Patent ID: 7458154

Claim:
The method of producing a catalytic element for conditioning the exhaust of an internal combustion engine, comprising the steps of: providing a supply of wire; forming the wire into a fabric sheet by one of the methods consisting of braiding, knitting, or weaving; forming raised areas by deforming the fabric sheet into features consisting of rows of parallel alternating ridges and pleats, said features being oriented at an angle relative to the length of the fabric; arranging only two of said deformed fabric sheets face-to-face to form a two-ply substrate material; rolling said two-ply substrate material into a cylindrical shape with the features of each sheet running counter-directional to the other so that no pleat of one sheet nests with any pleat of the other sheet; applying solder to said cylindrical substrate; compressing said cylindrical substrate axially to significantly reduce its volume and increase its density; and applying heat to melt said solder and thereby fuse said wires while said cylindrical substrate is held in a compressed state.