A particulate filter and method of manufacture. The particulate filter comprises a ceramic honeycomb body comprising a plurality of intersecting walls that define a plurality of channels extending longitudinally though the ceramic honeycomb body. The intersecting walls comprise a porous ceramic material having a microstructure that comprises an interconnected network of porous spheroidal ceramic beads. The microstructure has a total porosity defined as the sum of an open intrabead porosity of the beads and an interbead porosity defined by interstices between the beads in the interconnected network. The microstructure has a bimodal pore size distribution in which an intrabead median pore size of the intrabead porosity is from 1.5 μm to 4 μm and an interbead median pore size of the interbead porosity is from 6 μm to 20 μm.

A honeycomb structure includes a central area and a reinforced outer peripheral area. For a boundary cell having cell walls with different wall thicknesses on two sides parallel with an imaginary parallel line, a thin wall thickness t1<a thick wall thickness t3, an inner wall thickness t2<an outer wall thickness t4, t1=t2, and t3=t4. The honeycomb structure includes a cross-shaped unit having a thin wall, an inner wall, a cell wall, and a cell wall and a cross-shaped unit having a thick wall, an outer wall, a cell wall, and a cell wall. The honeycomb structure also includes cross-shaped units extending vertically and horizontally from alternate cell vertexes arranged from a cell vertex as a starting point. In the central area and the reinforced outer peripheral area, the cell walls of each cross-shaped unit have a substantially equal wall thickness.

A method and extrusion die to form a laminar integral skin of a honeycomb structure is provided. The method includes extruding a ceramic precursor batch through a die with feedholes in entry side and slots in exit face of the die to form the honeycomb structure. In a region on the periphery of the die configured to form the cell matrix, a series of concentric slots around the matrix in the exit face of the die are configured to feed skin onto the matrix. Ring sections between concentric slots are angled away from the center and a mask is disposed on top of the periphery producing a channel for extruded skin to meet and bond to extruded matrix. Optionally, slots in the skin-forming ring sections enhance knitting between laminar skin layers.

Disclosed is a ceramic honeycomb structure comprising a honeycomb body and a multilayered outer layer formed of a thick core layer applied and rapidly dried and a thin clad layer dried more gently to form a crack free dual skin layer. The core layer may have properties that are closer to those of the ceramic honeycomb body in service than the clad layer that may provide a tough outer shell to withstand handling and assembly.

A honeycomb structure includes a honeycomb segment bonded member including; a plurality of prismatic columnar shaped honeycomb segments; and a bonding layer bonding the segments, wherein one honeycomb segment has a bulge on one side face, extending in an axial direction, another honeycomb segment has a recess on one side face, extending in the axial direction, the one honeycomb segment and the another are disposed adjacent and bonded to each other via the bonding layer with the bulge inserted in the recess, length of the bulge is smaller than length of the one side face of the one honeycomb segment, length of the recess is smaller than length of the one side face of the another honeycomb segment, a base part of the bulge is defined with a bent side face, an angle between an imaginary bottom face and the bent side face of the bulge being 60° or more.

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.

The honeycomb structure includes a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure body, and a circumferential coating layer disposed to surround a circumference of the honeycomb structure body, and cells which are formed at an outermost circumference of the honeycomb structure body and in which peripheries of the cells are defined by the partition walls without any lacks are defined as outermost circumference complete cells, and in a cross section of the honeycomb structure body which is perpendicular to an extending direction of the cells a minimum distance T (mm) among distances from the outermost circumference complete cells to the surface of the circumferential coating layer and a porosity P (%) of the circumferential coating layer satisfy relations of Equation (1) and Equation (2) as follows:

1.5≧T≧16×(100−P).sup.−1.4; and  Equation (1):

20≦P≦75.  Equation (2):

In a porous composite, a base material has a honeycomb structure whose inside is partitioned into a plurality of cells. In the plurality of cells, a plurality of first cells whose one ends in the longitudinal direction are sealed, and a plurality of second cells whose other ends in the longitudinal direction are sealed are arranged alternately. A collection layer covers inner surfaces of the plurality of first cells. An overall Sa that is an arithmetical mean height Sa indicating a surface roughness of a surface of the collection layer in the plurality of first cells is greater than or equal to 0.1 μm and less than or equal to 12 μm. An overall mean thickness that is a mean thickness of the collection layer in the plurality of first cells is greater than or equal to 10 μm and less than or equal to 40 μm.

A method and extrusion die to form a laminar integral skin of a honeycomb structure is provided. The method includes extruding a ceramic precursor batch through a die with feedholes in entry side and slots in exit face of the die to form the honeycomb structure. In a region on the periphery of the die configured to form the cell matrix, a series of concentric slots around the matrix in the exit face of the die are configured to feed skin onto the matrix. Ring sections between concentric slots are angled away from the center and a mask is disposed on top of the periphery producing a channel for extruded skin to meet and bond to extruded matrix. Optionally, slots in the skin-forming ring sections enhance knitting between laminar skin layers.

A ceramic honeycomb body comprising a peripheral skin layer and a fiber extending around the outer periphery of a honeycomb core, the fiber embedded in the peripheral skin layer is described. A method of making a honeycomb body having a fiber extending around the outer periphery of a honeycomb core and embedded in the peripheral skin layer is also described.