NONWOVEN, MELT BLOWN FLUID FILTRATION MEDIA WITH INTEGRAL CO-LOCATED SUPPORT AND FILTRATION FIBERS, FILTER CARTRIDGES EMPLOYING, AND METHODS AND APPARATUS OF MAKING, THE SAME

Filtration medium is formed of a mass of non-woven melt blown support and filtration fibers which are integrally co-located with one another. The support fibers (32) have, on average, relatively larger diameters as compared to the filtration fibers (30) which are integrally co-located therewith. Preferably the filtration medium is disposed within at least one annular zone of a filtration element, for example, a disposable cylindrical filter cartridge having an axially elongated central hollow passageway (12) which is surrounded by the filtration media. A depth filter cartridge in accordance with the present invention may thus be formed having one or more additional zones (Z1, Z2, Z3) (which additional filtration zones may or may not respectively be provided with integrally co-located support fibers) in annular relationship to another. As result of the melt blown, non-woven fiber structure in accordance to the invention whereby at least one filtration zone is comprised of relatively larger diameter support fibers integrally co-located with relatively smaller diameter filtration fibers, a filter cartridge having a wide range of "engineered" physical properties (e.g. in terms of filtration, pressure drop tolerance and the like) can be provided.