Patent ID: 7192528

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising a ring disc filter system having a housing, a stack of ring disc filter elements in the housing with an inlet and an outlet for fluid to flow from the inlet through the stack of filter elements and outwardly to the outlet, a plurality of spine legs internally of said stack of ring disc elements, a fluid diverter to direct fluid during normal filtering operations from the inlet through the ring disc filter elements to create a filtering action, the improvement comprising: a. a spray tube positioned internally of said spine legs and having a plurality of fluid orifices therethrough axially spaced along the length thereof; b. said spray tube being disposed inwardly of said stack of ring disc filter elements for directing fluid outwardly through said ring disc filter elements to flush impurities into the housing; c. an outlet for discharging the fluid with impurities from the apparatus; and d. a compression plate assembled on said spray tube for normally holding the filter elements together for filtering out impurities in the fluid; and said compression plate and said spray tube being movable together in response to fluid pressure flowing upwardly in the spray tube to relieve pressure on the filter elements to thereby open the spaces between the filter elements to facilitate the flushing action.