Energy Saving Manufacturing Process for Fuel Nozzles

This project will develop an energy saving manufacturing process for fuel nozzles, which will result in materials and fuel economy, reduced fabrication costs, enhanced fuel efficiency, and lower air pollution. The proposed process eliminates the machining of the nozzle bodies and the electro-discharge machining of the orifices. The elimination of these processes will reduce energy consumption by up to 65% and material consumption by up to 50%. The proposed process will enable the nozzles to be manufactured from any materials, with orifices of very small diameters and with a variety of cross section shapes, features that are not achievable by state-of the-art technology. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The manufacturing flexibility developed in this project should result in nozzles with improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. While the technology is targeted to the production of high performance and low cost fuel nozzles, the process also should find application to the low cost production of nozzles used in micro-spacecrafts, ink jet printing systems, and drug delivery devices