Lasers Could Replace Spark Plugs!

[juntzo]

Cool!

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384258,00.asp

Lasers Could Replace Spark Plugs

Japanese researches have developed laser igniters to eventually replace spark plugs in automobile engines, creating cleaner and more efficient vehicles.
With the laser igniters, drivers can say good goodbye to the 150-year-old spark plug technology that frequently causes engines not to start in extreme temperatures. No more coming out to the car on a freezing winter morning to find out that the darn thing won't start.
Spark plugs are key to starting an internal combustion engine, which have been around since the 1850s and power our cars, motorcycles, and lawn mowers. The spark plugs ignite the air-fuel mixture in an engine's cylinder with small, high-voltage electrical sparks, creating an explosion that forces the pistons into motion and generating horsepower.
Researches from Japan have announced the creation of a laser that's small enough to replace the spark plug, while also creating cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles. While spark plugs ignite the air-fuel mixture closest to them and flame becomes quenched by the surrounding cold metal, the new lasers would be able to focus the their beams directly into the center of the air-fuel mixture and the flame front will expand more symmetrically and up to three times faster than spark plugs.
"Timing–quick combustion–is very important. The more precise the timing, the more efficient the combustion and the better the fuel economy," said one of the presentation's authors, Takunori Taira of Japan's National Institutes of Natural Sciences. He went on to say that the lasers inject their energy within nanoseconds, compared with milliseconds for spark plugs.
In addition to reducing the amount of nitrogen oxides emissions from engines and improving fuel efficiency, according to Taira, the new laser system is made from ceramics and could be produced inexpensively in large volumes.
The laser-ignition system has not been installed in actual automobiles made in a factory, as the team has tested dual-beam laser at 100 Hz, but a commercial automotive engine requires 60 Hz.
The team is continuing to develop the technology and working with a large spark-plug company and with DENSO Corporation, a member of the Toyota Group.
The research team will also present the technology at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in Baltimore on May 1-6

[badkuk]

read about this too. Not sold on the idea though -- my impression is that lasers are precision(read: sensitive) equipment, not really sure how it will do inside a combustion chamber.