Federal-mogul Ignition Company

Federal-mogul World Wide, Inc.

Federal-mogul Corporation

Robert D Freeman

Richard E Callahan

Karina Havard

Karina C Havard

A spark ignition device and method of construction is provided. The device includes a ceramic insulator and a metal shell surrounding at least a portion of the ceramic insulator. The metal shell extends along a central axis between an upper terminal end and a lower fastening end. The fastening end has a pair of projections diametrically opposite one another extending axially to free ends. A center electrode assembly is received at least in part in the ceramic insulator. In addition, the device includes an elongate ground electrode having opposite sides extending along a length of the ground electrode between opposite ends. The ground electrode has opposite faces with a sparking surface attached to one of the faces, wherein the face with the sparking surface attached thereto is sunk axially into the free ends of the projections with at least a portion of the opposite sides being surrounded by the projections.

Spark ignition device with bridging ground electrode and method of construction thereof

A spark plug assembly () for engine applications where the combustion chamber is difficult to access when servicing or replacing a spark plug. The spark plug assembly () includes a fairly traditional spark plug component () to which an elongated tubular conduit () is attached, such as by welding, to a portion of the metallic shell (). The conduit () contains an upper ceramic insulator () adjacent its top end () disposed in end-to-end abutting contact with an outer elastomeric insulator (). The ceramic insulator of the spark plug component (), herein referred to as a lower ceramic insulator (), is surrounded by the outer elastomeric insulator () and held securely within the conduit () thereby. An inner elastomeric insulator () is disposed in a continuous passageway formed between aligned central bores formed in the respective upper ceramic () and outer elastomeric () insulators. The inner elastomeric insulator () supports and further electrically isolates an elongated electrically conductive center electrode extension () that is in direct electrical conductivity with the center electrode () of the spark plug component (). An ignition lead wire makes electrical contact with the center electrode extension () and thereby delivers electrical energy at timed intervals to the spark gap.

14 mm extension spark plug

A spark plug assembly () includes a center electrode () having a high performance metal sleeve () attached at its sparking end. The sleeve () is fitted to a tenon on the end of the center electrode () and fixed in place by a weld line () produced by laser beam pulses (). The weld line () is applied by overlapping a plurality of spaced-apart beads in a single, continuous circumscribing line. The sleeve () is permitted to expand and contract under the influence of thermal cycling without constraint except for the fixation weld line (). Therefore, the sleeve () does not experience stress build-ups resulting from differing rates of thermal expansion relative to the center electrode (), which is preferably made from a nickel or other composition dissimilar to that of the high performance metal sleeve (). Various ground electrode () configurations are possible.

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Monclova, OH, United States of America

Robert D Freeman