Air cleaner for supercharged engines

Claim 2

An air cleaner-supercharger-compressor assembly for supercharged engines including a supercharger compressor comprising, in combination, a vortex air cleaner, a supercharger compressor, and a barrier filter, each in series fluid flow connection with the other, and each having an inlet and an outlet; the outlet of the air cleaner being in fluid flow connection with the inlet of the supercharger-compressor, and the outlet of the supercharger-compressor being in fluid flow connection with the inlet of the barrier filter; the air cleaner being disposed upstream of the supercharger compressor, and the barrier filter being disposed downstream of the supercharger compressor, the barrier filter being capable of withstanding elevated temperatures of at least about 250* F to about 350*F.

Claim 3

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 1, in which the vortex air cleaner comprises a tubular air cleaner body having a central passage with an air inlet and an air outlet at opposite ends; a vaned deflector adjacent the inlet for creating a vortex stream in the influent air to concentrate any contaminant particles in the air at the periphery of the passage, and leave clean air at the center of the passage; and an outlet member having a central clean air passage communicating with the central passage of the tubular body and disposed within the passage at the outlet, the exterior wall of the outlet member defining a generally annular contaminant scavenge passage within the central passage of the tubular body through which pass contaminant particles while relatively clean air at the center of the passage passes through the central clean air passage of the outlet member.

Claim 4

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 1, comprising an array of vortex air cleaners mounted in parallel between a pair of supports which hold the tubular bodies of the vortex air cleaners with their air inlets and air outlets opening beyond the supports, and having scavenge passages emptying into a scavenge chamber defined between the supports, and a scavenge port in a wall of the scavenge chamber for the removal of air laden with dirt.

Claim 5

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 3, in which the scavenge chamber includes an eductor or ejector for driving air laden with dirt to and through the scavenge port.

Claim 6

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 1, in which the barrier filter is composed of a single filter element.

Claim 7

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 1, in which the barrier filter is composed of a plurality of filter elements in series or in parallel to each other.

Claim 8

An air cleaner assembly according to claim 1, in which the barrier filter element has a pore opening within the range from 1 to 300 microns.

Claim 9

A supercharger compressor assembly, according to claim 1, in which the supercharger compressor is a turbocharger compressor.