Filter apparatus
A liquid is made to flow into a filter case from a tangential direction at any point on a side surface of the filter case and produces a swirling flow. Bubbles collected in a center of the swirling flow are retained by a retainer plate, thereby removing the bubbles from the liquid. A filter element filters the liquid from which the bubbles were removed.
1. A filter apparatus, comprising:
a filter case having a bottomed substantially cylindrical shape;
a bubble removing portion including
an inflow pipe that is provided to a side surface of the filter case, wherein the inflow pipe is configured to cause a liquid to flow into the filter case from a tangential direction at any point on the side surface of the filter case, and produce a swirling flow in the liquid that flowed into the filter case, and
a retainer plate that is provided to an interior of the filter case, wherein the retainer plate is configured to retain bubbles collected in a center of the swirling flow by the swirling flow, and that the retainer plate is positioned on an upper side of the inflow pipe in a height direction;
a filter element that is provided to the interior of the filter case and comprises a filtration material, wherein the filtration material is configured to filter the liquid that passes through the bubble removing portion; and
an outflow pipe that has a substantially cylindrical shape and communicates with a hollow portion of the filter element,
wherein the inflow pipe is provided in a neighborhood of a bottom surface of the filter case, and the retainer plate is provided to a lower side of the filter element.
2. The filter apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the filter element comprises an upper plate that covers an upper end surface of the filtration material, and a lower plate that covers a lower end surface of the filtration material and is the retainer plate.
3. The filter apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
a diameter of the retainer plate is greater than a diameter of the filtration material.