Fuel Injection - History and Development

History and Development

Herbert Akroyd Stuart developed the first device with a design similar to modern fuel injection, using a 'jerk pump' to meter out fuel oil at high pressure to an injector. This system was used on the hot bulb engine and was adapted and improved by Bosch and Clessie Cummins for use on diesel engines (Rudolf Diesel's original system employed a cumbersome 'air-blast' system using highly compressed air). Fuel injection was in widespread commercial use in diesel engines by the mid-1920s.

The first use of gasoline direct injection (i.e. injection of gasoline, also known as petrol) was on the Hesselman engine invented by Swedish engineer Jonas Hesselman in 1925. Hesselman engines use the ultra lean burn principle; fuel is injected toward the end of the compression stroke, then ignited with a spark plug. They are often started on gasoline and then switched to diesel or kerosene.

Direct fuel injection was used in notable WWII aero-engines such as the Junkers Jumo 210, the Daimler-Benz DB 601, the BMW 801, the Shvetsov ASh-82FN (M-82FN). German direct injection petrol engines used injection systems developed by Bosch from their diesel injection systems. Later versions of the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Wright R-3350 used single point fuel injection, at the time called "Pressure Carburettor". Due to the wartime relationship between Germany and Japan, Mitsubishi also had two radial aircraft engines utilizing fuel injection, the Mitsubishi Kinsei (kinsei means "venus") and the Mitsubishi Kasei (kasei means "mars").

Alfa Romeo tested one of the very first electronic injection systems (Caproni-Fuscaldo) in Alfa Romeo 6C2500 with "Ala spessa" body in 1940 Mille Miglia. The engine had six electrically operated injectors and were fed by a semi-high pressure circulating fuel pump system.