Automobile engines operating with power generated by pressure occurring due to combustion of a fuel-air mixture including air in a combustion chamber of a cylinder include intake devices, which intake air from outside of the engine, mixes the air with a fuel, and transfers the formed fuel-air mixture to the engine. An intake device may include an air filter for filtering and removing impurities such as dust included in air intaken by negative pressure of an engine. The air filter filters impurities (dust, moisture, etc.) included in intaken air and supplies the filtered air to a cylinder. In addition, the air filter reduces intake noise and prevents abrasion of components of an air intake system and oil contamination by blocking a combustion flame upon the occurrence of a backfire.
Supply of clean air by such an air filter is important with regard to an engine lifespan extension, an output increase, a fuel efficiency increase, etc. Meanwhile, research into accomplishing maximum filtering efficiency considering an output decrease of an engine due to intake resistance and noise generation is underway.
However, in the case of existing air cleaners, an exchange cycle of an air filter is relatively short in a high-dust environment, thereby increasing maintenance costs. In addition, ultrafine micrometer-scale dust is not normally filtered and dust collected from air may escape from, and pass through, the air filter.
Therefore, there is a need for a novel air filter to enhance a lifespan of a filter by increasing a collection amount of fine dust per unit area while preventing an escape of dust from the filter, which is collected from intake air.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.