New Technology with Porous Materials; Progress in the Development of the Diesel Vehicle Business
The long time of twenty years has passed since Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) was proposed before the practical use. The main factors that DPF has been put to practical use in this time, are the same time proposal of the evaluation method of SiC porous materials linked to the performance on the vehicle, and that the nature of thermal shock required for the soot regeneration (combustion of soot) in the DPF is different from the conventional requirement for the rather rapid thermal shock. For the requirements, these include demonstrating utmost the characteristic of SiC’s high thermal conductivity, and overcoming the difficulty of thermal expansion of SiC-DPF by dividing the filter into segments binding with the cement of lower Young’s modulus, and the innovation of technology around the diesel exhaust system such as Common-Rail system. As the results of these, the cumulative shipments of SiC-DPF have reached about 13 million, and it goes at no claim in the market.