Patent ID: 7722827

Claim:
A flow-through ceramic substrate particularly adapted for use as a catalytic converter, comprising: a body of ceramic material having axially opposing inlet and outlet ends for receiving and expelling a flow of gas, respectively, and containing a network of walls that define axially-oriented cell channels extending unobstructed from the inlet end to the outlet end in a direction of an axis of the body, wherein a thickness of the network of walls increases in a radial direction from a centroid of the ceramic substrate and the axially oriented cell channels decrease in cross-sectional area in the radial direction from the centroid to encourage the flow of gas through the centroid, wherein the average thermal mass (ATM 1 ) of a first axial region of said walls adjacent to said inlet end is less than the average thermal mass (ATM TOT ) of all of said walls, and wherein a second axial region of said walls is axially contiguous with said first axial region, and the average thermal mass (ATM 1 ) of said walls in said first axial region is less than the average thermal mass (ATM 2 ) of said walls in said second axial region.