Patent ID: 7621984

Claim:
An electrostatic filter for a tower air cleaner providing improved cleanability and improved particulate collection that is in upended orientation when inside said tower air cleaner and in side orientation when placed on its side inside a washing machine for cleaning, comprising: a cartridge elongated along a longitudinal direction and adapted for use with said tower air cleaner; said elongated cartridge including longitudinally spaced top and bottom end caps, rigid side panels connected at the lateral edges of the top and bottom end caps and open front and rear faces through which air to be cleaned is streamed along an airflow direction that is generally perpendicular to the open front and rear faces; an improved particulate collection efficiency electrode network including emitter and collector electrode first and second arrays spaced apart along the airflow direction that extend between and are supported by the longitudinally spaced top and bottom end caps; said emitter electrode first array includes wire electrodes and ionizing divider bars of a preselected nonlinear profile spaced apart in a direction transverse to the airflow direction such that each wire electrode is spaced from and interdigited between laterally adjacent ionizing divider bars and in such a way that the surfaces of the ionizing divider bars are closer to the wire electrodes interdigited therebetween in regions of thicker cross-section, to promote ionization, and are farther from the wire electrodes in regions of thinner cross-section, so as not to block airflow; and means coupled to said cartridge for providing drainage of cleaning water that may have accumulated therein when cleaned inside said washing machine when the cartridge is in said upended orientation or said side orientation after cleaning in said washing machine so as to prevent intracartridge fluid retention and thereby to eliminate electrical shortages or other undesirable phenomena resulting therefrom.