Electrically heated catalytic converter for an engine

摘要

The electrically heated catalytic converter of the present invention includes a catalyst substrate, which is formed as a scroll-like cylindrical laminated assembly. The assembly is formed by laminating a thin corrugated and plain metal sheets and winding the metal sheets together around a center electrode. The outermost layer of the laminated assembly is connected to an outer electrode. The corrugated metal sheet has an insulating coating made of an alumina, and the plain metal sheet is uninsulated. Local conductive connections form between the thin metal sheets by soldering strips of zirconium solder foils between the layers of the thin metal sheets. Since zirconium has a larger reducing capability than aluminum, the alumina in the insulating coating is reduced by zirconium and precipitates at the local conductive connections. Therefore, the plain and corrugated metal sheet are electrically connected to each other at the local conductive connections. The solder foils in the respective layers are arranged in a configuration where a strip of solder foil in one layer overlaps with strips of solder foils in adjoining layers only at its ends, and does not overlap with strips of solder foils in the adjacent layers when viewed radially. Since the solder foils overlap only by a small area, electric current flowing through the local conductive connections concentrates in the overlap area and produces hot spots. The overall resistance of the electric paths can be adjusted by varying the solder strip length.