Method of making a porous dimensionally stable heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant plate-like structure

A method of making a porous dimensionally stable heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant packing of contiguous plate-like structures for mass exchange and heat exchange processes, said method comprising the steps of

• obtaining a plurality of flat structures of glass filaments with open meshes;
• impregnating each structure with a binder capable of stiffening each structure on drying;
• thereafter shaping each structure into a corrugated form while drying each structure to stiffen each structure and retain the corrugated form;
• assembling the corrugated structures together to form a packing;
• immersing the assembled corrugated structures into a ceramic substance to form a coating which is capable of being fired on the corrugated structures;
• and
• thereafter firing the coated assembled structures at a temperature sufficient to form a solid skin of the ceramic substance to envelope the glass filaments and to define a skeleton-like supporting structure with each structure defining a plurality of flow paths and with open meshes in each structure, said temperature being at least in the range of the melting temperature of the glass filaments to cause the individual adjacent corrugated structures to fuse together at intersecting points of contact.