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Spark Plugs: Function

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Cristian Quituizaca
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76 views

Spark Plugs: Function

Uploaded by

Cristian Quituizaca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
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178 Spark plugs Function

Spark plugs
The air/fuel mixture in the gasoline, or Spark plugs must be designed to ensure pos-
spark-ignition, engine is ignited electrically. itive insulation between spark and cylinder
Electrical energy drawn from the battery is head while also sealing the combustion
temporarily stored in the ignition coil for chamber.
this purpose. The high voltage generated
within the coil produces a flashover be- In combination with engine components,
tween the spark-plug electrodes in the en- such as the ignition and mixture-formation
gine’s combustion chamber. The energy systems, the spark plug plays a crucial role
contained in the spark then ignites the in determining operation of the gasoline
compressed air/fuel mixture. engine. It must
 facilitate reliable cold starts,
 ensure consistent operation with no igni-
Function tion miss throughout its service life, and
 not overheat under extended operation
The function of the spark plug is to intro- at or near top speed.
duce the ignition energy into the gasoline
engine’s combustion chamber and to pro- To ensure this kind of performance
duce a spark between the electrodes to initi- throughout the spark plug’s service life,
ate combustion of the air/fuel mixture. the correct plug concept must be established
early in the engine-design process. Research
investigating the ignition process is em-
ployed to determine
1 Spark plug in a gasoline engine the spark-plug
concept that will
provide the best
emissions and most
consistent engine
operation.
An important
spark-plug parame-
ter is the heat range.
The right heat range
prevents the spark
plug from overheat-
ing and inducing
the thermal auto-
ignition that could
lead to engine dam-
age.
æ UMZ0336Y

K. Reif (Ed.), Gasoline Engine Management, Bosch Professional Automotive Information,


DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-03964-6_13, © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2015
Spark plugs Usage 179

Usage Variety of types


The engine of 1902 delivered only about
Areas of application 6 HP for each 1000 cc of displacement.
Bosch first used a spark plug in a passenger Today’s comparable figure is 100 HP, with
car in 1902, when it was installed in a system up to 300 HP available from racing engines.
featuring magneto ignition. The spark plug The technical resources invested in engi-
then went on to become an unparalleled neering and producing the spark plugs
success in automotive technology. that allow this performance is enormous.
The first spark plug was expected to ignite
Spark plugs are used in all vehicles and ma- 15 to 25 times per second. Today’s spark
chinery powered by gasoline engines, both plugs must ignite five times as often. The up-
2-stroke and 4-stroke. They can be found in per temperature limit as risen from 600 °C to
 Passenger cars approximately 900 °C, and the ignition volt-
 Commercial vehicles age from 10,000 V to up to 30,000 V. Whereas
 Single-track vehicles (motorcycles, today’s spark plugs must function for at least
scooters, motor-assisted bicycles) 30,000 km, original spark plugs had to be
 Ships and small craft replaced every 1000 km.
 Agricultural and construction machinery
 Motor saws Although the spark plug’s basic concept has
 Garden appliances (e.g., lawnmowers), changed little in the course of 100 years, in
etc. this period Bosch has designed more than
20,000 different types to meet the needs of
To accommodate the wide array of potential various engine configurations.
applications, more than 1200 different spark The current spark-plug range continues
plug designs are available. to embrace a wide array of models. The
Because multi-cylinder passenger-car en- spark plug is subject to immense demands
gines require at least one plug per cylinder, in the areas of
it is in this sector that most spark plugs are  electrical and
used.  mechanical performance, as well as
Motorized machinery, because of the  resistance to chemical and
lower engine power, usually relies on a sin-  thermal loads.
gle-cylinder engine needing only a single
spark plug. In addition to satisfying these performance
Within Europe, most commercial vehicles criteria, the spark plug must also be matched
– at least in heavy-duty applications – are to the geometrical conditions defined by the
powered by diesel engines, which limits the individual engine (e.g, spark-plug length
demand for spark plugs in this segment. in the cylinder head). Combined with the
In the US, however, gasoline engines are extensive range of engines being manufac-
also the most prevalent powerplants in tured, these requirements make it necessary
heavy vehicles. to offer a wide variety of spark plugs. Bosch
currently supplies more than 1250 different
spark-plug types, all of which must be avail-
able to service workshops/garages and com-
mercial distributors.

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