Corning Incorporated

Douglas A Aranda

Paul S Schmitt

Thomas Adam Collins

Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a catalytic converter for purifying exhaust gases from an internal combustion engine wherein the converter exhibits a monolithic ceramic substrate surrounded by a supporting mat. The method generally includes the steps of: Forming a catalytic converter utilizing a compressive closing method generally involves wrapping the substrate in a sufficient amount of supporting mat material and inserting the wrapped substrate into generally cylindrical metal container, compressively closing the container around the wrapped substrate sufficiently to provide a gas tight seal and to hold the imparted compressive stress. The present invention further discloses an improvement involving compressively closing the container around the wrapped substrate by resizing the container over substantially the entire portion of its length which is occupied by the wrapped substrate to a predetermined metal shell/container outside diameter OD. The predetermined outside diameter is characterized by the equation OD&equals;D&plus;2T &plus;2T , wherein D is a diameter measure of the substrate, T is the supporting mat target thickness and T is a container wall thickness measure.

Method of making a catalytic converter for use in an internal combustion engine

The invention is directed at a method of manufacturing these catalytic converters having non-round honeycomb substrates and comprises the following steps: (1) wrapping a non-round monolithic ceramic substrate, having a major and minor orthogonal axis, in a sufficient amount of the supporting mat material whereby the substrate's peripheral surface is substantially covered; (2) inserting the wrapped substrate into a metal shell, having a plurality of nodal points, which substantially surrounds the wrapped substrate; (3) placing the metal shell in a resizing die having a plurality of fingers, and associated gaps therebetween, extending axially along substantially the entire surface of the metal shell whereby the nodal points of the metal shell are positioned along a portion of a die finger and the placement of the metal shell and wrapped substrate, within the resizing die is such that the axes of the resizing die are angularly offset from the major and minor axes of the substrate; (4) compressively closing the container around the wrapped substrate by displacing the fingers of the resizing die radially inward to provide a gas tight seal and to hold the compressive stress by; and, (5) securing the metal shell to provide a gas tight seal and to hold the compressive stress.

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Lindley, NY, United States of America

Douglas A Aranda