A method of manufacturing a honeycomb body, comprising extruding honeycomb extrudate (200) in an axial direction (A), the honeycomb extrudate (200) having an outer periphery (206); and laser machining in situ the honeycomb extrudate (200) to form a laser cut in the honeycomb extrudate. A system for in situ cutting a wet green ceramic extrudate, comprising a laser (500, 732, 826) configured to irradiate laser energy to an outer periphery of a wet green ceramic article, the laser energy adapted to cut through at least a portion of the outer periphery (206).

A polymer masonry unit (PMU) and methods and systems for forming PMUs are presented. In embodiments, a PMU may be made from a PMU mixture of a polymer, a quarry byproduct, such as a limestone aggregate, and water. The PMU may be ambient-dried to become a brick unit. The proportions of the PMU mixture may include 1-10% polymer, 80-90% quarry byproduct, and 1-10% water. The process for making a brick using the PMU of embodiments may avoid a kiln-firing process, which is costly, creates waste, and consumes significant energy. Furthermore, the PMU mixture may be formulated to enable the PMU mixture to be extruded from an extruder, enabling a system for making bricks to take advantage of the extrusion method, which can be very efficient and cost-effective for making bricks, and which is currently not possible with existing techniques and systems.

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 m 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 m 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 m or more is 40 to 60 m; the circularity of the pores having an equivalent circle diameter of 10 m or more is 1.8 to 4.0; and the partition walls have a wet area of 16,500 m.sup.2 or more.

Provided is a honeycomb fired body in which the pressure loss in the initial state where PM has not accumulated is sufficiently low, the strength is sufficiently high, and the heat capacity is not small. The honeycomb fired body of the present invention is a honeycomb fired body including a plurality of cells in each of which one end is plugged and which serve as channels of exhaust gas, and porous cell partition walls that define the cells, wherein the honeycomb fired body is formed of SiC, the plurality of cells include peripheral cells located at an outermost peripheral region of the honeycomb fired body and inner cells located more inward than the peripheral cells, all the inner cells have the same cross-sectional shape that is a rectangle in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction thereof, each peripheral cell is defined by the cell partition walls and an outer wall forming a periphery of the honeycomb fired body, the cell partition walls in contact with the outer wall each have a thick wall region where the wall thickness gradually increases toward the outer wall, the cross-sectional shape of the peripheral cells in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction thereof is a shape formed by reducing the rectangular cross-sectional shape of the inner cells to obtain a reduced rectangle and chamfering or rounding two corners of the reduced rectangle, the cross-sectional area of each peripheral cell in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction thereof is 60 to 80% of the cross-sectional area of each inner cell in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction thereof, the cell partition walls include inter-peripheral-cell cell partition walls each located between the peripheral cells and inter-inner-cell cell partition walls each located between the inner cells, and the minimum thickness of the inter-peripheral-cell cell partition walls is greater than the thickness of the inter-inner-cell cell partition walls.

A honeycomb structural body includes: a porous cell wall that partitions a cylindrical casing; and a large number of cells extending in the axial direction X thereof and alternately blocked at an upstream end face. The large number of cells include plugged cells having plugs and penetrating cells that do not have the plugs. The plugged cells and the penetrating cells both include complete cells and incomplete cells. At least some of plugged incomplete cells of the incomplete cells have a cross-sectional area smaller than a cross-sectional area of penetrating complete cells, and are configured as blocked cells that are entirely blocked inside in the axial direction.

The cutting method of a honeycomb formed body includes an end face cutting step of cutting both end faces of the ceramic honeycomb formed body before fired, by use of blade type rough-cutting grinding wheels in which coarse abrasive grain layers are formed; a honeycomb formed body rotating step of rotating the honeycomb formed body round a rotation axis which is a central axis perpendicular to the end faces of the honeycomb formed body; and an end face finishing step of disposing two finish-polishing grinding wheels via a predetermined distance so that finishing abrasive grain layers formed in the finish-polishing grinding wheels face each other, rotating the finish-polishing grinding wheels round a rotary shaft which is a central shaft of the finish-polishing grinding wheels, and moving the honeycomb formed body to pass the honeycomb formed body between the two finish-polishing grinding wheels, thereby finish-polishing cut surfaces which are cut.

A system (100) and method to control rheology of ceramic pre-cursor batch during extrusion is described herein. An extrusion system (100) comprises an extruder (122) with an input port (144) configured to feed ceramic pre-cursor batch into a first section (120) of an extruder barrel and a discharge port configured to extrude a ceramic pre-cursor extrudate (172) out of the extruder barrel downstream of the input port (144). A liquid injector (210) is configured to inject liquid into the ceramic pre-cursor batch. A sensor (106) is configured to detect a rheology characteristic of the ceramic pre-cursor batch. A controller (108) is configured (i) to receive the rheology characteristic from the sensor (106), (ii) compare the rheology characteristic to a predetermined rheology value of the ceramic pre-cursor batch, and (iii) generate a command based on the comparison. A liquid regulator (110) is configured to receive the command and adjust liquid flow to the liquid injector (210) based on the command.

Methods of manufacturing honeycomb-structure-forming extrusion dies having a number of slots for use in producing extruded articles having complex honeycomb patterns and extrusion dies for use in the manufacture of extruded honeycomb bodies. The method includes inserting a die insert having a runner and a number of teeth into a slot of an extrusion die such that each of the teeth blocks at least a portion of the slot of the extrusion die. The method further includes separating the runner from the teeth so that the teeth remain within the slot of the extrusion die.

An extrusion system (100) includes at least one sensor (102, 104) to detect localized presence of oil (701) on an exterior surface (715) or skin of wet extrudate material (714 e.g., ceramic material having a honeycomb cross-sectional shape), and at least one infrared emitting device (106, 108) configured to impinge infrared emissions on at least a portion of the exterior surface responsive to one or more sensor signals. Localized impingement of infrared emissions may reduce presence of oil streaks (701) without undue differential drying of the extrudate skin (715), and avoid surface fissures that would otherwise result in fired ceramic bodies. Separately controllable infrared emitters (502), or at least one controllable infrared blocking or redirecting element (603), may be used to impinge infrared emissions on selected areas. A humidification section (120) arranged downstream of infrared emitters (106, 108) may be used to at least partially rehydrate the wet extrudate material, if necessary.

A device for stabilizing a concrete form includes an anchoring member with a channel aligned along a first axis, and elongate members with cavities aligned along a second axis, the elongate members coupled to form a frame. The device may include an anchoring post for insertion through the channel of the anchoring member to secure the device to a surface, and sliders with elongate bodies for insertion into the cavities of the elongate members, where the sliders are affixed to an engagement member structurally configured for engaging the concrete form. First retaining members may be structurally configured to engage the anchoring post when inserted through the channel of the anchoring member thereby maintaining a position of the frame along the first axis. Second retaining members may be structurally configured to engage a slider when inserted into the elongate member thereby maintaining a position of the slider along the second axis.