Caterpillar Aftertreatment Regeneration Device III

An number of developments related to the Cat's ARD have occurred since this topic was visited in February.

First, a patent application by Cat was disclosed in March (US 2010/0071355) that seems to be directly tied to problem of holes developing in the ARD body. The patent application is for a flame deflector that is intended to prevent the flame from touching the body of the ARD and possibly the outlet pipe. It states that the flame from the burner may damage the exhaust pipe. Cat and DOE did a significant amount of work to develop a new material for the ARD body that can withstand temperatures up to 850°C suggesting that in use, the ARD can occasionally produce conditions outside its design and validation limits.

Another development is the filing of a lawsuit in March against Cat, a Cat distributor and a truck dealer by Miller Curtis & Weisbrod LLP of Texas on behalf of three Oklahoma-based trucking companies [http://www.catengineproblems.com]. The suit claims the ARD is major source of problems, breakdowns and productivity loss for truck owners. "ARD head clogging" is mentioned as one problem. Others are invited to join the suit.