Process and an arrangement for producing a supporting body for a catalytic reactor

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention relates to a process and an arrangement for producing a supporting body for a catalytic reactor for purifying exhaust gas, particularly of internal-combustion engines in motor vehicles.
More specifically, the invention relates to such process and arrangement in which corrugated or corrugated and smooth metal strips are wound or folded to form adjacent layers and are provided with slots extending transversely to their longitudinal direction.
A process of this type is known from German unexamined published Application (DE-OS) No.
33 11 654 in which a catalyst supporting body is wound up spirally from smooth and/or corrugated sheet metal strips, which body is then fastened in a casing tube.
The thus created ring-type composite of the supporting body is then provided with slots in the area of the wound metal strips by means of known cutting and removing methods, such as laser bean cutting or spark erosion.
These slots extend through the wound part of the supporting body in the longitudinal direction and are arranged approximately radially or in the direction of filaments.
By means of this measure, the interior ring-type composite can be divided into several sectors or segments which are free of a tension or stress-generating thermal expansion.
It is known that supporting bodies for catalytic reactors, during operation, can be heated by means of the catalytic conversion of the exhaust gas, from an operating temperature of approximately 500.
degree.
C.
locally over more or less large areas to temperatures of over 900.
degree.
C.
However, the thick-walled casing tube surrounding them retains its relatively low operating temperature of approximately 300.
degree.
C.
for a longer period of time.
The thermal stress which may therefore be expected and which may result in a detaching of the wound body from the casing tube, can be avoided by the arrangement of such slots.
The disadvantage of this above-noted arrangement resides in the relatively high expenditures for arranging such slots