I stumbled onto this, turns out this is where Vari-prop is
doing their UAV   business.


snips....

   I wonder how many printer heads we would need to feed a 13b.

   http://www.nwuav.com/fuel_injection.html

   C. Smith



Did any one notice the part about the MEMS fuel injectors? I thought that was
the most interesting part. Has the potential to simplify the fuel injection,
returnless system, low pressure.
C. Smith

I did. I wonder how it will work in a tuned intake system where the pressure in
the intake manifold fluctuates widely. Ink jet printers are designed to work in
a stable pressure environment. Has anybody tried to use one at the top of Pikes
Peak?

Paul Lamar

 Well, their proposed operational environment (UAVs) is similar in temp and atmospheric pressure to general aviation, so maybe the issues are manageable.
 If wildly varying pressures in a tuned intake prove to be a problem, maybe inject the fuel into the air box upstream of the tuned intake?  (not the optimum solution for throttle response or safety)
 Inkjet printers are notoriously finicky about ink formulae, and clogging that is an inconvenience in a printer would obviously be a lot more serious in our application.  Our (normal) addition of oil to the fuel mix would need testing to assure it doesn't cause problems (but, they say this works for heavy fuels, so that's a good sign)
  We'd need a very good fuel filter.  Small particles that would be no problem for a carb or even a normal FI system could stop these things up.
  I'd want a backup.  Maybe Klaus's drip system at a minimum.
  FWIW, they cite fuel flow rates of approx  "3-15+ cc/min".  15 CC/Min = .24 gals/hour.  Maybe this is "per printhead (?),"  so we'd need about quite a few to pump sufficient fuel.
  It is interesting.

Mark Waldron