Mazda Motor Corporation

Hisashi Sera

Shinobu Miyaura

Tomotaka Hirota

Hiroshi Murakami

Toshiyuki Okabe

Eiichiro Kawano

A catalyst carrier assembly for an automobile exhaust gas purifying device includes a smooth metal sheet and a pre-corrugated metal sheet wound alternately in a roll having a number of honeycomb convolutions. Each corrugation of the web-like pre-corrugated metal sheet is welded to the flat metal sheet at a plurality of points in the transverse direction during forming of the cylindrical roll. After forming the cylindrical roll, the cylindrical roll is heated so as to solder the web-like flat metal sheet and the web-like pre-corrugated metal sheet to each other at both of their end portions.

Catalyst for exhaust gas purification

A layout structure of catalytic converters, used for an engine transversely arranged in an engine room formed in a front portion of a vehicle, includes a front catalytic converter connected to an exhaust manifold arranged in a forward direction of the vehicle with respect to the engine, and a rear catalytic converter connected to an exhaust manifold arranged in a backward direction of said vehicle, wherein the rear catalytic converter is arranged to be offset from a central position of the engine arranged along a widthwise direction of the vehicle by a predetermined distance. With this structure, the rear catalytic converter can be cooled in the same manner as the front catalytic converter. In addition, the rear catalytic converter is formed into a cylindrical member having an elliptic/oval cross-sectional shape with a major axis coinciding with a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, thus increasing the area of a heat-dissipating surface of the rear catalytic converter. With this structure, heat dissipation can be promoted, and cooling air can be quickly exhausted through a tunnel portion continuous with the engine room after a cooling operation.

Layout structure of catalytic converters

An exhaust system for an engine having two groups of cylinders includes a small capacity catalytic converter disposed in an exhaust manifold for one group of cylinders and a larger capacity catalytic converter disposed in an exhaust manifold for another group of cylinders. The exhaust system also includes a primary catalytic converter, having a capacity larger than both the small and larger catalytic converters, disposed in an exhaust pipe commonly connected to the exhaust manifolds.

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Hisashi Sera