Water filter abstract
The present invention relates to an improved water filter which
comprises a cone-shaped tank, a filtering bed layer, four conduits
provided in the tank and concealed in the filtering bed and a four-way
valve provided on the outer wall of the tank at the junction of
the conduits which allows passage between any two adjacent conduits
by means of a moveable plug operated in a predetermined turn so
that the filtering and backwashing process of the tank can be easily
controlled by the valve in practical use and the filtering bed is
prevented from boiling and cracks along the side walls of the tank.
Water filter claims
What is claimed is:
1. A water filter comprising:
a tank having a bottom, a top and a lateral surrounding wall interconnecting
said bottom and said top;
a filter bed composed of paticulate filter medium filling a lower
portion of said tank with a remaining upper portion located above
said lower portion being left unfilled with a filter medium;
a plurality of conduits provided in said tank and concealed in
said filter bed; and
a valve disposed on said lateral surrounding wall of said tank
and connected to said plurality of conduits, said valve including
a movable valve member having passages that can be adjusted to change
their positions to communicate desired conduits for different operation
modes of the water filter;
wherein said lateral surrounding wall has a substantially truncated-cone
shape, and is tapered only from said lower portion filled with said
filter bed towards said upper remaining portion, sufficient for
decreasing the width of said upper remaining portion and minimizing
boiling of the filter medium during a backwash operation mode of
the water filter.
2. The water filter according to claim 1 wherein said lateral
surrounding wall has an inclination of about 1-10 degrees with respect
to a vertical axis of said tank.
3. A fluid filter comprising:
a tank having a top portion, bottom portion and side walls connecting
said top and bottom portions;
a filter bed composed of particulate filter medium filling a lower
portion of said tank with a remaining upper portion located above
said lower portion being left unfilled with filter medium;
a plurality of conduits extending to different predetermined positions
within said tanks; and
a valve operatively connected to said tank, said valve being connected
to said plurality of conduits and connected to a plurality of supply/drain
conduits for controlling the flow of fluid into and out of said
tank during filtering and backwash modes of operation of the fluid
filter;
wherein said side walls of said tank taper only in the upward vertical
direction at a portion of said tank approximately where said bottom
portion meets said upper portion of the tank sufficient for preventing
boiling of the filter medium during a backwash operation of the
filter.
4. The fluid filter according to claim 3 wherein said entire lower
portion of said side walls of said tank taper in the upward vertical
direction.
5. The fluid filter according to claim 4 wherein said side walls
taper at an inclination of about 1-10 degrees with respect to a
vertical axis of said tank.
6. The fluid filter according to claim 3 wherein said entire side
walls of said tank taper in the upward vertical direction.
7. The fluid filter according to claim 6 wherein said side walls
taper at an inclination of about 1-10 degrees with respect to a
vertical axis of said tank.
8. The fluid filter according to claim 7 wherein said plurality
of conduits being located within said tank, each said plurality
of conduits being supported at one end by said valve and supported
by said filter medium at portions extending from said valve for
removing the requirement for additional support structure within
said tank to substantially support said plurality of conduits at
their respective operative positions.
9. The fluid filter according to claim 6 wherein said plurality
of conduits being located within said tank, each said plurality
of conduits being supported at one end by said valve and supported
by said filter medium at portions extending from said valve for
removing the requirement for additional support structure within
said tank to substantially support said plurality of conduits at
their respective operative positions.
10. The fluid filter according to claim 3 wherein said side walls
taper at an inclination of about 1-10 degrees with respect to a
vertical axis of said tank.
11. The fluid filter according to claim 3 wherein said plurality
of conduits being located within said tank, each said plurality
of conduits being supported at one end by said valve and supported
by said filter medium at portions extending from said valve for
removing the requirement for additional support structure within
said tank to substantially support said plurality of conduits at
their respective operative positions.
Water filter description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved water filter, particularly
concerning a cone-shaped water filter tank using an improved valve
including a plurality of conduits, concealed in the filter tank.
As seen in FIG. 1 many of the known designs of water filter used
today are designed with a tank body 1 a coupling conduit 11 a
plurality of controlling valves 12 a plurality of conduit fittings
13 a baffle plate 14 a filtering bed layer 15 and a backwash distributing
conduit 16. The coupling conduit 11 is usually arranged in the open
air and out of the tank 1. Such a water filter tank has the following
disadvantages:
(1) Most of the coupling conduits 11 are made of heavy metal so
that they need a conduit fitting 13 at any bend. Besides, the conduit
11 requires a plurality of controlling valves 12 for different controlling
purposes resulting in high manufacturing cost. Even though a plastic
conduit can be substituted for the metal conduit, there remains
the inconvenience that the whole plastic conduit assembly needs
to be supported by a supporting member.
(2) The conduit 11 the controlling valves 12 and the conduit fittings
13 are disposed in the open air year round so they are easily damaged
by weather or other incidental accidents, such as being bumped by
a heavy load, causing water leakage. sometimes, it may be dangerous
for people working around the tank if the conduit assembly is leaking
HCl during the backwashing operation of the filter tank.
(3) Since the tank 1 is of cylindrical shape with a filtering bed
15 which includes a layer of sand and a layer of gravel etc., there
may be some trouble in rebuilding the filtering bed, if it is disturbed.
If the backwash is turned on suddenly, the water may lift the sand
bed bodily above the gravel layer, forming an open space between
the sand and grave. The filtering bed 15 then breaks at one or more
points causing sand boils and subsequent upsetting of the supporting
gravel layers. Cracks along the side walls of the tanks may be caused
as the filtering bed is pulled away from the side walls of the tank.
(see in FIG. 2).
(4) Since the conduit assembly uses a plurality of controlling
valves 12 the potential is very great for human error in operation
or in turning on and off the water flow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the above disadvantages in mind, the general objects of the
invention is to provide an improved water filter which is simple
in construction and in which all the conduits are concealed in the
tank, supported by the filtering bed itself, so that there is no
need to prepare an additional supporting member for the conduits.
The other object of the invention is to provide an improved water
filter tank, in which all of its conduits are made of plastics that
easily bend at any turning portion of the conduits, so that there
is no need to use other conduit fittings and production costs are
cut.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved water
filter tank providing a plurality of conduits concealed in the tank
safe from damage by the weather and accidents.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved
water filter tank including an upper venting conduit and lower venting
conduit having openings that face the top inner surface and bottom
inner surface of the tank respectively so that the filter tank can
be designed without a baffle plate.
The main object of the invention is to provide a cone-shaped water
filter tank in which the cross sections of the tank taper toward
the top portion whereby boiling of the filtering bed and cracks
along the side wall of the filter are avoided, eliminating the frequent
need to rebuild the filtering bed after each backwash process.
In order to achieve the aforesaid objects as well as other incidental
objects and advantages, the invention includes a water filtering
tank (or ion exchange resin tank) which provides a filtering bed
layer, (including layers of sand, gravel, ion exchange resin etc.,),
a plurality of conduits concealed in the tank and a four-way valve
at the junction of the conduits which allows passage between any
two adjacent conduits by means of a moveable plug operated by a
dial (or five-way valve) disposed on the outer wall of the tank.
The concealed conduits in the tank are supported by the filtering
bed and the water ways of the conduits are controlled by the valve
during the filtering and backwashing processes of the water filter
tank. The tank is in a cone shape in which the upper cross-section
of the tank is smaller than the lower cross-section so that the
filtering bed can be protected from boiling during the backwash
process.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other advantages, objects and features of the present
invention will become apparent from the following detailed description
of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a partial exploded view of a water filter tank according
to a prior design;
FIG. 2 is a partial side-sectional veiw of FIG. 1 showing the boiling
of the filtering bed during a backwash process;
FIG. 3a is a front view of a preferred embodiment of a water filter
tank according to the invention;
FIG. 3b is a side view of FIG. 3a; and
FIG. 4 is a front view of another preferred embodiment of a cone-shaped
water filter tank according to the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The following is a detailed description of the best presently contemplated
embodiment of the invention. This description is not to be taken
in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating
the general principles of the invention.
Referring to FIG. 3a and FIG. 3b, the invention includes a tank
body 2 provided with filtering bed layer 21 composed of an orderly
arrangement of a material such as sand, gravel and ion exchange
resin layers etc., within the tank body 2 and an inlet conduit
22 which is adapted to connect to a pump (not shown in the Figs.),
an outlet conduit 23 an upper venting conduit 24 and a lower venting
conduit 25 concealed in the filtering bed 21 so that all the conduits
22 23 24 25 are supported by the filtering bed 21.
A four-way valve 26 is disposed on the outer wall of the tank body
2 in a suitable position and the conduits 22 23 24 25 are connected
to the valve 26. The valve 26 at the junction of four conduits 22
23 24 25 allows passage between any two adjacent conduits by means
of a moveable plug 27 operated by turning it to a predetermined
position, so the valve 26 can control all the conduits 22 23 24
25 to form different waterways for filtering and backwashing in
the water filter tank 2.
During the filtering process, unfiltered raw water enters the inlet
conduit 22 through the pump (not shown in the Figs.). The moveable
plug 27 of the valve 26 is turned to a position that allows passage
between two adjacent conduits 22 to 24 and 23 to 25 so that the
raw water flows from the inlet conduit 22 through the passage to
the upper venting conduit 24. Since the opening of the upper venting
conduit 24 faces the top inner surface of the tank 2 the water
sprays out of the conduit against the top inner surface of the filter
tank 2 and then down to the filtering bed 21. An advantage of the
present invention is that the sand or gravel layer of the filtering
bed 21 is prevented from boiling without any baffle plate. The raw
water is filtered by the filtering bed 21 and then enters the lower
venting conduit 25. Since the valve 26 is arranged such that the
moveable plug 27 is in a position to allow the conduit 25 to communicate
with the outlet conduit 23 through another passage, the cleaned
water flow out from the outlet conduit 23.
After a period of filtering, the filter tank needs to be cleaned
by a backwash process. In the backwash process, the moveable plug
27 can be turned to another position to form a passage between two
adjacent conduits 22 and 25 23 and 24. The water enters the inlet
conduit 22 and goes into the conduit 25 through the passage. The
lower venting conduit 25 now functions as a backwash distributing
conduit from which the water comes out and flows upwardly. As the
opening of the conduit 25 faces the bottom inner surface of the
tank 2 the sand surface rises and a heavy concentration of coagulated
material previously filtered from the raw water begins to overflow
into the conduit 24 which is now functioning as a washwater trough.
Then the washwater passes through the conduit 24 to outlet conduit
23 and flows out of the tank 2. It is essential to slowly admit
washwater into the tank 2 so that the velocity of the upward backwash
water from the conduit 25 will not churn the filtering bed 21.
If the backwash water is turned on suddenly, it lifts bodily the
filtering bed 21 above the gravel layer, forming an open space between
the sand and gravel. The filtering bed 21 breaks at one or more
points, causing itself to boil and subsequently upsetting the supporting
filtering bed 21 layers. Often, the filtering bed 21 also pulls
away from the sidewalls and forms cracks along the side walls of
the tank 2. This results in a requirement for frequent rebuilding
of the filtering bed 21. FIG. 4 is another embodiment of the invention
in which the tank 2 is designed in a cone shape for solving the
above-described problem. The cross section of the cone-shaped tank
2 is tapered from its base to its upper portion at an inclined angle
of between 1 to 10 degrees. As the cross section of the tank 2 is
tapered at its upper portion, the filtering bed 21 is not easily
churned up during the backwash process, and the filtering bed is
prevented from pulling away from the sidewalls. The penetrating
velocity of the water through the filtering bed 21 can be much quicker
than in prior designs so it is convenient in practical use.
While this invention has been described with what are presently
considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it
is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the
disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover
various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within
the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which scope is to be
accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such
modifications and equivalent structures. |