Outside of fuel, oxygen is the most critical resource needed for a heavy duty engine to perform efficiently and effectively. As a result, proper air filtration, provided by a quality filter, is one of the core ways to maintain engine health, lifespan and vehicle or equipment uptime.
In a traditional heavy duty vehicle, air flows in the system from the outside environment, through a filter, and then into the combustion chamber where it is mixed with fuel and ignited – the resulting by-product is pushed out by the exhaust system.
Proper air-to-fuel ratios are essential for efficient internal combustion engines. Poor combustion overworks engines, creating harmful implications for fuel consumption, and overall engine health.
Proper airflow ensures optimum combustion in an engine, helping it work less for more power.
Lower probability for misfires and better initial combustion at start-up help keep engines operating as needed.
Efficient combustion helps prevent abrasion and wear on common engine components.
Maintaining clean airflow is one of the most critical aspects of engine performance. As a result, and maybe not so surprisingly, dirty air or poor airflow can be extremely dangerous to engine and vehicle performance.
When speaking to customers, here are a few of the most common signs that their air filter performance is lacking. These are the key points that they will be sensitive to when discussing their filter needs, and solving them represents some of the greatest value air filters can provide.
Particulate entering an engine can cause severe abrasion on the moving parts of an engine, such as piston rings and cylinder walls.
Improper fuel-air ratios can result in increased fuel consumption to power the vehicle.
A restricted air filter can result in reduced engine power and a severely restricted air filter can lead to engine stall. This leaves drivers and operators stuck on the road or site, and prevents normal operation.
The air filter is the last line of defense for a vehicle’s air system. It acts as a barrier that keeps dust, dirt and debris found in an operating environment from entering an engine, preventing damage and promoting combustion.
Quality air filters, such as those offered by Luber-finer, protect diesel engines and increase operating efficiency while also helping to increase fleet profitability.
Filter Changes
Labor Costs
Downtime
The diagram below represents a standard radial seal air filter. Other filter types may feature different components. Click on individual filter components to learn more about their function and construction.
A standard air filter is equipped with two rubber gaskets, both engineered to create a seamless fit between the filter’s components and an engine’s system.
One of these gaskets acts much like a spacer or washer between the filter’s closed end and the lid of an air filter housing. This helps ensure that the filter does not slip in the housing during vehicle or equipment use.
The other gasket fits between the housing and the air intake tube. This gasket creates a complete seal around the air intake tube, and ensures that air cannot flow directly into the engine without entering the filter first.
Each gasket is also equipped with a rigid metal end cap designed to fit tightly on each end of a filter’s media.
The expanded metal center core of an air filter ensures that a filter can maintain an ideal physical form throughout its life.
Constant exposure to high air pressures creates the potential for filter media to warp, rip or tear during use. Luber-finer’s carefully engineered metal mesh core helps ensure that these potentially catastrophic issues cannot occur during normal use.
Much like the metal center core, the outer body is a wire mesh cylinder designed to maintain the physical integrity of a filter. The outer body is designed to help prevent rips and tears in the media.
The pleated filtration media is the component primarily responsible for stopping dirt, dust and debris from passing through a filter housing and into an engine.
Luber-finer’s media is specifically engineered for the rigorous environments common to heavy duty applications. Available with and without innovative MXM Nano Tech™ synthetic coating, all of Luber-finer’s media options offer high initial and overall filtration efficiency, along with high maximum dust-holding capacity.
A standard air filter is equipped with two rubber gaskets, both engineered to create a seamless fit between the filter’s components and an engine’s system.
One of these gaskets acts much like a spacer or washer between the filter’s closed end and the lid of an air filter housing. This helps ensure that the filter does not slip in the housing during vehicle or equipment use.
The other gasket fits between the housing and the air intake tube. This gasket creates a complete seal around the air intake tube, and ensures that air cannot flow directly into the engine without entering the filter first.
Each gasket is also equipped with a rigid metal end caps, designed to fit tightly on each end of a filter’s media. They provide additional structural and sealing support.
The primary component of an air filter that drives filter performance and protects an engine is its media. Luber-finer offers 2 types of media, both of which offer exceptional particulate capturing efficiency and capacity.
Luber-finer’s cellulose media has been rigorously tested to capture up to 99.9% ** of airborne particulate, which makes it one of the most effective standard filters on the market.
**Tested per ISO 5011 model LAF1849.
Luber-finer’s specially engineered synthetic media is developed to enhance efficiency applied as a secondary layer on top of standard cellulose media, filters equipped with synthetic media help Luber-finer customers capture even more performance.
Luber-Finer Offers both Standard and Premium Air Filters:
Equipped with Luber-finer’s cellulose media, our standard air filters remove up to 99.9% of all airborne contaminants. Through our standard air filter line, we offer comprehensive coverage, with products engineered to meet the unique form and fit of most heavy duty vehicles and equipment – on, and off, the road.
The innovative MXM NANO TECH™ Air Filter delivers high-efficiency filtration that protects a truck’s engine from dust and contaminants while increasing uptime.
MXM NANO TECH™ Air Filters utilize a technologically advanced synthetic fine “NANO TECH” fiber layer, setting it apart from standard cellulose air filters. The fine fiber layer creates a substantially finer filtration mesh resulting in higher initial and overall efficiencies.
With Luber-Finer® MXM NANO TECH™ Air Filter
Download a PDF of the MXM Filters Brochure
efficiency would mean that a filter allows no particulate to enter the engine.
Air filters are judged by two primary metrics, one of which is efficiency. An air filter’s efficiency is the measure of the amount of contaminants that a filter can reliably capture and prevent from entering an engine.
Changing air filters once capacity is reached is vital to maintain engine efficiency and health. If a filter is subjected to additional use beyond its capacity, airflow to the engine can be impeded, dramatically preventing proper combustion. Or, even more dangerously, an air filter left in place well beyond its capacity can rupture, allowing unfiltered air - and the particulate it carries - straight into an engine.
While not something that can be easily measured, the fit and seal of a filter to its housing and manifold is critical to its overall performance. If fit or seal is compromised, the potential exists for air to enter an engine unimpeded without ever going through a filter’s media.
Maintaining clean airflow is one of the most critical aspects of engine performance. As a result, and maybe not so surprisingly, dirty air or poor airflow can be extremely dangerous to engine and vehicle performance.
When speaking to customers, here are a few of the most common signs that their air filter performance is lacking. These are the key points that they will be sensitive to when discussing their filter needs, and solving them represents some of the greatest value air filters can provide.
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Many large fleets make air filter replacement part of their normal maintenance routines, and will often change air filters in their vehicles in accordance with predefined maintenance intervals (PMI’S). We’ll learn more about these intervals, and how they are calculated in the section below.
However, owner operators - and in many cases - drivers who operate under dry conditions or in places with high levels of air pollutants, will often judge when they need to replace a filter using an air restriction gauge.
The Luber-finer Filter Minder® Air Filter Gauge can be used to measure the amount of restriction placed on the air that travels through a vehicle’s air system. This gauge provides a numerical reading of how well air is flowing into an engine, which is affected by filter health.
“Acceptable” restriction readings can vary greatly by vehicle, but these gauges represent an excellent way to assess the current effectiveness of an air filter. While not all vehicles are equipped with an air gauge, referencing gauges and their use can be an excellent way to remind customers that they should be regularly monitoring their air filter replacement schedules.
Air filter replacement intervals are calculated in much the same manner as oil filter replacements. Most customers have a predefined maintenance interval, that is typically calculated in miles driven (on-highway) or hours of runtime (off-highway). To calculate air filter consumption over a period of time, you can use the following equations.
However, it should be noted to customers that air filter life can be dramatically affected by environmental conditions.
Dry, dusty climates can create significantly more airborne particulates than other climates, and trucks that consistently travel at higher speeds will see more air pushed through a filter than vehicles with different applications.
With this in mind, it is critical that customers pay close attention to environmental conditions when thinking about their fleet's filter needs.
Thank you for participating in LFU Module 3. We hope you have learned about the importance of air filter replacement. Please take the quiz and then you will have the ability to print your “Certificate of Completion for Module 3”
