I recently saw a live demonstration of a 1000 milli watt hand held,
battery powered laser. It could burn paper 3 feet away and light a
match.

If you shined it on a rotor nothing would happen as the heat of the
laser spot would be dissipated in the mass of the metal rotor.

However if there were tiny conical metal mountains in the bath tub
that lined up with the lasers  at 22 degrees BTDC that might act like
three spark plugs. For a wide rotor one could have three of these
lasers side by side at the trailing spark plug location. The timing
would be fixed of course so that might work best in something like an
aircraft engine.

The advantage is the hole for the laser could be very very small.
Much smaller than the trailing spark plug hole is now. The trialling
spark plug hole bypasses some compression pressure.

Apparently surface mount spark plugs do not work or Mazda would be
using them.

http://www.laserpointerpro.com/attribute/power_1000mw-lasers_26

As you can see from these pressure plots there is considerable
pressure differences across the trailing spark plug hole. Where there
are pressure differences there is gas flow. It is best to keep the
trailing spark plug hole as small as possible.


The temperature of the rotor housing is more evidence the fire is
getting blown down stream by the squish flow. That could mean the
center of pressure is not on the rotor geographical center.

Paul Lamar

"A new patent filing from Mazda suggests that the company is working to replace the spark plugs in its engines with lasers.

The Japanese automaker has filed a patent with the World Intellectual Property Organization for a control device that works with a laser-ignition engine, confirming that Mazda is working with laser ignition and hinting that it may end up in its cars in the future.

One of the issues with laser ignition of the fuel/air mixture in a cylinder is that the laser has the potential to get blocked by contaminates, lowering its potency once it reaches the mixture. This newly patented control device is able to detect contamination and then adjust a number of variables, including laser strength and fuel/air mixture levels to make sure the engine is running at a desired output.

Using laser ignition over spark plugs will lead to more efficient engines, as high compression ratios can be used in the cylinder without the need for increased voltage. This high voltage used in high compression engines also leads to spark plugs wearing out much faster, an issue that won’t affect a laser setup.

Mazda’s SkyActiv suite of fuel saving technologies includes high compression ratios in its small engines, which means they are good candidates for laser ignition."


http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2016/01/mazda-laser-ignition-engine-hinted-at-in-patent.html

Dan Gorsline.


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