Cordierite ceramic honeycomb of low thermal expansion and method for manufacturing the same

Abstract

A low thermal expansion cordierite ceramic honeycomb is obtained by controlling crystal phases in such a manner that a cordierite crystal phase is not lower than 60% and an indialite crystal phase is not greater than 30%, wherein a sum of the cordierite crystal phase and the indialite crystal phase is not lower than 85%. Moreover, to this end, a method of producing the low thermal expansion cordierite ceramic honeycomb, having the steps of mixing raw materials and forming agents to obtain a raw materials batch, extruding and drying the raw material batch to obtain a formed body, and sintering the formed body, is characterized in that, during the sintering step, a temperature descending rate at least from a maximum temperature to 1300° C. is not greater than 100° C./hour.

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