Clothes dryer apparatus with improved lint removal system

Abstract

A method and apparatus for removing lint from air that is discharged from a clothes dryer uses a lint filtration housing mounted on the frame of the clothes dryer, the filtration housing having an interior that contains a filter for removing lint from the dryer exhaust air flow stream. The housing provides an influent fitting for transmitting heating exhaust air from the drying chamber to the housing interior. An ambient air supply enables ambient air to be added to the filtration housing interior. One or more vanes is provided that create an annular vortex within the filtration housing interior. The flow of the annular vortex within the filtration housing interior can be between about 500 and 3,000 cubic feet per second. A flow line transmits pre-heated air from the filtration housing interior to the dryer interior.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.