The Development of an Automotive Catalyst using a Thin Wall (4 mil/400cpsi) Substrate

Since the monolithic ceramic substrate was introduced for automotive catalytic converters, the reduction of the substrate wall thickness has been a continuing requirement to reduce pressure drop and improve catalytic performance. The thin wall substrate of 0.10 mm (4 mil) thick wall/400 cpsi cell density has been introduced to production by achieving mechanical strength equivalent to a conventional 0.15 mm (6 mil)/400 cpsi substrate. Although a round cross-section substrate can have a reduced catalyst volume compared to an oval cross-section substrate because of uniform gas flow distribution, the smaller cross-section of the round substrate increases pressure drop. The thin wall technology was applied to the round substrate to offset the pressure drop increase and to further improve catalytic performance. The 1290 cm³ catalytic converter with a round thin wall substrate demonstrated pressure drop and catalytic performance equivalent to the 1650 cm³ converter made with an oval type conventional substrate. The thin wall substrate also demonstrated improvement in thermal shock resistance compared to the original oval catalyst.