Piezo-Electric ignition

As a starter it wear rate would be quite rapid I would think.

Martin P

I can't get a piezo cooker-lighter to last more than about a year and I've noticed that performance of the crystal is worse in damp weather. Do they break down? by fatigue perhaps. regards

There is no wear as such, you just squeeze the thing, but again I have no definite data on how long they work for.

We have an ultrasonic cleaner that's 14 years old and it still works OK.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Some time aback I found a US web site that had info on how to build a replica of an ignitor for some of the American horizontal stationary engines using a standard piezo striker that would typically be used in a Propane bar-b-cue.

My experience with these strikers is limited to making a potato cannon out of PVC tubing. They produce a reasonably good spark and has given much pleasure to the son shooting potatoes all over the place.

Apparently for stationary engine use they work quite well if the engine speed is kept low as would be the case with an idling hit and miss engine.

A search on Google would probably turn it up.

Best regards,

Chris Kessell

Piezo ignition is used on some model engines which I think have been mentioned on this NG before. They were on sale at the Lister-Petter rally. These are however 'demonstration' models, designed to be started up and run for a few minutes only to amaze and entertain your friends.

Epson inkjet printheads are not exactly noted for their longevity, but there again, I suppose the piezo bits do a hell of a lot of twitching to print each page... dunno really

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@boltblue.com John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

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I have thought about this before...the main reason I came up with that the idea won't work on 'normal' engines is that the spark cannot be created under any great pressure. Might work on an early hot tube engine (with correspondingly low BMEP) but anything with a compression ratio over about

Regards

Dan

Hi Peter et al This was the subject of a long thread on the ATIS group a year or two ago. (or more? Time flies!) Someone put up drawings, specs, and I think he produced them for Wico EK conversions. Think it was one of the Aussies. AFAIK seemed successful, will ask again on ATIS.

JW² Norton AntiVirus 2003 installed

Here is a link to what I was talking about.

Not a lot of info but a start.

Chris Kessell