Patent ID: 8591287

Claim:
A method of fabricating a honeycomb extrusion die comprising the steps of: providing a die body including an inlet end and a discharge end opposite the inlet end in an extrusion direction; providing the die body with a plurality of feed holes extending from the inlet end and configured to receive batch material; providing a grinding wheel including a plurality of blades spaced from one another and concentrically aligned along a rotation axis of the grinding wheel; rotating the grinding wheel about the rotation axis and moving the grinding wheel along a first directional axis while contacting the discharge end of the die body such that a plurality of a first set of parallel extrusion slots are simultaneously machined into the discharge end of the die body by the blades of the grinding wheel; and rotating the grinding wheel about the rotation axis and moving the grinding wheel along a second directional axis intersecting the first directional axis while contacting the discharge end of the die body such that a plurality of a second set of parallel extrusion slots are simultaneously machined into the discharge end of the die body by the blades of the grinding wheel, wherein the die body is provided with a honeycomb pattern of extrusion slots formed from intersecting extrusion slots from the first and second set of parallel extrusion slots, and wherein the honeycomb pattern of extrusion slots are connected with the feed holes such that the die body is configured to extrude a honeycomb body from batch material being fed through the feed holes and extruded through the honeycomb pattern of extrusion slots.