Heat insulating device for an engine exhaust system

Claim 1

In combination, a catalytic converter with an exhaust pipe for connection to an automotive internal combustion engine, a heat-insulating panel located beneath the catalytic converter and having two opposite sidewalls spaced laterally from respective sides of the catalytic converter and having a bottom wall integral with the sidewalls and spaced apart from a bottom surface of the catalytic converter and facing toward the surface of the ground when mounted in an automotive vehicle, a plurality of louver-shaped, slanted, parallel fins formed integrally with the bottom wall of the heat-insulating panel and defining openings through said bottom between next adjacent fins, each of said fins having a horizontal portion spaced inwardly from said bottom wall in a direction toward said catalytic converter and having a slanted portion between the horizontal portion and the bottom wall, the horizontal portion of each fin constituting an integral horizontal extension of the corresponding slanted portion, the fins being arranged spaced from each other in a longitudinal direction of the converter and heat-insulating panel.