Air filter and dust collector

Claim 1

An air filter and dust collector comprising: an enclosure providing a chamber of dust laden air; an inlet for dust laden air into said chamber; a closure for the top of said chamber having a plurality of openings therethrough; a plurality of fabric cylinder filters suspended in said chamber and providing for passage of air to be filtered from said chamber through said fabric cylinder filters to substantially remove the dust from the air and for movement of the clean air longitudinally of the cylinder filters and through said openings; a collection chamber for clean air above said closure and the openings therethrough; an air outlet from said clean air chamber; shaking rods rigidly connected to the bottoms of said fabric cylinder filters extending vertically therebeneath for applying shaking movements thereto to remove trapped dust from the surfaces thereof; means for loading said fabric cylinder filters with a predetermined vertical tension; and operating means extending across a plurality of said cylinder filters beneath the bottoms thereof, said operating means have holes therethrough receiving said rods for free vertical movement relative thereto whereby the operating means may transmit transverse shaking movements to said rods and cylinders bottoms while permitting free movement of the cylinder bottoms and rods in a vertical direction relative to said operating means, and so that predetermined constant tension is maintained regardless of shrinking or stretching of the fabric of the cylinder.