5/32 Silicon Nitride Ball with a hole in it.

5/32 Silicon nitride ball with a hole.

We were asked by a major manufacturer of fuel injectors to develop a fuel injector ball for the Brazilian automotive market.

In Brazil the gasoline has a higher ethanol content than in the United States.  This puts a strain on fuel injector wear due to corrosion.

The thought was to develop a silicon nitride fuel injector ball that would resist the corrosion.

Fuel injectors are typically made with stainless steel balls welded to the stainless steel tip of the injector.

To attach the silicon nitride ball it was decided to try a staking system that would go through a hole in the ball.

To accomplish the task we partnered with Ceratizit a producer of silicon nitride materials in Luxembourg.    In their lab they produced for us several hundred silicon nitride blanks with a hole.

We then ground and lapped the samples in a larger load of 5/32 balls and produced the samples for our customer.

Samples were supplied to our customer.   Soon after this project we closed the facility and I am not sure of the status of this work.