US 12,263,433 B2
Framed air filter with stabilizing flap
Fiona E. Menken, Woodbury, MN (US); Kimberly W. Gerwig, Woodbury, MN (US); Glen O. Gregerson, Hudson, WI (US); and David W. Ziemann, Coon Rapids, MN (US)
Assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Company, St. Paul, MN (US)
Appl. No. 17/909,712
Filed by 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY, St. Paul, MN (US)
PCT Filed Mar. 23, 2021, PCT No. PCT/IB2021/052404
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 6, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/191797, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 30, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/000,013, filed on Mar. 26, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2024/0207769 A1, Jun. 27, 2024
Int. Cl. B01D 46/00 (2022.01); B01D 46/10 (2006.01)
CPC B01D 46/0016 (2013.01) [B01D 46/10 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A framed air filter, comprising:
an air filter media comprising an at least generally rectangular perimeter with four major elongate edges;
and,
a four-cornered frame comprising four elongate frame portions, each elongate frame portion being mounted on one of the four major elongate edges of the filter media and with pairs of neighboring frame portions meeting to form a corner of the four corners of the frame,
wherein each of the four elongate frame portions comprises an elongate inner sidewall and an elongate outer sidewall that meet at a sidewall junction, an elongate upstream flange that meets the elongate outer sidewall at an outer junction, and an elongate downstream flange that meets the elongate inner sidewall at an inner junction,
wherein at least one corner of the four corners of the frame is a non-integral, bonded corner configured so that a stabilizing flap that integrally extends from a first frame portion of a pair of neighboring frame portions that meet to form the non-integral, bonded corner, is in inward, substantially coplanar overlapping relation with, and is affixed to, a corner-proximate bonding area of an elongate inner sidewall of a second frame portion of the pair of neighboring frame portions;
and,
wherein all four corners of the frame are bonded corners and no corner of the frame is an integral corner, wherein each of the four non-integral, bonded corners is configured so that the first frame portion of a pair of neighboring frame portions that forms the non-integral, bonded corner, comprises a stabilizing flap that integrally extends from the first frame portion and is in inward, substantially coplanar overlapping relation with, and is affixed to, a corner-proximate bonding area of the elongate inner sidewall of the second frame portion of the pair of neighboring frame portions, and is in inward, substantially coplanar overlapping relation with, and is affixed to, a corner-proximate bonding area of the downstream flange of the second frame portion of the pair of neighboring frame portions.