Patent ID: 9630129
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: B01D,F16K,Y10T

Claim:
1. A fluid filter comprising a filter canister, a fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, filter media, and a modular relief valve assembly, wherein: the filter media defines a seated end, a bypass end, an outer filtering zone, and an inner fluid passage; the inner fluid passage of the filter media extends from the seated end to the bypass end of the filter media; the filter media is disposed in a fluid path within the filter canister between the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet; the modular relief valve assembly is positioned inside the filter canister and comprises a bypass housing, a bypass spring, a valve plug, and a locator spring; the locator spring is at least partially seated within and modularly joined to a trailing portion of the bypass housing; the bypass spring and the valve plug are modularly joined to the bypass housing and are configured such that the valve plug moves to an open position when a bypass fluid pressure on the valve plug exceeds a bypass threshold of the bypass spring; the trailing portion of the bypass housing comprises at least one annular forward-facing seating surface in contact with the bypass end of the filter media; a leading portion of the bypass housing extends into the inner fluid passage of the filter media from the bypass end of the filter media and comprises a sealing extension, an intermediate reducing taper, and a valve plug sealing surface; the sealing extension of the leading portion is positioned between the forward-facing seating surface of the trailing portion and the intermediate reducing taper of the leading portion; the intermediate reducing taper of the leading portion is positioned between the sealing extension and the valve plug sealing surface of the leading portion and reduces towards the valve plug sealing surface of the leading portion; and the locator spring is compressed between the bypass housing and a bypass end of the filter canister such that, given the configuration of the bypass housing and the filter media,