Heat shield for exhaust system

Abstract

The shield has a housing enclosing part of the exhaust system and including air vents to enable hot air from the exhaust to escape from the housing. A base of the housing includes a tiered discharge plate arrangement having at least two tiers of vertically spaced plates. The tiered arrangement has a lower tier in the form of a continuous plate and an upper tier vertically spaced above the lower tier which has a large opening allowing debris which has entered the shield to fall onto the lower tier for discharge from the housing over a first edge of the lower tier through a first gap between the first edge and an adjacent wall of the housing. The upper tier has a second edge which overhangs the first gap at least partially covering the gap to prevent debris from entering the housing from below.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.