This is really, really cool.
http://www.jimonlight.com/2009/08/06/laser-spark-plugs/

 

Did you get me sharks with Lazer beams on their heads?!

 

Jeez! a high powered lazer and tiny fragile fiber optic cables? sounds stupidly expensive! Plus the lens that focuses the beam will quickly get dirty and lose focus in the enviroment of a combustion chamber. Youll be pulling out the lens assembly and cleaning it off at every fill up!

 

You sound like somebody who is familiar with lasers. I work for a company called LasX Industries (www.lasx.com) so I can recognize many many ways why this is boooooogus.

Every time you split a laser beam it looses energy through absorbtion and reflection. Also it is difficult and expensive to split a beam so the wattage is dead even on each beam. having an uneven split could cause uneven fuel burning.

Fiber optic cables are horribly suceptable to movement or vibrations and you'd have to change them on a regular basis. Or more likely a laser tech would have to thermally bond new fiber units to the laser head (using molten glass)

Lasers are very suceptible to temperature changes. Most don't like to be used at anything other than room temp.

In order to effectively focus the beam to a pinpoint in the center of the combustion chamber you'd have to start with a raw beam about as large as the cylinder bore. Also VERY expensive

Lasers are HORRIBLY ineficient at making a beam. it takes 50-100 times the electrical energy to make a beam than the wattage you get out of the beam.

I could go on for pages but I can imagine that most have you have stopped reading already. It's a cool concept but it would NEVER be practical. PS check out the website it's got a cool vid of a laser system I designed.

 

I kind of thought It wouldnt really work out that well. But how about my shark with the frickin lazer beam on its frickin head? lol

 

Alright, so maybe its a long way down the road, but if they do pull it off and meet the claims that similar articles include, it would be incredible. Yeah, maybe its bogus now, it isn't even 2020. But this sort of exploration into making a cleaner vehicle doesn't deserve ridicule. The active medium inside a laser can be insulated, and in a device capable of creating a focused beam capable of ignition, it probably would be anyway. Every cylinder could use its own device, rather than the use of fiber optics which are very delicate and prone to temperature damage. The aperture could clean itself or be part of a routine maintenance similar to conventional spark plug replacement. Burns would be complete, timing laser-accurate, and the amperes required to create a spark from the spark plug is probably much greater than the lazing threshold to create an adequate ignition source from a laser. Right?

 

You really dashed my hopes. The part I liked was the other article on killing mosquitos with laser beams. Now that is something I can get excited about here in mosquito country.

 

Yeah, I read that one too. I thought it was pretty cool. I think that one has potential but the logistics might be tough with laser beams flying around and all. Neat concept though.

 

I'm all for thinking outside the box when looking for a solution. However, if their goal is to make a more efficient car, I think the sparkplug would be the last thing I would address. Plus, with our lasers here the lenses are so suceptible to debris and particulate that we clean them on a daily basis with reagent grade acetone or methanol so as to not cause any additional contamination. Not to mention the lenses/windows cost thousands of dollars a piece. It would be like polishing your valves after every exhaust stroke. I'll be the first to admit, lasers are versital. This just isn't an appropriate application. I'll retract my ridicule when I see it work for two full revolutions of the crankshaft. Intriguing topic nonetheless.

 

This however, is a perfect application for lasers and I support it 100%

 

Pew pew pew vrooom!