Automotive Air Filter Manufacturer

Car Air Filter Function

A car air filter system works to supply air to the engine for combustion. The right mixture of air and fuel is essential for the engine to run. The air must also be clean, free from any dirt particles. This is achieved by use of the engine air filter.

What does an automotive air filter do?

It acts as a sieve for the air going to the engine. As air passes through the filter media, contaminants are trapped.  The car air filter function is, therefore, to ensure that the engine is protected from receiving dirt and debris that would cause the pistons and cylinder to wear too quickly.

With the engine air filter purpose being to ensure only clean air reaches combustion chamber, you need to ensure that it’s always in good and working condition. Over time, the filter accumulates trapped dirt, dust, and other particles. It gets clogged up, restricting the flow of air through it. As a result, the engine receives air that’s inadequate. This causes the fuel mixture in the combustion chamber to be too “rich, or to have more of fuel than air.

A “too rich fuel mixture” situation results in weak engine power, reduced fuel economy, and a rise in engine emissions. To avoid this, you need to schedule filter cleaning or replacement to be before the one in operation becomes too clogged with dirt.

Car Air Filter Types

There are two automotive air filter types: the dry and wet filters.

Dry Filter Types

Dry air filters use a dry element, either paper or non-woven fabric for filtration. The filter is protected with a urethane or metal seal and housed in either a plastic or metal construction.

Dry air filters with paper as the filter material are the most common. They’re lightweight, more efficient, and easier to maintain. The efficiency achieved by paper filters can be up to 99.5% while that of oil bath types lies between 95 to 96%

Wet Filter Types

These filters can be either oil-immersed or the oil-bath type.

Oil-immersed filters use an element impregnated with oil to filter dirt and dust from the air. The filter media of these types of air filters can be either metallic mesh, fabric or foam.

Oil-bath filters consist of oil contained in a bowl and a filter element made of metal mesh. They work by the intake pipe directing air onto the oil. Dirt particles get trapped by sticking onto the oil droplets they hit. The droplets then get drawn onto the filter element where they wash the dust trapped by the element back into the oil reservoir. Oil-bath filter types are mostly found in vehicles used in agricultural conditions such as tractors.

The process of filtration occurs in three ways; filter, inertial and oil bath.

Filter

Air is directed through a filter media consisting of mesh or filter paper. Contaminants are trapped which then remain behind, stuck to the filter’s surface.

Inertial

Centrifugal force is used to remove impurities from the air. When the air is rotated or made to turn rapidly, impurities, being more dense, separate from the air.

Oil Bath

Air containing impurities is directed vertically down, onto oil contained in a bowl and then rapidly upwards. Air is lighter and can change direction with ease. Particles of dirt, being heavier, cannot make this sudden “U” turn which makes them end up in the oil, trapped.

Automotive Air Filter Material

Different automotive air filters use various materials as the filter media to satisfy the various working condition.

Paper

Paper is used in the dry type of air filters and is one of the most popular filter materials. The paper used in automotive engines filters is not the normal type, though. It’s a special type of porous paper made from a particular kind of wood pulp.

The paper is usually pleated to increase its filtering surface area while occupying the smallest area in the automotive air filter housing. Paper filters are liked for their low cost, low maintenance requirements, lightweight, and higher efficiency.

Foam

This type of car air filter material is basically polyurethane that’s been wetted with oil. Oiled foam has a high dirt-holding capacity, allowing a filter made from this material to block impurities for longer before it becomes entirely clogged.

Stainless Steel

It consists of a mesh of steel. This filter material comes in different filtration levels that depend on the number of meshes.

Cotton

The cotton filter material used in an engine air filter element consists of several layers of oiled cotton gauzes. The layers are separated by screens of metallic mesh to hold the gauzes in place.

Oil Bath

This filter material is basically a pool of oil held in a reservoir, and that works in combination with a filter element made of metal mesh or foam to trap impurities from air. It’s often used in vehicles that run in extremely dusty conditions such as farm machinery.