What is Ignition: Definition and 65 Discussions

An ignition system generates a spark or heats an electrode to a high temperature to ignite a fuel-air mixture in spark ignition internal combustion engines, oil-fired and gas-fired boilers, rocket engines, etc. The widest application for spark ignition internal combustion engines is in petrol (gasoline) road vehicles such as cars and motorcycles.
Compression ignition Diesel engines ignite the fuel-air mixture by the heat of compression and do not need a spark. They usually have glowplugs that preheat the combustion chamber to allow starting in cold weather. Other engines may use a flame, or a heated tube, for ignition. While this was common for very early engines it is now rare.
The first electric spark ignition was probably Alessandro Volta's toy electric pistol from the 1780s.
Siegfried Marcus patented his "Electrical igniting device for gas engines" on 7 October 1884.

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  1. Cyrus

    What Are the Differences Between Magneto and Ignition Coil Systems in Vehicles?

    Im trying to find out the difference. It seems that an ignition coil converts the cars battery voltage from 12V to several thousand volts; whereas, a magneto creates several thousand volts without any input from the aircrafts battery.
  2. V

    Compression Ignition Engines: Converting kmol/kmol to kmol/kg Fuel

    Hey guys, Just trying to understand this piece of information I have been given. It is for a compression ignition engine. I can see where they get the 115.954 kmol/kmol fuel and 120.204 kmol/kmol fuel from but don't understand how to change the units 0.7027 kmol/kg fuel and 0.7285 kmol/kg...
  3. S

    Beam-break sensors for ignition delay measurement

    Hi all.. I have been working on a project which involves the measurement of ignition delay of fuel droplets using optical sensors of the beam-break type. What my project supervisor has asked me to do is to fabricate an apparatus in which such measurements could be made. The basic principle...
  4. J

    Capacitance Discharge Ignition System

    Dear friends, I am building a CDI system to ignite fuel mixtures in a pressure chamber for flame speed measurements. I need a capacitor of about 5 nF, but it should hold up to 10 kV. Any suggestions on where I can get those. I also need a diode (rectifier) for 10 kV. Also I need high...
  5. D

    Electronic Firework Ignition System

    I want to use a 50-pin cable to ignite e-matches connected to fireworks. The e-matches require about 1 Amp to ignite. The individual conducting wires in the cable are obviously very thin, and thus can't conduct a continuous 1 Amp current. My question though is this: can the very thin conducting...
  6. M

    Can Capacitors Give My DIY Ignition System a Boost?

    I am going to try to build an electrical ignition system similar to an Estes rocket ignition system. The idea is simple enough, just run a bunch of current through a wire until it heats up, but it gets harder if you want to do this from a safe distance away from what you are igniting or you...
  7. Orion1

    National Ignition Facility (NIF)

    The genesis of this design as described to me is a single 980 nm Pump Diode which is fiber-optically split into 192 fiber-optical 'beam lines' using a Fiber Bragg Grating. The 'laser amplifiers' then amplifies this pulse more than 1 million times which is propagated to the target chamber. The...
  8. S

    Direct injection spark ignition with gasoline engine

    If someday complete direct injection spark ignition with gasoline engine with Otto cycle is achieved so that very high pressure ratios are possible, what would be the impact on the automotive industry?
  9. P

    Questions About Shifting & Ignition Keys

    I was wondering, anyone who know about cars and such, is it hard on your transmission to shift it while you're moving? I do it all the time, but my don't-abuse-transmission-crazy dad yells at me and says it is, but I've seen it done before many times, and they keep right on going. And I mean...
  10. Q

    Ignition Temp: Gasoline vs. Ethanol?

    Does gasoline have a higher ignition temperature then ethanol? (all other things being equal like pressure) Also does a higher ignition temperature mean that it will produce more energy upon combustion? Thanks in advance.
  11. A

    Understanding Dwell Time in Electronic Ignition Systems

    Hey people, been getting very annoyed for the past few hours over this one been looking through all my textbooks and all over the net but can't find a decent explanation of dwell time. Here's my question, Explain dwell time in the context of electronic ignition systems (non-contact breaker...
  12. A

    Dwell Time in Non-Contact Breaker Points Ignition Systems

    Hey people, been getting very annoyed for the past few hours over this one been looking through all my textbooks and all over the net but can't find a decent explanation of dwell time. Here's my question, Explain dwell time in the context of electronic ignition systems (non-contact breaker...
  13. K

    Voltage pulse from ignition coil ?

    Voltage pulse from ignition coil ?? Hi, Does anyone know the voltage of the pulse from a typical ignition coil? thanks. tyler
  14. O

    Supernova Ignition: Does Blackhole Mass Influence Star Formation?

    I have been reading up on some theoretical ideas for supernovai etc..etc It is interesting that there may be some correllation between Blackholes and AGN, and consequently Stars going Supernova. Does anyone know if what I am going to state has been looked into? It seems probable that...
  15. T

    Nuclear ignition of gas giant atmospheres

    Out of curiosity, can you produce a self perpetuating nuclear fusion chain reaction - in effect a new sun - by dropping a nuclear bomb deep into the atmosphere of a hydrogen rich gas giant? If a powerful enough weapon was fired on a non-hydrogen atmosphere like Earth's, bearing in mind that...
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