Automatic air purifier for vehicles

Claim 1

An automatic vehicular air purifier for automatically filtering out smoke and other airborne impurities within a vehicle passenger compartment, comprising: a housing including a base having a rear surface for being secured to a preselected location within the passenger compartment, said base defining a fan-receiving space for rotation of a fan, weirs surrounding the fan-receiving space for directing air outwardly therefrom, and outlet-defining means extending completely around the periphery of the base for discharge of the directed air; a plate for securement to the base in overlying relationship, said base including means for securement of the base to said location prior to securement of said plate to the base; an electric fan motor carried by the plate and having a fan blade being directed toward and received within the fan-receiving space with the motor being located outwardly from the blade, for rotation of the blade in a plane parallel to the base; the plate defining a filter receptacle concentric with respect to the fan blade and motor; a filter for being received by the filter receptacle, the filter being of multilayer construction and including a first layer for dust, dirt and particle filtration, an activated charcoal layer for odor filtration, and a further layer for submicron remnant filtration; a circuit board carried by the plate proximate the filter receptacle and circuit means on the circuit board including a smoke detector for causing operation of the motor by electric power provided by an electrical system of the vehicle in response to smoke in the air; and a cover configured for extending over and for covering the plate in overlying relationship to both the base and the plate, including means for securing the cover to the plate, the cover having an air intake for intake of air within the passenger compartment, the air intake being first exposed to the smoke detector and only thereafter to the filter for being drawn therethrough by the fan for filtration; the circuit means including time delay means for causing operation of the motor for a predetermined time interval beyond detection by the smoke detector of smoke in the air intaken; whereby the base may be first secured to said preselected location, and subsequently said plate secured to the base, and thereafter the cover secured over the plate.