Cooking House Ignition

Last Updated on September 19, 2022 by You Ling

Piezoelectric ceramic igniter

This is a device that converts mechanical force into electric spark to ignite combustor. It is an electromechanical transducer. In 1958, it pioneered to use the piezoelectric effect of barium titanate (BaTiO3) ceramics for ignition. This material alone has low ignition rate and high noise. In 1962, it began to use lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric ceramics to make igniters. This igniter is widely used in daily life, industrial production and military affairs to ignite gases, various explosives and rockets.

1、Basic principle:

the working process of igniter is divided into three stages: high-voltage generation, discharge ignition and ignition of combustible gas.
Generation of High Voltage: A Case Study of Cylindrical Piezoelectric Ceramic Elements

When the mechanical force F acts on the cylinder, the crystal will be distorted, leading to the deviation of the positive and negative charge centers in the crystal, so that a large amount of free charges will accumulate on the upper and lower surfaces of the cylinder, generating high-voltage output. Output voltage: V=ga3Fh/A, where A is the sectional area of the cylinder; H – cylinder height; Ga3 – piezoelectric voltage constant.

Discharge ignition place piezoelectric ceramic element in a closed circuit and leave an appropriate gap. When the voltage rises to the discharge voltage of the gap, a discharge spark will be generated in the gap.

Ignite combustible gas – general fuel gas is not easy to burn, so ethane that is easy to gasify is often used. To prolong the discharge time and prevent the spark from extinguishing too quickly, so as to improve the ignition rate. A suitable resistance can be connected in series at the discharge end.

2、Igniter structure and working principle: There are many kinds of igniters. Now take the piezoelectric igniter for example to explain its structure and working principle.

3、The igniter shown in the above figure can be fixed on the household stove to ignite the gas, turn the cam switch, use the cam projection to push the impact block, and compress the spring behind the impact block. When the convex part of the cam is separated from the impact block, the impact block exerts an impact force on the ceramic piezoelectric element due to the spring force, which generates high voltage at both ends of the piezoelectric element, and outputs high voltage from the middle electrode to generate electric spark to ignite the gas.

4、Piezoelectric igniter is a manual ignition device based on piezoelectric effect and produced with piezoelectric ceramics as the medium. It is widely used in various gas appliances, such as gas stoves, gas water heaters, gas refrigerators, etc.
Compared with pulse ignition, piezoelectric ignition has the disadvantages of short discharge time, manual operation, low ignition success rate, and is being phased out by pulse igniters.
Piezoelectric ignition is still the main ignition technology in the field of gas appliances for a long time

5、With the rapid development of microelectronics technology, the power consumption of some small electronic devices is getting lower and lower, achieving an average power consumption of hundreds or even tens of microwatts. On the one hand, these low-power electronic devices can use batteries to work longer, on the other hand, they can also meet their own power consumption by converting the energy existing in the human body or the environment.
The mechanical energy generated by human activities is one of the main energy carried by human activities. Some scientific and technological workers and engineers have adopted some technologies to realize the conversion of this mechanical energy to electrical energy. Among them, the method of using piezoelectric phenomena to generate electricity for human bodies has attracted more attention due to the simple structure of devices. Considering that piezoelectric igniter is a widely used and low-cost mature product, this research chooses this electronic component as the research object to study the electric energy generated when pressing its button, and discusses the feasibility of its use to power small electronic devices.