Manufacturing apparatus of plugged honeycomb structure and manufacturing method of the same

A manufacturing method of a plugged honeycomb structure to plug cells of a honeycomb structure having porous partition walls and a plurality of cells partitioned by the partition walls to extend through the honeycomb structure from one end face of the honeycomb structure to the other end face thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

• inserting the end of the honeycomb structure into a through hole of a table portion having the through hole to position the honeycomb structure so that the end face of the honeycomb structure covered with a film appears on the side of the first face of the table portion;
• using a film holding portion having a protruding portion that axially overlaps the side of the second face of the table portion to pinch and secure the remaining portion of the film which does not cover the end face on the side of the second face of the table portion to hold the film, and constituting the film provided with holes corresponding to openings of a part of the cells as a mask or making holes in the film to constitute the film as the mask;
• supplying a plugging material having fluidity onto the mask or the same plane as the mask;
• and filling the plugging material into the cells of the honeycomb structure.