Robert Krupa's Firestorm Spark Plugs=Plasma Generating Mini Tesla Coils

[tao]

Hmmmm... I examined both patents and from what I saw, he has found another way to make a sparkplug. Period. I was not impressed.

Neither patent claimed that it fills the entire combustion chamber with plasma. Neither patent said anything about running an internal combustion engine on water. What it does claim is that it can reduce misfires by offering the spark more places to jump between the electrodes. The "constantly moving" spark conjures up an image of the novelty plasma touch globes, but that is an incorrect image, IMO intentionally meant to mislead. If that were the case, it would cause a terrible case of pre-ignition.

The plug uses standard spark generating components to create a standard spark which jumps the gap at the correct time. The plug will probably have a longer life than normal plugs, I don't doubt that.  The "44 - 50%" increase in mpg must have been compared to a terribly misfiring engine.

When I see "They won't allow this to be mass produced" or "Not available in stores" it translates to me as "No reputable company is willing to stand behind this product".

I don't claim to be an expert but common sense tells me that there is nothing ground-breaking here.

SHOW ME...
It has been 7 years since the patent was granted, and yet we don't see any hard numbers in their claims. We just see a good sales job.

What about the fact that they don't misfire, don't corrode, and hence would last for a VERY LONG TIME. Might you then wonder why Bosch didn't want to fund them, or buy them, knowing what it would due to their consumable products...

Or the fact that you can greatly increase the fuel to air ratio, due to the moving electrical discharge that occurs when firing which greatly increases fuel burn.

Krupa posted quite a bit on the radianth2o group, you can even talk with him there if he still visits, see the real story.

The whole water-splitting part of it, Krupa left that out of the patent, and everything else. Why? Because he wanted/wants to make his rightful millions off a sustainable product that would greatly reduce gas usage, aside from any hydrogen implications...

[Davetech]

Don''t get me wrong. I would be delighted if his claims pan out to be true.

Real science consists of critical thinking and new ideas being put to rigorous testing in an attempt to shoot holes in the theory. I have expressed doubts about this idea, but I think I made it evident that it is simply my opinion, and I have not duplicated the idea and put it to real life testing myself.

So I would be out of line in flatly saying "This won't work" without doing the actual tests myself. Until I do, what I say is still in the IMO domain.

I'll try to stay open minded, but I'd really like to see some controlled test results published by the company / individual making these claims.

I don't work for a sparkplug company nor do I own stock in one...lol

[sm0ky2]

The round electrode is proven to be more efficient in discharging a spark. and thus a step in the right direction
This has been proven in application for hundreds of years of high-voltage spark dischargings. (static-electric machines)


a greater surface area on the ground lead will lower the chance of misfire, but also provide multiple locations for the spark to jump to, so it moves all over the ground lead. instead of burning a hole in one single point of contact

Honestly  dont see the hype here.  aside from the round electrode this functions pretty much the same as say..
a Bosch +4  (4 semi-arc electrodes not quite touching in the center)

40% gas mileage improvement? i would have to see that tested, and on multiple vehicles.

as for the "plasma", from what i have gathered researching this subject, there is not enough power comming from the coil to create Plasma-On-Demand as is being suggested here. The sparks are still purely electrical, and are not intense enough to form plasma from the air/fuel mixture inside the chamber.
What you have is essentially a better spark. But this has since been accomplished by other means with manufactured plugs (2 and 4 ground leads instead of the old style of 1) what we have here is some guys version of the new style of spark plugs (that everyone is using right now) that never went anywhere.

Probably because his set-up is to simple that companies designed their own style, subverting his patent and thus owning the rights to their own newly developed plug.

also a thing to consider is, what would keep the spark (from a semispherical electrode) from shoting past the ground electrode and grounding to the inside of the combustion chamber?  Perhaps THIS is why the electrodes are not round to begin with??  Uni-Directional Discharge.
not that such a thing would prevent the engine from firing, but sparks could damage the inside surface of the chamber and possibly cause other engine problems. Ive seen the way the ground lead looks on an old spark plug, and i dont think i would want that to happen to the inner walls of the combustion chamber.

[GraViTaR]

as for the "plasma", from what i have gathered researching this subject, there is not enough power comming from the coil to create Plasma-On-Demand as is being suggested here.

So how much power do you need to create plasma? How much power is needed to operate a Tesla coil?

[Pirate88179]

Interesting topic.  I read recently that one can replace their spark plug wires with solid core copper wire (Like they did on the original Fords) and create a "plasma" spark due to the 50,000 or so volts in modern ignition coils.  Of course, this would creat RF interference for radios, etc, but, my opinion is that once you have the solid connection, one could wrap some sheilding material around the wire to offset this...possibly.  Has anyone here heard of this?  I was thinking of giving it a try on one of my vans.  I just hope it does not create a bad impedence mismatch and burn up my coils.

Bill