Patent ID: 8157992

Claim:
In a lubricant circuit, the improvement comprising: a cleaning device for the cleaning of a lubricant which circulates in said lubricant circuit, said cleaning device including: an intake line connectable to the lubricant circuit through which at least a quantity of lubricant to be cleaned is fed to said cleaning device for at least partial removal of contaminants, resulting in a cleaned lubricant; a first heat exchanger in said intake line; a second heat exchanger in said intake line; a return line connectable to said lubricant circuit for returning the cleaned lubricant into said lubricant circuit, said return line passing through said first heat exchanger; a cleaning circuit in which said intake line terminates; a feed device for circulating a mixture of a circulating lubricant contained in said cleaning circuit and the lubricant to be cleaned; at least one cross-flow filter arranged downstream of the feed device which is provided with at least one filter membrane past which the mixture of circulating lubricant and the lubricant to be cleaned flows for filtering; and a filtrate chamber into which a part of the mixture of circulating lubricant and the lubricant to be cleaned flows as cleaned lubricant, after passing through said filter membrane under a pressure generated by said feed device, said filtrate chamber being coupled to said return line to return the cleaned lubricant to said lubricant circuit.