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Method for making solid element fluid filter for removing small particles from fluids
| Details |
Inventors: Ellion, M. Edmund; Donatelli, Philip A.; Wolff, George;
Assignee: Hughes Aircraft Company (Los Angeles, CA)
Primary Examiner: Powell; William A.
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Meltzer; Mark J., Karambelas; A. W.
A fluid filter element, filter, and process for its fabrication, wherein the filter element includes a flat base and a thin layer deposited thereupon having a pattern of channels through which a fluid may flow. In operation, the element is pressed against a flat surface, preferably the back side of another element in a stack of filter elements, whereupon the channels become closed conduit. The channels have a minimum dimension of the thickness of the layer, so that larger particles may not pass therethrough. Fabrication of the thin layer with the channels therein is preferably accomplished by masking a pattern corresponding to the channels and then vapor depositing the remainder of the thin layer, as masking and deposition permits accurate control of the height of the deposited layer, and, then, the minimum dimension of the channels. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention resides in a rugged filter element, filter, and method for their manufacture.
Using the filter element of the invention, a filter removes particles of greater than a preselected critical size from a fluid passed through the filter.
The critical particle size for filtration can be readily selected by adjusting the manufacturing parameters, and can be varied over a wide range.
In particular, the critical size can be made to be less than the critical size possible with other rugged filters.
The filter element can be fabricated from a wide variety of materials, and by established process technology steps which can be controlled with great precision.
In accordance with the invention, a filter element comprises a flat base having a thickness direction and a transverse direction, and a layer of a solid material having a substantially constant thickness of less than about 10 micrometers deposited on the flat base, the layer having therein a pattern comprising a plurality of transversely extending continuous channels.
Preferably, the channels are formed in the layer but not in the flat base.
A corresponding filter for removing particles from a fluid comprises a plurality of filter elements stacked one above the other, each of the filter elements comprising a flat base having a thickness direction and a transverse direction, and a layer of a solid material having a substantially constant thickness of less than about 10 micrometers deposited on the flat base, the layer having therein a pattern comprising a plurality of transversely extending continuous channels; and fluid control means for introducing fluid into and for removing fluid from the channels so that the fluid flows through the channels and is cleansed of particles that are too large to flow through the channels.
Prior rugged fluid filters using a solid filter element have been fabricated by etching out channels from one face of a solid annular flat disk to form the filter element.
While this manufacturing technique works well if the channels are to be more than about 10 micrometers deep, the etching procedures used to etch the channels are difficult to control with high precision
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