Yet another piece of the automobile as we've known it seems will soon become ancient history -- good ol' spark plugs.
----- Last May, at the international Conference on Lasers and Electro- Optics, a joint Japanese/Bulgarian team of researchers introduced ceramic based lasers that are compact, durable and powerful enough to be used to ignite a fuel/air mixture in a combustion engine. At the time, the researchers announced that they were working with spark plug maker Denso on commercializing the idea. That announcement was followed up by word that Mazda=92s next generation =9316X=94 rotary engine will exploit the compact size of those laser igniters. Now Michigan auto supplier Federal Mogul has released news about a US patent on their Advanced Corona Ignition System, or ACIS. Instead of a spark (or laser) the ACIS uses a high-intensity burst of plasma to ignite the fuel.
The corona can be controlled more than an electrical spark, allowing it to spread across the combustion chamber, resulting in a more complete burn. Federal Mogul says that using ACIS will improve fuel mileage by as much as 10% over conventional spark plug ignition, in part due to greater timing precision. That precision is said to be synergistic with direct injection. ACIS will also, F-M claims, allow leaner fuel/air mixtures, and cooler running engines. Because they don=92t erode with use as conventional spark plugs do, the corona igniters will supposedly have longer service lives. No time frame for commercialization of the ACIS system was announced.