Horizontal Oil Filter Discharge Control Tool

Removal of oil filters, water separating fuel filters, and the like from internal combustion engines and machinery generally results in uncontrolled discharge of some quantity of the filtered fluid. In our age, it has become apparent that the shear volume of waste materials we generate makes it important to capture any incremental pollutant at the source of release. Rules pertaining to disposal of spent fuel and lubricants are effectively reducing the impact of careless discharge that was so prevalent in years past. In 1995, I received a U.S. patent for a socket wrench component that I titled Oil Filter Cup, U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,748. The objective of that tool is to control filter discharge by containing the filter and filter socket within a vessel during removal. However, Oil Filter Cup will not contain oil discharged from a horizontally oriented filter. And in the intervening period while marketing that tool, I have spoken to many people who were hoping it was the solution to the horizontal filter discharge problem. A particularly acute problem when the engine is on a boat. Pumping bilge water loaded with petroleum into the water is no longer merely poor form, but a serious and expensive violation of the law. Consequently, I have been giving this problem some consideration. Consumer acceptance demands an inexpensive, simple device. And that is exactly what this tool is: inexpensive; simple in form and function.

A horizontal oil filter discharge control tool is a simple vessel for directing the flow of fluid released from a horizontally mounted canister filter during removal of the filter. The novel feature of this invention may be incorporated on a funnel or a vessel with a closed bottom. An open end of the vessel may be shaped to mate with the cylindrical surfaces of one or more filter diameters. For instance, the invention may be configured on the rim of a funnel or closed bottom vessel to provide a variety of mateable structures on a single vessel. In such a case, the opposing sides of the vessel, in one plane, are concave with radius X. While the opposing sides of the vessel, in a second plane perpendicular to the first plane, may be concave with radius Y. So that, this discharge control tool can mate with a filter of radius X (approximately) when fitted to a filter in a first orientation. And if configured with additional mating structures, the same tool rotated 90 degrees, can mate with a filter of radius Y (approximately). Blades extending along the interior surface on one wall in each plane and beyond the rim of the vessel, provide a structure from which the vessel is suspended. This is accomplished by: holding the tool beneath a mounted filter that is to be drained; loosening the filter enough to create a space between the filter and mounting fixture sufficient to insert the blades of the tool; inserting the blades; tightening the filter against the blades; allowing the filter to drain into the tool; and subsequent removal of filter and tool.

FIG. 1 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a funnel.

FIG. 2 illustrates a side elevation of the same preferred embodiment of the device configured as a funnel, rotated 90 degrees. From this perspective, the blades (1) are visible protruding from the oil filter/engine receiving open end. The rim (2) is concave to radius X, along the segment defined by concavity A, to accomodate the shape of an oil filter fixture on an engine.

FIG. 3 illustrates the same side elevation as FIG. 1, but in cross-section. The blades (1) project from the interior surface of the device, outwardly.

FIG. 4 illustrates the same side elevation as FIG. 2, but in cross-section. The rim (2) is shaped to accomodate the shape of an oil filter fixture on an engine.

FIG. 5 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a funnel, with flat rim.

FIG. 6 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a funnel, without the elongated rim, illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3.

FIG. 7 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a fluid retaining vessel. In this embodiment, a segment of the vessel's rim along one side, is concave to radius X, providing concavity A, and along a second side, the rim is concave to radius Y, providing concavity B, thus accomodating oil filter fixtures of different radii. Each side is provided with blades (1).

FIG. 8 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a fluid retaining vessel, in cross-section.

FIG. 9 illustrates a side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the device configured as a fluid retaining vessel, with a flat rim (2).

A horizontal oil filter discharge control tool is a vessel with blades extending from an interior surface, beyond the rim. The vessel may be provided with a bottom, allowing it to retain fluid, or it may be provided with a second opening at the base, allowing fluid to funnel through the vessel. The rim of the vessel may have one or more concave segments, with blades extending from an interior surface and outwardly from the rim at the concave segments.