Patent ID: 8893383

Claim:
A method for compressing a mat of an exhaust gas cleaning device having a catalyst, comprising the steps of: providing the exhaust gas cleaning device with the mat wrapped around the catalyst; providing a plurality of pressers obtained by dividing a cylinder into an even number of four or more pieces to provide a set of odd-numbered pressers and a set of even-numbered pressers, the plurality of pressers being integrally connected to respective ones of a plurality of rods movably mounted to a base; positioning the exhaust gas cleaning device relative to the base so that each of the plurality of pressers is disposed in spaced-apart, confronting relation relative to an external periphery of the mat; while each of the plurality of pressers is disposed in spaced-apart, confronting relation relative to the external periphery of the mat, performing a primary compression step of compressing the mat by moving only the rods corresponding to the set of odd-numbered pressers relative to the base to cause only the set of odd-numbered pressers to move forward into contact with the external periphery of the mat; and performing a secondary compression step of compressing the mat by moving the rods corresponding to the set of even-numbered pressers relative to the base to cause the set of even-numbered pressers to move forward into contact with the external periphery of the mat while a compressed state is maintained by the set of odd-numbered pressers.