Patent ID: 8435025

Claim:
A honeycomb extrusion die apparatus including a die body, the die body comprising: an inlet end; a discharge end opposite the inlet end in an extrusion direction; an inlet region beginning at the inlet end and defining a plurality of feedholes extending from the inlet end; and a discharge region terminating at the discharge end, the discharge region including a plurality of die pins with each die pin including an end face positioned along a discharge face of the die body, the die pins including side walls defining an intersecting array of discharge slots extending into the die body from the discharge face, each discharge slot including an open end and an expanded area defined between corresponding side walls of adjacent die pins, wherein the expanded area is flared inwardly in the extrusion direction and wherein the discharge slots connect with the feed holes at feed hole and discharge slot intersections at an interface within the die body between the inlet region and the discharge region, wherein the die pins include a longitudinal section and a root segment, the longitudinal section at least partially defining the expanded area and the root segment disposed between the longitudinal section and the feed hole and discharge slot intersections, wherein the longitudinal section includes a transverse width that is less than a transverse width of the root segment; and wherein the plurality of die pins include a first set of die pins circumscribed by a second set of die pins, at least a portion of the end face of die pins of the second set of die pins are positioned along a peripheral surface extending at an oblique angle with respect to the extrusion direction, and a lateral width of the open end of a plurality of discharge slots defined by the second set of die pins is larger than a lateral width of the open end of a plurality of discharge slots defined by the First set of die pins; and wherein the open end of at least some of the discharge slots defined by the second set of die pins intersect the expanded area of the corresponding discharge slot.