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.

A plugged honeycomb structure in which in a cross section of a honeycomb structure body which is perpendicular to an extending direction of cells, inflow cells are disposed to surround an outflow cell, and the number of the inflow cells is larger than the number of the outflow cells, and the cross section has a plurality of intersecting portions of partition walls each defining the inflow cells which are adjacent to each other, and in 60% or more of a total number of the intersecting portions, a relation between a diameter (D.sub.1) of a circle inscribed in the intersecting portion and a diameter (D.sub.0) of a circle inscribed in the partition wall defining the inflow cell and the outflow cell which are adjacent to each other satisfies D.sub.1/(2D.sub.0)=1.20 to 1.80

Microwave drying of ceramic honeycomb logs using a customizable cover that can take the form of a flexible wrap or a rigid cover is disclosed. The cover can be in the form of a wrap disposed directly in contact with the leading edge of the log surface. The cover can also be a rigid cover disposed adjacent but not in contact with the leading edge of the log surface. At least a portion of the trailing edge of the log can remain uncovered either by having windows in the wrap or by the rigid cover only covering the leading edge of the log surface. The customizable cover can be configured to compensate for log shape deformities as well as or in addition to the adverse effect on log shape cause by the drying differential created by passing a log through a microwave drying station leading-edge first.

A device and a method for heating and curing artificial stone with microwave are provided. The device includes a microwave curing cavity, within which an incompletely cured artificial stone is placed, and microwave is used to heat the artificial stone to completely cure the artificial stone; wherein, a frequency of the microwave is in a range of 3001120 MHz. The present disclosure provides a separately designed microwave curing cavity, and utilizes 3001120 MHz microwave having a large penetrating depth, to realize a rapid curing of a large-sized artificial stone.

Systems and methods for rapid drying of ceramic greenwares having a high graphite content are disclosed. The methods include employing microwave drying to bring the dryness of the ceramic greenware to a first select dryness and then employing close-coupled hot-air drying to bring the dryness to the final target dryness. The judicious use of close-coupled hot-air drying reduces end defects due to unevenness in the microwave drying process while also substantially speeding up the drying process. Various configurations for and combinations of microwave drying and close-coupled hot-air drying are disclosed.

A method for drying a honeycomb formed body, the honeycomb formed body being an unfired honeycomb formed body including a raw material composition containing a ceramic raw material and water, the method including: a dielectric drying process of obtaining a primary dried honeycomb formed body from which 30 to 70% of entire moisture contained in the unfired honeycomb formed body before the drying is removed by performing dielectric drying on the unfired honeycomb formed body while maintaining a temperature of a central portion of the unfired honeycomb formed body at 100 C. or less; and a microwave drying process of obtaining a honeycomb dried body from which residual moisture is removed by performing microwave drying on the primary dried honeycomb formed body obtained in the dielectric drying process.

A carrier (230) for a honeycomb body (220) and a method for manufacturing a honeycomb body(220) are provided. The carrier (230) comprises a first side support (234), a second side support (236), and a flexible sheet (240) suspended between the first (234) and second (236) side supports for supporting the honeycomb body (220). The method comprises placing a green honeycomb body (220) on the flexible sheet (240) and transporting the green honeycomb body (220).

A system (2) for extruding and drying an extruded honeycomb body (14) which has channels (18) that extend in a longitudinal direction (L) and which channels (18) are each bounded by first channel walls (20a) that extend in a first direction (A) which is transverse relative to the longitudinal direction (L), and by second channel walls (20b) that extend in a second direction (B) in which is also transverse relative to the longitudinal direction (L) comprises: (i) an extruder (16) having an extrusion head (17) for producing the honeycomb body (14) by extrusion; (ii) a microwave oven (4) comprising an arrangement of a plurality of microwave radiators (6), each microwave radiator being for irradiating the honeycomb body with a directional microwave beam in an irradiation direction (S); and (iii) a feed unit (12) adjoining the extruder (16) for transferring the honeycomb body from the extruder (16) into the microwave oven (4), wherein either: (a) the extrusion head (17) of the extruder is oriented in such a way that during operation of the system the orientation position of the extruded honeycomb body (14) resulting from the extrusion when transferred into the microwave oven (4) is such that the irradiation direction (S) of each microwave radiator (6) is oriented at a predefined irradiation angle (a) which is not zero relative to each of the two transverse directions (A, B) of the first and second channel walls (20a, 20b); GBor (b) the system (2) is designed to sense the orientation of the first and/or second channel walls (20a, 20b) of the honeycomb body produced by the extruder and to move the honeycomb body and/or a microwave radiator (6) into a set point orientation such that the irradiation direction (S) of each microwave radiator (6) is oriented at a predefined irradiation angle (a) which is not zero relative to each of the two transverse directions (A, B) of the first and second channel walls (20a, 20b).

A method for manufacturing a honeycomb structure, includes: a step of manufacturing a honeycomb formed body to manufacture a non-fired honeycomb formed body having volume of 7 L or more; a drying step of drying the manufactured non-fired honeycomb formed body to obtain a honeycomb dried body; and a firing step of firing the obtained honeycomb dried body to obtain a honeycomb structure. The drying step includes: an induction drying step to obtain a first dried honeycomb formed body by removing 20 to 80% of the entire water that the non-fired honeycomb formed body contained before drying, and a microwave drying step to obtain a honeycomb dried body by removing the residual water. The honeycomb dried body subjected to this microwave drying step is obtained by removing 90% or more of the entire water that the non-fired honeycomb formed body contained before drying.

A gaseous emissions treatment component is made by extruding a green ceramic mix through a die to form an extrusion having a honeycomb substrate with elongate cells extending its length and with the cells bounded by walls dividing adjacent cells from one another. Molten metal for use in induction heating of the component is placed in selected cells and is solidified by cooling.