Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Background of the Invention
Field of the Invention
In accordance with this invention a bowl attachment is
provided and more particularly a spiral bowl attachment for
attaching a bowl of a fluid conditioning device, such as a
filter or lubricator, to a housing.
Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, bowls for lubricators or filters are
attached to a housing either by means of a locking ring or by
means of a threaded connection wherein the housing has a
depending skirt with internal threads and the bowl has external
threads at the lip thereof which engage the threads on the
housing. An example of a bowl attached by means of a locking ~ ~ -
ring is shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,214,054 to Poethig et al ~
which issued on October 26, 1965. Although the operation of ~ -
such device is usually satisfactory, the difficulty lies in the
fact that it is more costly to manufacture because of the ;~
additional locking ring part required and a service man occasion- ; -
ally may have difficulty in assembling the various parts
together into an operative unit. Furthermore, there is no
assurance that the bowl, which may carry indicia, will be
properly oriented each time it is reattached. Examples of a ~ `
threaded connection is shown in commonly assigned U.S. Patent
No. 3,368,645 to Hoffman et al which issued on February 13, 1968 ~ -
~nd U.S. Patent No. 2,165,634 to Jung et al which issued on
July 11, 1939. This type of connection is also satisfactory and
while not requiring an additional locking ring it does require
the service man to rotate the bowl through several revolutions
until it is in tight engagement with the housing which requires
considerable time and effort on the part of the service man, in
addition to which the bowl will not always be oriented in the
same position each time it is attached. This is partic~larly
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troublesome if the bowl has indicia thereon or includes a sightglass which must be positioned appropriately for viewing. Thus,
the service man, if he is careless, may attach a bowl after
replacing a filter or other internal element in such a way that
indicia thereon cannot easily be read or if he takes the time
and trouble to properly position the indicia additional labour -~
costs in the repair or replacement are incurred.
Summary of the Invention
In accordance with this invention, a fluid condition-
ing device is provided which has a housing with~circumferential
skirt for receiving the lip of a bowl and attaching means which
comprises a female spiral element on one of the skirt and the
peripheral lip of the bowl extending about 360 around the one
of the skirt and the lip and a male spiral element on the other
of the skirt and the lip engageable with the female spiral
element for attaching the bowl to the housing by bringing the
peripheral lip of the bowl into engagement with the circumferen- ~
tial skirt upon rotation of the bowl about 360 to attach this -
bowl to the housing upon engagement of the female and male
spiral elements so that the bowl assumes the same orientation
with respect to the housing each time the bowl is attached to
the housing after a turn of substantially one revolution. More
particularly, it has been found advantageous to provide a female
spiral element on the ~kirt of the housing and a male spiral
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element on the bowl wherein the two can be interconnected upon
one revolution turn of the bowl with respect to the housing.
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In an alternaltive embodiment the male element can be
Jegmented rather than being a continuous flange, if desired.
Thus, any indicia on the bowl or any sight glass ~-
30 associated with the bowl will always be properly positioned '~
sinoe the bowl will always be in fully engaged position at the
~ame point of rotation which i8 always about 360. Conveniently, -~
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such a spiral attachment provides for full support of the bowl
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around its periphery yet allowing for only one orientation of
the bowl with respect to the housing.
Additional advantages and novel features will become
apparent from the description which follows, taken in conjunc-
tion with the accompanying drawings: -
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a fluid conditioning ~-
device utilizing the spiral attachment of this invention; `~
Fig. 2 is an exploded fragmentary section, taken along
line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing a female spiral on a skirt of the
housing and a male spiral element on the lip of a bowl;
Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical section showing the
bowl and housing of Fig. 2 in engagement with each other; and
Fig. 4 is a fragmentary side elevation of an alter-
native male flange for a bowl.
Description of the Preferred Embodiments
In accordance with this invention, a fluid condition- ;
ing device F is provided, as shown in Fig. 1, which includes a ~- r
housing H to which a depending bowl B is attached. The fluid~ -
20 conditioning device can take the form of a filter or lubricator ~ -
or any other structure requiring a housing and a bowl. For
convenience of illustration, fluid conditioning device F has
been illustrated as a filter. ~hus, as best seen in Fig. 2,
the housing ~ includes an inlet 4 allowing fluid to enter the
housing and pass down into the bowl and through a filter element ;~
6, only partially shown in Fig. 3, and out through an outlet 8.
Conveniently, the housing is provided with an internal circular
flange 10 having internal threads 12 to which threads 14 of ehe
filter 6 may be attached for connecting the filter element to
the housing.
Conveniently, the housing H is provided with depending
skirt 16 which is illustrated as having an internal spiral
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flange 18 for mating with a male spiral flange 20 formed
integrally on the peripheral lip 22 of bowl B, as shown in
Fig. 2. For convenience of illustration the bowl B in Fig. 2
has been positioned so that the ends of spiral 20 are visible.
However, when the bowl is to be inserted in skirt 16 it would
first be oriented 180 to the position shown so that the upper - -
end of spiral 20 is received in recess 24 at the lower end of
spiral 18 whereupon the bowl will be rotated approximately 360
to attach it in position as shown in Fig. 3. Conveniently, ~ --
lip 22 has a recess receiving an O-ring 26 which forms a seal
between lip 22 and skirt 16. Also, bowl B may be provided with
a drain valve 28.
It can be seen that if it is necessary to replace
filter 6 the service man need merely rotate bowl B approximately
360 to remove the bowl from housing H whereupon the filter can
be replaced. After replacement of the filter, the bowl can be
again attached to the housing by positioning the upper end of ~
spiral 20 to mate with the recess 24 of lower spiral 18 and then -
rotating the bowl 360 whereupon the bowl will be in the same
orientation that it was before removal. It is clear that this
, . . .
has been accomplished without any effort on the part of the ; -~
service man and that this is desirable, particularly in those
instances where the bowl bears indicia which must be positioned
for reading or in a device having a sight tube which must also
be properly positioned.
An alternative embodiment is shown in Fig. 4 wherein
a bowl B' is provided having a lip 22' with segmented spiral
seotions 30 which can be received in female spiral 18 in the
same manner as spiral 20, described above.
From the foregoing, the advantages of this invention
are readily apparent. A spiral flange attachment has been
provided which causes a bowl to be attached to a housing of a `
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fluid conditioning device in the same orientation each time and
requires a turn of only about 360. Of course, it will be
understood that the spiral flanges could be slightly greater
than 360 to allow lead-in of the cooperating spiral elements
before the bowl is drawn tightly into the skirt of the housing.
The invention has been described in detail with parti-
cular reference to preferred embodiments thereof, but it will
be understood that variations and modifications can be effected
within the spirit and scope of the invention.
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