Provided are an inorganic fiber-formed article having both high basis weight and excellent peel strength and a mat for an exhaust gas cleaning apparatus and an exhaust gas cleaning apparatus including the inorganic fiber-formed article. The inorganic fiber-formed article includes inorganic fibers and needle marks extending in the thickness direction and including vertical bundles composed of the inorganic fibers extending in the thickness direction, in which the average volume of the vertical bundles per needle mark measured by a prescribed peel test is 1.0 mm.sup.3 or more.

The invention relates to a tank insert module (1) for extracting liquid from a vehicle tank, comprising a basic body (2) composed of a plastic, on which basic body are arranged a liquid extraction device (23), which comprises an extraction opening (4) which can be assigned to the tank interior space, and at least one electric heating element (7), wherein the electric heating element (7) comprises a heating body (8) with an extrusion-coated plastic encapsulation (9). It is provided here that the plastic encapsulation (9) has a plastic which can be welded to the basic body, in particular high-density polyethylene, and/or the same plastic as the basic body (2), and also at least one filler material with high thermal conductivity, and is welded to the basic body (2) at at least one contact point (17). The invention also relates to a liquid tank for vehicles.

In an exhaust pipe spherical joint X, a spherical annular seal member 36 is fitted and fixed to a pipe end portion 42, the spherical annular seal member 36 is seated by abutting against a flange 43, a flared portion 47 formed of an FeCr base stainless steel and containing 17.00 to 19.00% by mass of Cr is secured to a downstream-side exhaust pipe 44, and an inner surface 48 of a concave spherical surface portion 45 is brought into slidable contact with a composite surface 40 in which a surface 38 constituted by a reinforcing member 5 and a surface 39 constituted by a solid lubricant are present in mixed form in an outer surface 37 of an outer layer 35 of the spherical annular seal member 36.

A muffler for internal combustion engines including a hollow body having an inlet opening and an outlet opening, an inlet pipe extending into the hollow body through the inlet opening an outlet pipe extending out of the hollow body through the outlet opening, wherein the hollow body is formed by a material comprising a fiber lining and a composite structure, and wherein the fiber lining partially penetrates the composite structure.