the filter media and has a round cross section the areas of contact between the preformed metal coil and the filter media have minimal stress while the areas of most contact are greatly expanded when compared to the prior art arrangement of surrounding the filter media with an expanded metal screen accordingly when the filter element 10 is pulsed as in fig5 there is minimal interference with material being blown off the dirty exterior face 18 of the filter media 12 by using the preformed metal coil manufacturing advantages result the preformed metal wire coil 50 is produced by a wire coil machine at the front of the production line the wire coil machine is programmed to produce the wire coil of a selected length and diameter and simply spits out the selected spring design and welds the ends 73 and 75 with the welds 76 and 77 of fig7 and 8 the assemblers drop the pleated filter media 12 into the inner space provided by the preformed metal coil 50 and the end caps 26 and 36 with the end cap adhesive 32 and 40 are installed and heat cured to complete the filter element 10 preferably the end caps 26 and 36 are installed by placing the filter media 12 with the preformed metal coil 50 therearound on one of the end caps with the axis 16 extending vertically this end cap is then bonded to the.