Patent 9441526 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on September, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A regeneration device that performs regeneration treatment of a particulate matter removing filter estimates a trapping amount of particulate matter trapped in the filter by two systems. Specifically, there are provided an estimating unit that estimates a first estimated trapping amount based upon a rotational speed of an engine and a fuel injection quantity and an estimating unit that estimates a second estimated trapping amount based upon a differential pressure across the particulate matter removing filter. The regeneration device determines whether or not the regeneration treatment is executed based upon whether or not at least one of the two estimated trapping amount is equal to or more than a preset trapping amount threshold value. Further, the regeneration device determines that there is a malfunction in the regeneration device in a case where the second estimated trapping amount is larger than the first estimated trapping amount.