configuration described above with reference to FIG. Main body 26, air inlet pipe 28, and air outlet pipe 30
A cleaner casing 14 consisting of the following is integrally molded from a suitable resin material. On the other hand, the inner tube of the filter element 12 is made up of an inner tube 16 and an outer tube 18 made of thin metal plates arranged coaxially, and a filter member 20 inserted into an annular space between the inner tube and the outer tube. 16 is provided with a non-perforated portion 40 in which the small diameter hole 22 for air circulation is not bored on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 26 having a dimension L' in the axial direction from the bottom plate 26'. In the conventional air cleaner device shown in FIG. 2, this non-porous portion 40 approximately corresponds to the portion where the air outlet pipe 30 of the cleaner casing 14 is inserted into the cylindrical body 26 in terms of the sound deadening effect. .

In the above configuration, when reducing intake noise in accordance with a specific engine and its intake system, the air outlet of the inner pipe 16 in which the small diameter hole 22 is bored over the entire length of the conventional filter element 12 in the axial direction is used. The small-diameter holes 22 on the pipe 30 side are sequentially closed with appropriate axial dimensions using tape of a constant width, and the intake noise of each is examined, and the axial dimension L' of the non-porous portion 40 with the smallest intake noise is determined. decide. Since the inner tube 16 of the filter element 12 is made of a thin metal plate to ensure the strength of the element, it can be relatively easily adjusted against fluctuations in the axial adjustment dimension L' of the non-porous portion 40. Therefore, it is not necessary to change the shape of the cleaner casing 14 made of resin material, and there is no need to modify its mold. As a result, compared to the previous air cleaner device, the cleaner casing 14
The manufacturing cost can be reduced by not requiring modification or new manufacturing of the mold, and the development period can be shortened by the number of days required for modification or new manufacturing of the mold.

In the above embodiment, the means for attaching the filter element 12 to the cleaner casing 14 is the mounting structure of a cap on a fuel tank of an automobile, and the oil injection head cap provided on the upper side of a rocker cover of an engine. Although a well-known structure similar to the mounting structure in which the filter element 12 can be attached to and detached from the cleaner casing 14 by rotating it while being pressed is illustrated, the present invention is of course not limited to this structure. Any fixing means may be employed as appropriate, such as tightening the outer peripheral portion of the end plate 36 of the filter element 12 to a corresponding mounting flange (not shown) of the cleaner casing 14 with a plurality of screws or bolts.

As described above, the air cleaner device according to the present invention includes an inner tube and an outer tube made of thin metal plates, each of which has a large number of small diameter holes on its outer circumferential surface and is coaxially arranged; a filter element having a filter member inserted into an annular space between the outer tubes; a cylindrical body housing the filter element; an air inlet pipe connected to a side wall of the cylindrical body; Consisting of a cleaner casing integrally molded from a resin material, including an air outlet pipe connected to one end and communicating with the inner pipe of the filter element,
The filter element is characterized in that a non-porous portion having no small-diameter holes is provided on the outer circumferential surface of the inner tube of the filter element on the side of the air outlet tube to produce a silencing effect over an appropriate range in the axial direction, and the manufacturing cost is reduced. This is industrially advantageous because it is possible to provide an inexpensive air cleaner device that requires a short development period and is lightweight.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 1 of a conventional air cleaner device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Air cleaner device 12 Filter element 14 Cleaner casing

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: An inner tube and an outer tube made of thin metal plates, each having a large number of small-diameter holes on the outer peripheral surface and arranged coaxially, and a filter member inserted into an annular space within the inner tube and the outer tube. and a cylindrical body housing the filter element; an air inlet pipe connected to a side wall of the cylindrical body; and an air inlet pipe connected to one end of the cylindrical body and communicating with the inner pipe of the filter element. The cleaner casing is integrally molded from a resin material and includes an air outlet pipe to produce a silencing effect over an appropriate range in the axial direction on the outer circumferential surface of the inner pipe of the filter element on the air outlet pipe side. An air cleaner device comprising a non-porous portion having no small-diameter holes.