Hino Motors has been awarded a U.S. patent for an emissions control device its inventor says, “can be favorably mounted on a vehicle without causing relative twisting between a particulate filter and a selective reduction catalyst.”
According to the patent abstract, inventor Masahiro Kimura says the invention is essentially a particulate filter and a selective reduction catalyst arranged downstream of the particulate filter and capable of selectively reacting NO.sub.x with ammonia even in the presence of oxygen are housed by casings, respectively, and arranged side by side such that inlet ends of the particulate filter and the selective reduction catalyst are oriented to one and the same direction, an S-shaped communication passage being provided for introduction of the exhaust gas from an outlet end of the particulate filter to the inlet end of the adjacent selective reduction catalyst through antithetical turnabout, urea water being addible intermediately of said communication passage, characterized in that the casings for the particulate filter and selective reduction catalyst are integrally restrained by rigid restraining members.
Thus, the particulate filter and selective reduction catalyst are integrally restrained through the casings by the rigid restraining members to cause no relative twisting therebetween, so that prevented upon mounting of the device on a vehicle is breakage due to stress concentration to connections and curved portions of the communication passage which interconnects the particulate filter and the selective reduction catalyst.
