Fuel evaporator for internal combustion engine

Claim 1

A fuel evaporator for heating fuel in an air-fuel mixture to be supplied to an engine so as to promote the evaporation of fuel, comprising: a heater means which is disposed in an air-fuel mixture passage of said engine so as to cross said passage; said heater means being composed of a plurality and an odd number of stacked ceramic plates, each of which has a plurality of open holes directing in the axial direction of said passage and communicating with open holes of adjacent ceramic plates, and electrodes which are provided on the upstream end surface and the downstream end surface of said stacked ceramic plates and between the opposed surfaces of adjacent ceramic plates; every other electrodes being connected to form two groups of electrodes; a first group of electrodes being connected to a positive pole of an electric source while a second group of electrodes being connected to a negative pole of said electric source; and a supporting member for supporting said heater means; said supporting member being formed of thermally and electrically insulating material into an annular body, of which the outer peripheral portion is fixed to the wall defining said air-fuel passage of said engine, and the inner peripheral portion retains the outer peripheral portion of said heater means.