Filters for cooling apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12215618-B2
Application number	US-202418437940-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 9, 2024
Priority date	Feb 10, 2023
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

A cooling apparatus for an engine comprising: a) a coolant reservoir comprising a coolant line outlet port; b) a tank for holding an aqueous urea solution for injection into an exhaust system of the engine; c) a coolant line for transferring a coolant fluid discharged from the coolant reservoir via the coolant line outlet port to the tank to enable, in use, heat exchange between the coolant fluid and the aqueous urea solution contained in the tank; d) a coolant control valve located on the coolant line for controlling flow of coolant fluid along the coolant line to the tank; and e) a filter for filtering the coolant fluid being discharged via the coolant line outlet port; wherein the filter comprises a filtering portion that is located within an interior of the coolant reservoir so that the coolant fluid is filtered within the coolant reservoir before the coolant fluid enters the coolant line.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cooling apparatus for an engine comprising:
a) a coolant reservoir comprising a coolant line outlet port;
b) a tank for holding an aqueous urea solution for injection into an exhaust system of the engine;
c) a coolant line for transferring a coolant fluid discharged from the coolant reservoir via the coolant line outlet port to the tank to enable, in use, heat exchange between the coolant fluid and the aqueous urea solution contained in the tank;
d) a coolant control valve located on the coolant line for controlling flow of coolant fluid along the coolant line to the tank; and
e) a filter for filtering the coolant fluid being discharged via the coolant line outlet port;
wherein the filter comprises a filtering portion that is located within an interior of the coolant reservoir so that the coolant fluid is filtered within the coolant reservoir before the coolant fluid enters the coolant line; and
wherein the coolant reservoir is a portion of a cylinder head and the filtering portion is located within an interior of the cylinder head.

2. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant line outlet port and the filter are located in an upper half of the coolant reservoir.

3. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filter further comprises a mounting portion for connecting the filter to the coolant reservoir, and the mounting portion is configured to connect the filter from an exterior of the coolant reservoir such that during mounting of the filter to the coolant reservoir the filtering portion of the filter is inserted through the coolant line outlet port to project into the interior of the coolant reservoir.

4. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant reservoir is a whole of the cylinder head and the filtering portion is located within an interior of the cylinder head.

5. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filtering portion has a cross-sectional shape selected from: circular, oval, teardrop or triangular.

6. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filtering portion has an active filtering surface that is at least 5 times the size and length to diameter ratio of an open area of the coolant line outlet port.

7. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant reservoir further comprises at least one inlet for coolant fluid and at least one additional outlet port for supplying coolant fluid to other components of the engine.

8. The cooling apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the locations of the at least one inlet for coolant fluid and the at least one additional outlet port are configured to produce a movement of the coolant fluid within the coolant reservoir, such that a flow of coolant fluid can be established over and/or around the filtering portion of the filter to wash off oversize solid matter trapped by the filtering portion, even when the coolant control valve is shut and no coolant fluid is being discharged via the coolant line outlet port.

9. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises the filtering portion that is locatable within the interior of the coolant reservoir so that the coolant fluid is filtered within the coolant reservoir before the coolant fluid enters the coolant line.

10. The cooling apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the filter further comprises a mounting portion for connecting the filter to the coolant reservoir, and the filtering portion extends from a first side of the mounting portion and a coolant line connector extends from a second, opposite, side of the mounting portion.

11. The cooling apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the filtering portion has a cross-sectional shape selected from: circular, oval, teardrop or triangular.

12. The cooling apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the filtering portion comprises a filtering mesh, and the filtering mesh has a mesh size of 0.3 to 1.0 mm.

13. The cooling apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the filtering portion comprises a filtering mesh, and the filtering mesh has a mesh size of 0.6 to 1.0 mm.

14. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the coolant line outlet port and the filter are located in an upper half, on an upper surface, of the coolant reservoir.

15. The cooling apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the filtering portion has an active filtering surface that is at least 10 times a size and length to diameter ratio of an open area of the coolant line outlet port.

16. A method of protecting a coolant control valve of an engine from contaminants, the method comprising:
a) using a coolant line to connect the coolant control valve to a coolant line outlet port of a coolant reservoir that contains a coolant fluid;
b) when the coolant control valve is open, discharging coolant fluid from the coolant reservoir out of the coolant line outlet port and along the coolant line; and
c) using a filter to filter the coolant fluid before the coolant fluid enters the coolant line by arranging a filtering portion of the filter to be located within an interior of the coolant reservoir so that the filtering portion covers the coolant line outlet port, wherein the coolant reservoir is a portion of a cylinder head and the filtering portion is located within an interior of the cylinder head.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the filter is located in an upper half of the coolant reservoir.

18. The method of claim 16 , the method further comprising creating a movement of the coolant fluid within the coolant reservoir, such that a flow of coolant fluid is established over and/or around the filtering portion of the filter, thereby washing off oversize solid matter trapped by the filtering portion, even when the coolant control valve is shut and no coolant fluid is being discharged via the coolant line outlet port.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the coolant control valve is a diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) valve for controlling flow of the coolant fluid to a tank holding an aqueous urea solution for injection into an exhaust system of the engine.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the filter is located in an upper half on an upper surface of the coolant reservoir.

Assignees

• Perkins Engines Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wong Wing Ngai
• Gharpure Siddharth Subhash

Classifications

• F01P2011/061

  Cleaning or combating corrosion using filters · CPC title

• F01P2007/146

  using valves · CPC title

• F01P11/06 Primary

  Cleaning (in general B08B); Combating corrosion (in general C23F) · CPC title

• F01P7/14

  the coolant being liquid · CPC title

• F01N2610/1406

  Storage means for substances, e.g. tanks or reservoirs · CPC title