A particulate air filter is a device composed of fibrous materials which removes solid particulates Particulates, alternatively referred to as particulate matter or fine particles, are tiny subdivisions of solid or liquid matter suspended in a gas or liquid. In contrast, aerosol refers to particles and the gas together. Sources of particulate matter can be man made or natural. Air pollution and water pollution can take the form of solid such as dust Dust is a general name for solid particles with diameters less than 20 thou . Particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes, offices, and other human environments contains small amounts of plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibers, paper, pollen Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants. When pollen lands, mold Molds are fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments, called hyphae. In contrast, microscopic fungi that grow as single cells are called yeasts. A connected network of these tubular branching hyphae has multiple, genetically identical nuclei and is considered a single organism, referred to as a colony or in more technical terms a, and bacteria The bacteria ( [bækˈtɪəriə] ; singular: bacterium)[α] are a large group of single-celled, prokaryote microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals. Bacteria are ubiquitous in every habitat on Earth, growing in soil, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, from the air The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.09% nitrogen, 20.9. A chemical air filter consists of an absorbent or catalyst Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations. Catalysts that speed the reaction are called positive for the removal of airborne molecular contaminants such as volatile organic compounds or ozone. Air filters are used in applications where air quality is important, notably in building ventilation Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high Indoor air quality. i.e. to control temperature or remove moisture, odors, smoke, heat, dust, airborne bacteria, carbon dioxide, and to replenish oxygen. Ventilation is used to remove unpleasant smells and excessive moisture, introduce outside air, to systems and in engines.

Some buildings, as well as aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines and other man-made environments (e.g., satellites and space shuttles) use foam, pleated paper, or spun fiberglass Fiberglass, , is material made from extremely fine fibers of glass. It is used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products; the resulting composite material, properly known as fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) or glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), is called "fiberglass" in popular usage. Glassmakers throughout history have experimented filter elements. Another method, air ionisers An air ioniser is a device that uses high voltage to ionise (electrically charge) air molecules. Negative ions, or anions, are particles with one or more extra electrons, conferring a net negative charge to the particle. Cations are positive ions missing one or more electrons, resulting in a net positive charge. Most commercial air purifiers are, use fibers or elements with a static electric Static electricity refers to the build up of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge. Although charge exchange can happen whenever any two surfaces come into contact and separate, a static charge only remains when at least one charge, which attract dust particles. The air intakes of internal combustion engines and compressors tend to use either paper Filter paper is a semi-permeable paper barrier placed perpendicular to a liquid or air flow. It is used to separate fine solids from liquids or air, foam A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping many gaseous bubbles in a liquid or solid, or cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Pakistan, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely filters. Oil bath filters have fallen out of favor. The technology of air intake filters of gas turbines has improved significantly in recent years, due to improvements in the aerodynamics and fluid-dynamics of the air-compressor part of the Gas Turbines.

Contents

Automotive cabin air filters

The cabin air filter is typically a pleated-paper filter that is placed in the outside-air intake for the vehicle's passenger compartment. Some of these filters are rectangular and similar in shape to the combustion air filter. Others are uniquely shaped to fit the available space of particular vehicles' outside-air intakes. Being a relatively recent addition to automobile equipment, this filter is often overlooked[citation needed]. Clogged or dirty cabin air filters can significantly reduce airflow from the cabin vents, as well as introduce allergens An allergen is a nonparasitic antigen capable of stimulating a type-I hypersensitivity reaction in atopic individuals into the cabin air stream.

Internal combustion air filters

The combustion air filter prevents abrasive particulate matter from entering the engine's cylinders, where it would cause mechanical wear and oil contamination. Known as Engine air induction systems (AIS), they are typically constructed of paper or felt.

Most fuel injected Fuel injection is a system for mixing fuel with air in an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s vehicles use a pleated paper filter element in the form of a flat panel. This filter is usually placed inside a plastic box connected to the throttle A throttle is the mechanism by which the flow of a fluid is managed by constriction or obstruction. An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases , but usually decreased. The term throttle has come to refer, informally and incorrectly, to any mechanism by which the power or speed of an engine is regulated. What body with an intake tube.

Older vehicles that use carburetors A carburetor or carburettor (Commonwealth spelling) is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It was invented by Karl Benz before 1885 and patented in 1886. It is colloquially called a carb (in North America and the United Kingdom) or throttle body fuel injection typically use a cylindrical air filter, usually a few inches high and between 6 inches (150 mm) and 16 inches (410 mm) in diameter. This is positioned above the carburetor or throttle body, usually in a metal or plastic container which may incorporate ducting to provide cool and/or warm inlet air, and secured with a metal or plastic lid.

Long Life Filtration System

In 2003 Ford Motor company introduced the Visteon Long Life Filtration System to the Ford Focus.[1] This system has a foam filter placed in the bumper of the car and is stated to have a 150,000-mile (240,000 km) service interval.[1] According to a technical paper published by Society of Automotive Engineers, this design offers higher and more stable filtration efficiency than conventional air filters.[1]

Paper

Main article: Filter paper Filter paper is a semi-permeable paper barrier placed perpendicular to a liquid or air flow. It is used to separate fine solids from liquids or air

Pleated paper filter elements are the nearly exclusive choice for automobile An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the engine air cleaners, because they are efficient, easy to service, and cost-effective. The "paper" term is somewhat misleading, as the filter media are considerably different from papers used for writing or packaging, etc. There is a persistent belief amongst tuners, fomented by advertising for aftermarket non-paper replacement filters, that paper filters flow poorly and thus restrict engine performance. In fact, as long as a pleated-paper filter is sized appropriately for the airflow volumes encountered in a particular application, such filters present only trivial restriction to flow until the filter has become significantly clogged with dirt.

Foam

Oil-wetted polyurethane foam elements are used in some aftermarket replacement automobile air filters. Foam was in the past widely used in air cleaners on small engines on lawnmowers and other power equipment, but automotive-type paper filter elements have largely supplanted oil-wetted foam in these applications. Depending on the grade and thickness of foam employed, an oil-wetted foam filter element can offer minimal airflow restriction or very high dirt capacity, the latter property making foam filters a popular choice in off-road rallying and other motorsport applications where high levels of dust will be encountered.

Cotton

Oiled cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Pakistan, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely gauze Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave is employed in a small number of aftermarket automotive air filters marketed as high-performance items. In the past, cotton gauze saw limited use in original-equipment automotive air filters.

Oil Bath

An oil bath air cleaner consists of a round base bowl A sump is a low space that collects any often-undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers containing a pool of oil, and a round insert which is filled with fibre, mesh, foam, or another coarse filter media. When the cleaner is assembled, the media-containing body of the insert sits a short distance above the surface of the oil pool. The rim of the insert overlaps the rim of the base bowl. This arrangement forms a labyrinthine In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he path through which the air must travel in a series of U-turns: up through the gap between the rims of the insert and the base bowl, down through the gap between the outer wall of the insert and the inner wall of the base bowl, and up through the filter media in the body of the insert. This U-turn takes the air at high velocity across the surface of the oil pool. Larger and heavier dust and dirt particles in the air cannot make the turn due to their inertia Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion. It is represented numerically by an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to describe the motion of matter and how it is affected by applied forces. Inertia comes from the Latin word, ", so they fall into the oil and settle to the bottom of the base bowl. Lighter and smaller particles are trapped by the filtration media in the insert, which is wetted by oil droplets aspirated there into by normal airflow.

Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficiency or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates, and they tend to increase exhaust emissions Vehicle emissions control is the study and practice of reducing the polluting emissions produced by vehicles powered by internal combustion engines of unburned hydrocarbons In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls. Aromatic hydrocarbons , alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes and alkyne-based compounds are different types of hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Performance and Benefits of Zero Maintenance Air Induction Systems". Society of Automotive Engineers. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CAsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.122.3342%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&ei=EmwHS5HgHtGzlAev-oWFBA&usg=AFQjCNFJZyfYod6rEftPJowjrUme3gvBiw&sig2=bwiiomdOW3-fo8HEPkSuWA. Retrieved 2009-11-21.

External links

Car engine The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable component of the engine, such as the
Part of the Automobile An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the series
major terminology Bore Bore, when used in the context of piston engines, is a measurement of the diameter of the holes bored into the engine block for use as cylinders. The ratio of stroke to bore is a major factor in defining an engine's characteristics. Generally, smaller bore yields fast-revving engines with low rotational mass and therefore higher rev limits with • Compression ratio The compression ratio of an internal-combustion engine or external combustion engine is a value that represents the ratio of the volume of its combustion chamber; from its largest capacity to its smallest capacity. It is a fundamental specification for many common combustion engines • Crank A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm attached to it. Attached to the end of the crank by a • Cylinder A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before precision features are machined into it. The cylinders may then be lined with sleeves or liners of some • Dead centre In a reciprocating engine, the dead centre is the position of a piston in which it is farthest from, or nearest to, the crankshaft. The former is known as top dead centre while the latter is known as bottom dead centre (BDC) • Diesel engine A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber during the final stage of compression. This is in contrast to spark ignition engines such as a petrol engine (known as a gasoline engine in North America) or gas engine (using a • Dry sump • Engine balance Engine balance is the design, construction and tuning of an engine to run smoothly. Engine balance reduces vibration and other stresses, and may improve the performance, efficiency, cost of ownership and reliability of the engine, as well as reducing the stress on other machinery near the engine • Engine configuration Engine configuration is an engineering term for the layout of the major components of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine. These components include cylinders, pistons, crankshaft and camshaft(s) • Engine displacement Engine displacement is the volume swept by all the pistons inside the cylinders of an internal combustion engine in a single movement from top dead centre to bottom dead centre (BDC). It is commonly specified in cubic centimeters (cc), litres (l), or (mainly in North America) cubic inches (CID). Motive power output of a combustion engine is • Engine knocking Knocking in spark-ignition internal combustion engines occurs when combustion of the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder starts off correctly in response to ignition by the spark plug, but one or more pockets of air/fuel mixture explode outside the envelope of the normal combustion front. The fuel-air charge is meant to be ignited by the spark plug • Firing order The firing order is the sequence of power delivery of each cylinder in a multi-cylinder reciprocating engine. This is achieved by sparking of the spark plugs in a gasoline engine in the correct order, or by the sequence of fuel injection in a Diesel engine. When designing an engine, choosing an appropriate firing order is critical to minimizing • Hydrolock Hydrolock is an abnormal condition of an internal combustion engine in which an incompressible liquid, commonly water, has been introduced into one or more cylinders, causing immobilization or damage. Hydrolock can occur because an internal combustion engine must compress a volume of gas in order to operate, while most common liquids that could • Petrol engine A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol (gasoline) and similar volatile fuels • Power band The power band refers to the range of operating speeds under which the engine is able to operate efficiently. A typical gasoline automotive engine is capable of operating at a speed of between around 750 and 6000 RPM, but the engine's power band would be more limited. The engine would typically not generate maximum torque until higher operating • Redline Redline refers to the maximum engine speed at which an internal combustion engine or traction motor and its components are designed to operate without causing damage to the components themselves or other parts of the engine. The redline of an engine depends on various factors such as stroke, mass of the components, displacement, composition of • Spark-ignition engine • Stroke • Stroke ratio • Wet sump
major components Connecting rod • Crankcase • Crankpin • Crankshaft • Crossflow cylinder head • Crossplane • Cylinder bank • Cylinder block • Cylinder head • Flywheel • Head gasket • Hypereutectic piston • Main bearing • Piston • Piston ring • Reverse-flow cylinder head • Starter ring gear • Sump
valvetrain Cam • Cam follower • Camshaft • Desmodromic valve • Hydraulic tappet • Multi-valve • Overhead camshaft • Overhead valve • Pneumatic valve springs • Poppet valve • Pushrod • Rocker arm • Sleeve valve • Tappet • Timing belt • Timing mark • Valve float • Variable valve timing
aspiration Air filter • Blowoff valve • Boost controller • Butterfly valve • Centrifugal type supercharger • Cold air intake • Dump valve • Electronic throttle control • Forced induction • Intake • Intercooler • Manifold • Manifold vacuum • Naturally-aspirated engine • Ram-air intake • Scroll-type supercharger • Short ram air intake • Supercharger • Throttle • Throttle body • Turbocharger • Twin-turbo • Variable geometry turbocharger • Variable length intake manifold • Warm air intake
fuel system Carburetor • Common rail • Direct injection • Fuel filter • Fuel injection • Fuel pump • Fuel tank • Gasoline direct injection • Indirect injection • Injection pump • Lean burn • Unit Injector
electrics, ignition & engine management Air-fuel ratio meter • Alternator • Automatic Performance Control • Car battery • Contact breaker • Crank sensor • Distributor • Dynamo • Drive by wire • Electrical ballast • Electronic control unit • Engine control unit • Glow plug • High tension leads • Ignition coil • Lead-acid battery • Magneto • Mass flow sensor • Oxygen sensor • Spark plug • Starter motor
exhaust system Automobile emissions control • Catalytic converter • Diesel particulate filter • Exhaust system • Glasspack • Muffler
engine cooling Air cooling • Antifreeze • Core plug • Electric fan • Ethylene glycol • Fan belt • Radiator • Thermostat • Water cooling • Viscous fan
other components Balance shaft • Block heater • Combustion chamber • Cylinder head porting • Gasket • Motor oil • Oil filter • Oil pump • Oil sludge • PCV valve • Seal • Synthetic oil • Underdrive pulleys
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Is there an explanation for having a dirty air filter after a 30,000 mile maintenance on my car?
Q. Is it possible that an air filter can be dirty after a 20 mile road home? Thanks everyone for your answers. The guy just admitted he didn't change it. Now I have to wonder what else he didn't do. Ha ha, Grey. You remember my old salad dressing? I threw it out just so you know.
Asked by Cee T - Fri Apr 3 19:32:34 2009 - - 9 Answers - 0 Comments

A. You best find another garage to go to.Ask around there are honest ones out there.
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