Patent 8003191 was granted and assigned to NGK Insulators on August, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Disclosed is a honeycomb structure capable of preventing the generation of cracks in buffer portions and preventing the honeycomb structure from being divided when an operation (regeneration) of burning collected particulate matters is repeated. A honeycomb structure 100 includes a plurality of honeycomb segments 4 having partition walls 2 separating and forming a plurality of cells, and protruding walls 3 which are provided so as to protrude externally from partition walls 2a forming side surfaces 5 of the segments. The plurality of honeycomb segments 4 are arranged adjacent to one another so that the side surfaces 5 of the honeycomb segments face each other with a predetermined distance being left therebetween, each buffer portion 11 is disposed between the adjacent honeycomb segments 4 to join the honeycomb segments 4 together, and an outer peripheral portion 13 is disposed on an outermost periphery 12.