while back there was some fram talk
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/82782.html so i emailed it to fram here is what they had to say. thought it sounded cheesie. thought you might find it interesting
Mr. Robinson:
Thank you for the e-mail regarding the construction and quality of Fram oil
filters. We welcome the opportunity to be of
service.
Fram filters meet the requirements of the original equipment filter designed for
a specific engine. Our filter
applications follow the recommendations of the vehicle manufacturer for form,
fit, and function. Fram filters follow
internally targeted design guidelines to meet the functional requirements of a
given filter. Fram filters are tested
against SAE standards to ensure uniform product quality and performance.
Material construction will vary between filter
manufacturers. We believe Fram filters have a proven record for providing
reliability, superior quality, and engine
protection over the service life of the filter. It is not the policy of this
office to debate the opinions, statements,
or studies made by individuals, expressed in articles, or presented on websites.
We welcome the opportunity to enlighten
you on the subject of Fram filter construction.
A common misunderstanding among our customers concerns the end disks in the oil
filter. These disks hold the glue which
keeps the pleated media formed into a rigid circular tube. The glue-to-media
interface is also one of the sealing
surfaces keeping dirty and filtered oil from mixing. One common myth is that
only metal end disks can adequately seal
and have enough strength in the hot oil environment. For this reason, Fram
filters are criticized for having cardboard
end disks. The issue is, the material doing the sealing is the adhesive,
regardless of the material of the end disk.
What matters is the strength of the adhesive, its proper curing, the
thoroughness with which it can be applied to the
disk, and its adhesion to the disk. By using cardboard end disks, Fram filter
engineers are able to specify adhesives
with excellent strength and sealing properties, and strong adhesion to the disk
(intuitively, it is easy to make a
strong glue bond with cardboard). Moreover, just as paper media itself is able
to withstand the hot oil environment, so
too is the end disk designed of fibers engineered to be strong and inert in hot
oil. The thickness and strength of the
adhesive also stiffens the end disk considerably.
How do Fram engineers test these end disks to know that they hold up on the job?
Not only do they perform hot oil
circulation tests on the filter element, but they also regularly cut open used
filters to examine how well they have
withstood the rigors of actual use on a vehicle. For over 38 years, Fram end
disks have stood up to hot oil and their
adhesives have sealed off the dirty oil.
The anti drain back valve system provides a robust and effective seal between
the tapping plate and the cartridge
assembly. The tapping plate has a coined area within .005 inches flat to seal
directly against the molded Nitrile anti
drain gasket. The cardboard end disk is loaded against the opposite end of the
anti drain gasket to create a seal. The
myth is that cardboard and metal seal against each other. In fact, the Nitrile
rubber anti drain gasket comes between
the two. The leaf spring retainer creates a load of 70 lbs. to seal the anti
drain back gasket to the end disk on one
side and the tapping plate on the other. Tests performed (by Fram engineers in
accordance with SAEHS806 procedures) on
Fram and competitive brand filters found that Fram filters consistently have the
lowest or one of the lowest leak rates
for the anti drain back valve system.
Another commonly-held belief is that the amount of filter paper (media) in a
filter, as measured by its surface area, is
the sole determinant of filter capacity. For example, people will cut open a
filter, stretch out the media, and measure
how many square inches it is. This theory holds that the more square inches of
media, the more capacity. Thus, the
proponents of this theory believe that through a simple visual inspection of one
aspect of a filter's media, its length
and width, they can tell its relative ability to hold dirt. Plainly stated, they
believe that more paper surface means
more area to trap dirt. What they neglect in this analysis is that the depth of
the media also determines the surface
area available to trap dirt, and they neglect the complicated way that dirt
flows through the media and either becomes
lodged or doesn't. In fact, not only depth but also the actual fiber structure
in the media play an important role in
determining how much dirt a filter can trap before it becomes clogged. For this
reason, filter experts do not rely on a
visual inspection of any one aspect of filter media to tell its performance.
They perform industry-accepted tests. For
capacity, that test is described by SAE HS806, written by the Society of
Automotive Engineers. Only by running oil
filters through this test procedure can their relative dirt-holding capacities
be determined.
When looking at test results and square inches of media used by various
manufacturers, it is clear that some filter
manufacturers adopt a strategy of using media with a structure, composition, and
depth that are less able to hold
quantities of dirt, but by packing more of that media into the filter housing
they bring the overall filter capacity up
to an acceptable level. At Fram, the filter engineers have always worked to
optimize the media's ability to hold dirt.
Consequently, they can use less of the media in the housing but still achieve
high capacity. The only industry-accepted
way to measure the filter capacity is with testing performed to SAE HS806
specifications.
Fram bypass valves are made of glass filled Nylon. They have withstood hot oil
durability testing of 1,000,000 opening
cycles at 275 degrees (F). The valves are 100% inspected to assure they are
properly assembled and have no molding
defects that would impair their operation.
We believe Fram filters are clearly the best filters available. Fram is
committed to standing behind and endorsing it's
products and filter recommendations listed in the current Fram application
catalogs. As part of this commitment, if you
should ever have reason to suspect or question the quality of a Fram filter, we
encourage you to contact the Fram
Product Evaluation Team toll free at 1-877-250-8361 for further assistance.
Thank you for choosing Fram filters.
Cordially,
Scott Jacobs
Catalog/Technical Service Representative
Catalog/Technical Services Department
Linear Mode
