Filter apparatus for canister

Claim 1

A filter apparatus for a canister which is to be connected to an outlet portion of the canister mounted on a fuel supply system for a vehicle, comprising: a housing having a connection opening portion, which is to be connected to said outlet portion and an atmospheric release opening portion communicating with an atmosphere; a filter element received in said housing; wherein: said filter element is provided with a filter body having a filtering function and with a partition, which divides, in cooperation with said filter body, an inside of said housing into a clean-side zone communicating with said connection opening portion and a dirty-side zone communicating with said atmospheric release opening portion; said filter body being formed into a hollow cylindrical shape and having a first end and an opposite second end, said first end of said filter body being joined to an inner wall of said housing so that one end of a hollow portion of said filter body is connected directly to said connection opening portion from inside the housing; said hollow portion being located in said clean-side zone and serving not only as a part of a passage for introducing fluid, which has been introduced from said canister into said connection opening portion, into said atmospheric release opening portion, but also as a part of another passage for introducing fluid, which has been filtered through said filter element, into said connection opening portion; and said partition is disposed at a side of the second end of said filter body; said partition being provided with a one-way valve, which permits fluid introduced to a side of an other end of said hollow portion to pass through said one-way valve to said dirty-side zone and prevents said fluid from passing from said dirty-side zone to said clean-side zone to flow into said hollow portion.