Unit 8

Ignition System in SI Engine

Dr. Ashish Nayyar

Internal Combustion Engine
Mr. Ankit Agarwal
B. Tech. VII Semester, 2020-21
Mr. Chandan Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, M & G, Jaipur
 Introduction
 An ignition system generates a spark or heats an electrode to
a high temperature to ignite a fuel-air mixture in spark
ignition internal combustion engines.

 The widest application for spark ignition internal combustion

engines is in petrol road vehicles: cars (autos), pickups, vans,
trucks, buses.

 Ignition only ensures initiation of combustion process and has

no degree intensively or extensively.

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 Cont...

So the basic requirements of a spark ignition system can be

listed as follows:
 The system must have a source of electrical energy.
 The system must supply sufficient current to create a high
energy of spark to ignite the mixture, yet limit the amount of
current flow so that plug life is reasonable.
 The system must produce a peak voltage greater by safe
margin than the spark plug breakdown voltage at all speeds.
 The duration of the spark must be long enough with sufficient
energy.
 The system must distribute this high voltage to each of the
spark plugs at the exact time in every cycle.
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 Cont...

 The source of electrical energy may be a battery or a

generator or a magneto.
 Generator or magneto may produce power by rotation of a
coil assembly through a fixed magnetic field or by holing the
coil assembly still and moving a fixed magnetic field past it.
 The battery voltage is usually 6 or 12 volts. This low voltage
is boosted by means of an induction coil, contact breaker and
a condenser to a value sufficient to meet the breakdown
voltage requirements and to release sufficient energy.
 The distribution and the timing of the spark are affected by
means of a distributor and the contact breaker.

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 Types of Ignition System
There are three type of ignition system. Theses are:

 Battery Ignition system

 Magneto Ignition system
 Electronic Ignition system

 The difference between battery and magneto ignition

system lies only in the source of electrical energy.

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 Battery Ignition system
 It is a commonly used system because of its combined
cheapness, convenience of maintenance, attention and general
suitability.

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 Cont...
Components
BATTERY provides power for system.
IGNITION SWITCH allows driver to turn ignition
on and off.
IGNITION COIL changes battery voltage to
30,000V during normal operation and has a potential
to produce up to 60,000V.
SWITCHING DEVICE mechanical or electronic
switch that operates Ignition coil (Pick-up coil, Crank
sensor, Cam sensor).
SPARK PLUG uses high voltage from ignition coil to
produce an arc in the combustion chamber.
IGNITION SYSTEM WIRES connect components.
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 Cont...
Ignition Circuits
•Primary Circuit:
Includes all the
components working on
low voltage (Battery,
ignition switch, primary
coil and contact
breaker).

•Secondary Circuit:
Consists of wires and
points between coil out-
put and the spark plug
ground. (Secondary
winding, spark plug and
distributor)
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 Cont...
Ignition Coil

Primary Windings are made up

of several hundred turns of
heavy wire wrapped around the
secondary windings. (100 to
200 nos.)

Secondary Windings consist of

several thousand turns of very
fine wire, located inside of the
primary windings. (about
20,000 nos.)

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 Cont...
Contact Breaker
PARTS: Distributor Cam, Breaker Points, and Condenser.

Points are wired in Primary Circuit – When the points are

closed, a magnetic field builds in the coil. When the points
open, the field collapses and voltage is sent to one of the
spark plug.

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 Cont...

Distributor
• Actuates the on/off cycle of current
flow through the ignition coil
primary windings.
• It distributes the coils high voltage
to the plugs wires.
• It causes the spark to occur at each
plug earlier in the compression
stroke as engine speed increases,
and vice versa.
• Changes spark timing.

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 Cont...
Distributor Cap

•Insulated plastic cap

•Transfers voltage from coil (wire)

to Rotor.

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 Cont...
Distributor Rotor
•Transfers voltage from the
distributor cap center terminal
(coil) to distributor cap outer
terminals(spark plugs).

•Provides spark in the correct

Firing Order.

•Sometimes the firing order can be

found on the intake manifold.

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 Cont...
Working
When the ignition switch is closed and engine in cranked, as
soon as the contact breaker closes, a low voltage current will
flow through the primary winding.
It is also to be
noted that the
contact beaker
cam opens and
closes the circuit
4-times (for 4
cylinders) in one
revolution.

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 Cont...
• When the contact breaker opens the contact, the magnetic
field begins to collapse. Because of this collapsing magnetic
field, current will be induced in the secondary winding. And
because of more turns (20000 turns) in secondary coil,
voltage goes unto 28000-30000 volts.

• This high voltage current is brought to centre of the

distributor rotor. Distributor rotor rotates and supplies this
high voltage current to proper stark plug depending upon the
engine firing order.

• When the high voltage current jumps the spark plug gap, it
produces the spark and the charge is ignited-combustion
starts-products of combustion expand and produce power.
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 Magneto Ignition system
 In this case magneto will produce and supply the required
current to the primary winding.

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 Cont...
Working
In this case magneto will produce and supply the required
current to the primary winding.
In this case as
shown, we can have
rotating magneto
with fixed coil or
rotating coil with
fixed magneto for
producing and
supplying current to
primary, remaining
arrangement is same
as that of a battery
ignition system.
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Comparison between Battery and Magneto
System
Battery Ignition Magneto Ignition

1. Battery is a must. No battery needed.

2. Battery supplies current in primary Magneto produces the required
circuit. current for primary circuit.
3. A good spark is available at low During starting the quality of spark is
speed also. poor due to slow speed.
4. Occupies more space. Very much compact.
5. Recharging is a must in case
No such arrangement required.
battery gets discharged.
6. Mostly employed in car and bus
for which it is required to crank the Used on motorcycles, scooters, etc
engine
7. Battery maintenance is required. No battery maintenance problems.

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 Drawbacks of Conventional Ignition
Systems
Following are the drawbacks of conventional ignition systems:
 Because of arcing, pitting of contact breaker point and which
will lead to regular maintenance problems.
 Poor starting : After few thousands of kilometres of running,
the timing becomes inaccurate, which results into poor
starting (Starting trouble).
 At very high engine speed, performance is poor because of
inertia effects of the moving parts in the system.
 Some times it is not possible to produce spark properly in
fouled spark plugs.

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Advantages of Electronic Ignition System
Following are the advantages of electronic ignition system:

 Moving parts are absent-so no maintenance.

 Contact breaker points are absent-so no arcing.
 Spark plug life increases by 50% and they can be used for
about 60000 km without any problem.
 Better combustion in combustion chamber, about 90-95% of
air fuel mixture is burnt compared with 70-75% with
conventional ignition system.
 More power output.
 More fuel efficiency.

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Types of Electronic Ignition System

Electronic systems are of four types. These are:

 Capacitance Discharge Ignition system

 Transistorized system
 Piezo-electric Ignition system
 The Texaco Ignition system

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 Cont...
i. Capacitance Discharge Ignition System
 It mainly consists of 6-12 V battery, ignition switch, DC to
DC convertor, charging resistance, tank capacitor, Silicon
Controlled Rectifier (SCR), SCR-triggering device, step up
transformer, spark plugs.

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 Cont...

 A 6-12 volt battery is connected to DC to DC converter i.e.

power circuit through the ignition switch, which is
designed to give or increase the voltage to 250-350 volts.
This high voltage is used to charge the tank capacitor (or
condenser) to this voltage through the charging resistance.
The charging resistance is also so designed that it controls
the required current in the SCR.
 Depending upon the engine firing order, whenever the SCR
triggering device, sends a pulse, then the current flowing
through the primary winding is stopped and the magnetic
field begins to collapse.
 This collapsing magnetic field will induce or step up high
voltage current in the secondary, which while jumping the
spark plug gap produces the spark, and the charge of air
fuel mixture is ignited.
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 Cont...

ii. Transistorized System

• A transistor interrupts a relatively high current carrying
circuit, i.e, it controls high current in the collector circuit
with less current in the base circuit. Therefore, a transistor is
used to assist the work of a contact breaker.

Hence, this
system is known
as Transistor
assisted ignition
system or
transistorized
ignition system.

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 Cont...
Advantages
 The low breaker-current ensures longer life.
 The smaller gap and lighter point assembly increase dwell
time minimize contact bouncing and improve repeatability
of secondary voltage.
 The low primary inductance reduces primary current drop-
off at high speeds.
Disadvantages
 As in the conventional system, mechanical breaker points
are necessary for timing the spark.
 The cost of the ignition system is increased.
 The voltage rise-time at the spark plug is about the same as
before.

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 Cont...

iii. Piezo-electric Ignition System

 The development of synthetic piezo-electric materials
producing about 22 kV by mechanical loading of a small
crystal resulted in some ignition systems for single
cylinder engines.
 But due to difficulties of high mechanical loading need of
the order of 500 kg timely control and ability to produce
sufficient voltage, these systems have not been able to
come up.

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 Cont...
iv. The Texaco Ignition System
 Due to the increased emphasis on exhaust emission
control, there has been a sudden interest in exhaust gas
recirculation systems and lean fuel-air mixtures.
 To avoid the problems of burning of lean mixtures, the
Texaco Ignition system has been developed.
 It provides a spark of controlled duration which means
that the spark duration in crank angle degrees can be made
constant at all engine speeds.
 It is a AC system. This system consists of three basic
units, a power unit, a control unit and a distributor sensor.

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 Fuel ignition energy requirements
 The ignition process is an extremely important one in the
homogeneous charge engine because it has to be initiated by
an external source of energy – usually a spark-plug.
 The typical level of energy required to ignite the mixture in
a spark-ignition engine is around 30 MJ.

• The strongest spark is

needed when the engine is
cold, and also if the engine is
running lean.
• The typical variation of
minimum energy to ignite a
mixture is shown in Figure.

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 Firing order
 The order or sequence in which the firing takes place, in
different cylinders of a multi-cylinder engine is called Firing
Order.
 In case of SI engines the distributor connects the spark plugs
of different cylinders according to Engine Firing Order.

Advantages
• A proper firing order
reduces engine vibrations.
• Maintains engine balancing.
• Secures an even flow of
power.
• Firing order differs from
engine-to-engine.
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 Ignition Timing and Ignition Advance
 Ignition timing is very important, since the charge is to be
ignited just before the end of compression, since when the
charge is ignited, it will take some time to come to the
required rate of burning.

Ignition Advance
 The purpose of spark advance mechanism is to assure that
under every condition of engine operation, ignition takes
place at the most favourable instant in time i.e. most
favourable from a standpoint of engine power, fuel
economy and minimum exhaust dilution.
 By means of these mechanisms the advance angle is
accurately set so that ignition occurs before TDC point of
the piston.
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 Cont...
 The engine speed and the engine load are the control quantities
required for the automatic adjustment of the ignition timing.
 Most of the engines are fitted with mechanisms which are
integral with the distributor and automatically regulate the
optimum spark advance to account for change of speed and load.

The two mechanisms used are :

Centrifugal advance mechanism
 The centrifugal advance mechanism controls the ignition timing
for full- load operation. The adjustment mechanism is designed
so that its operation results in the desired advance of the spark.
Vacuum advance mechanism
 Vacuum advance mechanism shifts the ignition point under
partial load operation. The adjustment system is designed so that
its operation results in the prescribed partial load advance curve.

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 Spark Plug
• Figure shows a typical spark plug used with petrol
engines.
• It mainly consists of a central electrode and metal tongue.
• Central electrode is covered by means of porcelain
insulating material.
• Through the metal screw the
spark plug is fitted in the
cylinder head plug.
• When the high tension voltage
of the order of 30000 volts is
applied across the spark
electrodes, current jumps from
one electrode to another
producing a spark.
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Thanks......

I.C. Engine Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering,
SKIT, Jaipur

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