Abstract
An air filter is a device to remove dust from the air supplied to the automotive engine. A requirement for the optimum air filter is to improve the capability to remove particles from the air it takes in, that is the efficiency and amount of dust collection. By removing dust from the air, the air filter prevents the engine cylinder from wear, reduces ventilation resistance, and thus improves engine output and guarantees intake performance. In order to guarantee such air filter performance, it is very important to properly seal the air filter. For passenger cars made in Korea, the air filters are fabricated with steel caps as their frames are large and their engine capacity is big. Recently however, European countries and Japan started using urethane for manufacturing the air filter, so that all foreign-made cars now have urethane filters. The urethanes used for air filters are applied in two ways: One is to use soft urethane for both top and bottom of the air filter and the other is to use soft urethane for the top and hard urethane for the bottom. Each of these method has unique problems. In this study, hard urethane is used for both top and bottom of the filter in order to improve those problems and increase the sealing efficiency. Especially for the top, NBR (rubber mold) is pre-settled in tough urethane and then the urethane is solidified through foaming, which makes it possible to develop a solid and double-sealed filter.
