Ignition Systems

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 Ignition System

It is used in spark ignition engine.

The ignition system is a system used to generate a very
high voltage from the car battery and to send it to each
sparkplug in turn thereby igniting the fuel-air mixture in
the combustion chamber of the engine.
Types of Ignition System:
1. Battery coil ignition system
2. Magneto ignition system
3. Electronic ignition system

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Battery Coil Ignition System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2i7wqJ6keU 3
 Battery Coil Ignition System

 It is used in passenger cars and light trucks.

 A Battery Ignition system for four cylinder engine where the
battery supplies the electrical energy.
 An ignition switch is used to control the battery current for
starting or stopping the engine.

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 Battery Coil Ignition System

 The ignition system is divided into 2-circuits namely the Primary

Circuit and Secondary Circuit.
 Primary Circuit : It consists of 6 or 12 V battery, ammeter, ignition
switch, primary winding it has 200-300 turns of 20 SWG (Sharps Wire
Gauge) gauge wire, contact breaker, capacitor.
 Secondary Circuit: It consists of secondary winding. Secondary
Ignition Systems winding consists of about 20000 turns of 40 (SWG)
gauge wire. Bottom end of which is connected to bottom end of
primary and top end of secondary winding is connected to centre of
distributor rotor.

Law of mutual induction: When two coils are brought in proximity to each other, the magnetic field in
one of the coils tends to link with the other. This further leads to the generation of voltage in the second
coil. This property of a coil which affects or changes the current and voltage in a secondary coil is
called mutual inductance.
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 Working of Battery Coil Ignition System

 When the ignition switch, the contact breaker closes, a low voltage
current will flow through the primary winding. 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. Because of more turns of secondary, the
voltage goes upto 20000-35000 volts.
 This high voltage current is brought to centre of the distributor rotor.
Distributor rotor rotates and supplies this high voltage current to the
spark plug depending upon the engine firing order. When the high
voltage current jumps the spark plug gap, it produces the spark.
 When compared to the magneto ignition system, the battery ignition
system is more expensive but at the same time it is highly reliable.

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Magneto Ignition System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-wA4iBDr9o 7
 Magneto Ignition System

This type of ignition system is mostly used in motorcycles,

scooters and racing cars.
Magneto ignition system is a special type of ignition
system with its own electric generator to provide the
required necessary energy for the vehicle system.
It is mounted on the engine.
A magneto when rotated by the engine is capable of
producing a very high voltage and doesn’t need a battery
as source of external energy.
The main components of an ignition coil are Distributor,
Capacitor, Contact Breaker (CB) points, Ignition Coil.

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Magneto Ignition System

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 Magneto Ignition System

 There are three important types of magneto ignition system

1) Rotating armature type- the armature consisting of the primary
and secondary windings rotate in between the poles of a
stationary magnet.
2) Rotating Magnet type- the magnet revolves and windings are
kept stationary.
3) Polar Inductor type- both the magnet and the windings remain
stationary but the voltage is generated when the flux field is
reversing. This is achieved with the help of soft iron polar
projections which is known as inductors.
 Because of the poor starting characteristics of the magneto system,
the battery ignition system is preferred to the magneto system in
automobile engines.
 However, in two wheelers magneto ignition system is preferred due
to light weight and less maintenance.
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Electronic Ignition System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYx8J_5l5wY&t=50s 11
Electronic Ignition System

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 Electronic Ignition System

 When the driver switch ON the ignition switch in order to start

a vehicle the current starts flowing from the battery through
the ignition switch to the coil primary winding, which in turn
starts the armature pickup coil to receives and send the
voltage signals from the armature to the ignition module.
 When the tooth of the rotating reluctor comes in front of the
pickup coil, the voltage signal from pickup coil is sent to the
electronic module which in turn senses the signal and stops
the current to flow from primary coil.
 When the tooth of the rotating reluctor goes away from the
pickup coil, the change in voltage signal is sent by pickup coil to
the ignition module and a timing circuit inside ignition module
turns ON the current flow.
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 Electronic Ignition System

 A magnetic field is generated in the ignition coil due to this

continuous make and break of the circuit which induced an EMF in
secondary winding which increases the voltage upto 50000 Volts.
 This high voltage is then sent to distributor, which has the rotating
rotor and distributor points which is set according to the ignition
timing.
 When the rotor comes in front of any of those distributor points the
jumping of voltage through the air gap from the rotor to the
distributor point takes place which is then sent to the adjacent spark
plug terminal through the high tension cable.
 A voltage difference is generated between the central electrode and
ground electrode which is responsible for generating a spark at the
tip of the spark plug and finally the combustion takes place.

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 Electronic Ignition System

Applications
 The electronic ignition system is used in modern and hypercars
like Audi A4, Mahindra XUV-500 and bikes like KTM duke
390cc, Ducati super sports to meet the high reliability and
performance need .
 It is also used in aircrafts engine due to its better reliability and
less maintenance

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Spark Plug

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 Spark Plug

 A spark plug is a device which delivering electric current from

an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition
engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric
spark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dea07uYGkps
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 Spark Plug Working

 A high voltage current from the distributor is passed to the spark

plug.
 The central electrode and ground electrode is applied to a very high
voltage up to 40000 V.
 Due to this high voltage difference between the central electrode
and ground electrode, the air in between the electrode gap gets
ionized.
 The ionized gas becomes conductor and conducts current from
central electrode to the ground electrode producing spark.
 The spark produced is used to ignite the air-fuel mixture in the
engine cylinder.

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 References

https://www.theengineerspost.com/types-of-ignition-
system/
https://www.mechanicalbooster.com/2017/11/electronic-
ignition-system.html
https://www.sathyabama.ac.in

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