A honeycomb formed body containing a ceramics raw material, the honeycomb formed body including: a pillar shaped honeycomb structure portion having a plurality of rectangular cells, the cells being defined by partition walls and extending from a first end face to a second end face to form flow paths; an outer peripheral portion having outer peripheral portions X where the partition walls are covered with an outer peripheral wall; and outer peripheral portions Y where the partition walls are exposed. Each of the outer peripheral portions X includes a tapered portion having a gradually deceasing thickness of the outer peripheral wall toward a boundary portion with an adjacent outer peripheral portion Y. The tapered portion requires a length equal to or more than one time of an average cell pitch in the outer peripheral direction until thickness of the outer peripheral wall is halved.

A honeycomb formed body containing a ceramics raw material, the honeycomb formed body including: a pillar shaped honeycomb structure portion having a plurality of rectangular cells, the cells being defined by partition walls and extending from a first end face to a second end face to form flow paths; an outer peripheral portion having outer peripheral portions X where the partition walls are covered with an outer peripheral wall; and outer peripheral portions Y where the partition walls are exposed. Each of the outer peripheral portions X includes a tapered portion having a gradually deceasing thickness of the outer peripheral wall toward a boundary portion with an adjacent outer peripheral portion Y. The tapered portion requires a length equal to or more than one time of an average cell pitch in the outer peripheral direction until thickness of the outer peripheral wall is halved.

A decorative concrete with a very uniform finish surface and a method of fabricating the same is disclosed. A concrete mixture is poured over a subgrade which defines an exposed surface. The exposed surface is finished with any of several techniques, and the surface is then worked with an abrasive material, and additional techniques are used to color and seal the concrete.

A decorating machine particularly for the decoration of ceramic products, and a method for realizing a belt for decorating said ceramic products, wherein the machine comprises: a closed loop belt (3) for the transfer of a decoration (9) on a receiving surface (11) of a ceramic product; a plurality of conveyor rollers (2) about which said belt (3) is wound and moved in rotation; at least one of said conveyor rollers (2) comprises a central portion (12) and two end portions (14) opposite one another, at least one of said end portions (14) being free in rotation with respect to the other said portions (12, 14).

A method is provided in which a resin coating is applied to a surface of a preform. The resin coating includes a carbonaceous resin and a particulate. The preform is added to a tooling. The preform, which is positioned in the tooling, is cured. The tooling is removed. The resin coating on the surface of the preform is pyrolyzed to form a resin carbon-char layer on the surface of the preform. The preform and the resin carbon-char layer are infiltrated with silicon to form a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) component including a layer of silicon carbide. During the infiltration, the silicon reacts with carbon in the resin carbon-char layer to form the layer of silicon carbide on the preform.

A method for producing microencapsulated fuel pebble fuel more rapidly and with a matrix that engenders added safety attributes. The method includes coating fuel particles with ceramic powder; placing the coated fuel particles in a first die; applying a first current and a first pressure to the first die so as to form a fuel pebble by direct current sintering. The method may further include removing the fuel pebble from the first die and placing the fuel pebble within a bed of non-fueled matrix ceramic in a second die; and applying a second current and a second pressure to the second die so as to form a composite fuel pebble.

A honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb structure body including porous partition walls defining a plurality of cells serving as fluid passages extending from an inflow end face to an outflow end face. The partition walls have a porosity of 45 to 65%; the open frontal area of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more, of the pores open on the surface of each partition wall, is 20 to 50%; the pore density of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more is 200 to 1,000 pores/mm.sup.2; the median opening diameter of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more is 40 to 60 μm; the circularity of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 μm or more is 1.8 to 4.0; and the partition walls have a wet area of 16,500 μm.sup.2 or more.

A system for delivering and applying a flowable mixture to an article (311-313) is disclosed. The system includes a mixture delivery system (200) and a skinning system (300). The mixture delivery system (200) includes a mixer (220) configured to mix a dry material and a fluid to produce the flowable mixture, and a pump (235) configured to pump the flowable mixture to a delivery line. The skinning system (300) receives the flowable mixture from the mixture delivery system (200) through the delivery line. The skinning system (300) includes a skinning pipe (310) configured to apply the flowable mixture to the article (311-313) and a manifold (305) that supports the skinning pipe (310). The skinning system (300) also includes an article feeding mechanism (315) configured to push the article (311-313) into the skinning pipe (310). The skinning system (300) includes a transfer system (320) configured to hold the article (311-313) and move the article (311-313) out of the skinning pipe (310).

In a process for manufacturing a catalytic converter component, a ceramic unit is used that has been prepared by extruding green ceramic product through a die to form an extrusion having a honeycomb substrate structure in which tubular passages extend along the extrusion, the passages bounded by walls dividing adjacent passages from one another. The unit is obtained by cutting off a length of the extrusion and curing and firing it. The process further comprises flowing insulation material from one end of the unit into selected ones of the elongate passages, vaporizing a moisture content of the insulation material to form pores and curing the insulation material by using microwave irradiation to solidify the pores. The passages are selected so that the cured insulation material forms an internal thermal insulating barrier between a core zone of the unit and a radially outer zone of the unit.

Process for the production of a hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding, where a hydrophilic thermal-insulation moulding is brought into contact with a hydrophobizing agent in vapour form with formation of a thermal-insulation moulding coated with hydrophobizing agent, and this is then subjected to a press process and during the press process and/or after the press process is reacted with the hydrophobizing agent with formation of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding, where a) the density of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding after the press process and after the reaction with the hydrophobizing agent is from 100 to 250 kg/m.sup.3, and b) the density of the hydrophilic thermal-insulation moulding on contact with the hydrophobizing agent is from 50% to less than 100% of the density of the hydrophobic thermal-insulation moulding.