First, let's look at what Krupa's FireStorm spark plugs give an internal combustion engine:

• More horsepower;
• 44–50% increase in mpg;
• Dramatic decrease in emissions.

Second, let's see what FireStorm plugs eliminate:

• Smog pump;
• Catalytic converter;
• Radio frequency interference (RFI) and the use of resistors in the centre electrode;
• Gap growth;
• Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems;
• Misfire/hesitation/detonation/stutter and stumble.

How, you may ask, is all this achieved? In a word, plasma. The revolutionary design of FireStorm spark plugs creates an electric plasma that fills the entire combustion chamber like a firestorm. It allows you to take an internal combustion engine from the standard 14.7:1 air-to-fuel ratio to an incredibly lean 24:1. At this ratio, all the air/fuel mixture is burned much more efficiently without increasing heat, thus giving an engine more power and fuel economy while creating much less pollution. That's the good news.

The bad news is that you can't buy a set of FireStorm spark plugs anywhere right now. No spark plug company wants to make them. Robert Krupa is no stranger to the way the automotive industry and spark plug industry operate. He has worked as a technician, then as an engineer for GM and Ford.

Krupa explained: "Before I entered college and earned a BS [Bachelor of Science] in engineering, I was taking electrolytic capacitors and mounting them to the plus side of a distributor, which would smooth out the electrical pulses going to the distributor and the spark plugs. With that little improvement, I was able to make cars run smoother. So, that was the start of this engineering journey I am now on.

"I have an electrical background that's very heavily into automotive applications. I have an extreme sensitivity to mechanical noise. I can listen to an engine running and tell exactly what's wrong with it. My hearing is so keen that when I worked at General Motors they sent me to Mexico and to Germany and New York to fix engine assembly plants. When I went to New York, they were having problems with engines going in the repair loop. So I looked at what they were doing, thought a while, then made changes to 22 machines and got the engine plant running faster than design intent. The plant manager offered me a job right on the spot." Krupa knows spark plugs and has worked very hard to bring improved designs to the automotive market. Although it was not his design, he is solely responsible for bringing the "SplitFire" spark plug to the market over a decade ago. It was a simple variation on standard plugs which featured a split electrode, designed like a snake's tongue, that increased the sparking area of the plug somewhat. It cost more than an average spark plug and generated annual sales of US$60 million in 1993.

As fate would have it, Robert Krupa became friends with the legendary Henry "Smokey" Yunick, of Daytona Beach, Florida. Smokey was a Hall of Fame NASCAR stock car and IndyCar builder, entrepreneur and inventor extraordinaire. They met while working on a project for GM. At that time, Smokey was having a little bit of trouble hearing. So Krupa set up a knock module and sensor and hooked it up to an oscilloscope for Smokey to use. The next morning, Smokey asked Krupa to come and work for him. Krupa politely turned Smokey down, but the end result was they became good friends.

Because of this, Krupa decided to take his first prototype of the FireStorm to Smokey. While witnessing the new spark plug firing on a portable test stand, Smokey declared: "After 30 years consulting for Champion, I have never seen a spark plug fire like yours. You are going to turn the automotive industry on its ear!" With that endorsement, Krupa knew he had a winner. That afternoon, he signed Smokey up as a consultant to Krupa's newly formed company, Century Development International Limited.



It was Krupa's unwavering determination to discover a better plug that led to the technical breakthrough of the first FireStorm prototype back in November 1996. When asked about that life-changing event, Krupa recalled:

"I was brought up by the NOS [nitrous oxide systems] Racing guys in California. Their theory was a spark plug either works or it doesn't and there is no in-between. After a lot of investigation, I essentially found out that there was something special about spark plugs.

"During this time, I went through a 55-gallon drum full of grimy used spark plugs. I inspected them all very carefully and found that the older the model of spark plug was, the more the centre electrode of the plug was worn all around the side. It took the shape of a small ball. It was a half a ball—a dome shape, to be exact.

"That's when I thought, 'If that's what the spark plug wants to be, then why not start off with that shape and see what it does?' So, I took a brand new plug and filed it down into the shape of a dome and fired it and noticed it worked a little bit better. But I still had a problem with the grounding side. Next, I whacked the ground off and started putting different configurations of grounding electrodes on it, and I held everything together with toothpicks to make it easier to change. "When I put a half a loop on the grounding side, it seemed to fire a little better. Then I took the head of a screw and bashed it with a hammer until it took a dome shape. Then I took the other side and dimpled it, creating a concave—an inverted dome, really. I carefully balanced that battered dome on top of the electrode of the new plug that I had filed to accommodate it, and then I put a half a ring over it for the negative electrode, again holding all that together with toothpicks. And when it started firing, the amount of energy coming off the plug was just crazy, and I said to myself, 'I've really got something here!'

"But I was inspired to do this because I just knew there had to be a better way. That's why spark plug companies hate me. They've got millions and millions of dollars tied up in research departments and I was able to come up with the FireStorm prototype in my basement in just under two hours."



When I asked Krupa if there were any other advantages to using FireStorm spark plugs, he explained: "If there is a vehicle that requires premium fuel and they install FireStorm plugs and perform the modifications I suggest...they could run regular fuel in the engine and it won't detonate, hesitate, ping or misfire. The only reason you need higher octane fuel is for higher compression engines. And if an engine is pulling a heavy load, it has a tendency to go into detonation with a regular spark plug." This all seemed too good to be true, but there was more good news.

According to Krupa: "I know it sounds like smoke and mirrors. But this has all been documented. When I was doing some of the early testing on this, I hooked up an emissions analyser to the car and I had equipment in the car while changing air/fuel ratios and idle speeds. I was doing this at an automotive aftermarket speed shop. The guys were coming over to see what I was doing. I had the test vehicle running at 250 rpm! Engines do not like to idle at 250 rpm. You can't do that with a regular spark plug. But you can do it with the FireStorm plug."


I had never heard of anyone doing this before, and wondered what the engine would run like at that ultra-low idle—another major fuel-saving measure. Krupa told me: "It just loped along really smooth, but it was constant. No hesitation; no misfires. And when I did that test on a T-bird and got a 44% increase in fuel economy, I was using the air conditioner at the time! And nobody uses the air conditioner when they test for fuel mileage. But, I was doing real-world testing. In fact, the EPA is thinking about revising their air/fuel testing so that it reflects real-world driving conditions. And even with the increased fuel mileage, I got 33 more horsepower out of a big-block Chevy just by adding FireStorm spark plugs and adjusting the tuning of the engine.

"The other amazing thing I discovered while testing the FireStorm plug was that an engine can run further out in the rpm range. In other words, when they reach extremely high speeds the power curve starts falling off. Just by using FireStorm plugs, I can operate from 600 to 800 rpm faster past red-line with the power curve still heading up rather than down.

"Bottom line, I can pull more rpm and power out of an engine and still deliver better fuel economy because even at extremely high speeds of operation the FireStorm plugs still produce plasma that burns all the fuel in the combustion chamber. A regular plug, with its itty-bitty little spark, can never fire well in a combustion chamber that's running at high speed. That size spark can't keep up with the increased speed flow of air/fuel mixture."

Krupa showed me an amazing video of the FireStorm spark plugs running in real time on a test rig. I noticed that the powerful plasma field coming from his spark plug filled the combustion chamber, but there was something else. It appeared that the plasma was swirling around like a small whirling tornado.

When asked about this, Krupa explained: "I have coined the term residual ionisation to describe the effect of the firing of the FireStorm spark plug. When a generic spark plug fires in a pressure chamber or your vehicle, it will fire six to eight times and then misfire once. The misfire is caused by the residual ionisation left around the plug proper. When the charge comes down the centre electrode, it sees a high impedance and cannot jump the gap, hence a misfire.

"There is also residual ionisation left over in a FireStorm spark plug. However, because of the huge surface area in the configuration of the domed centre electrode and the triaxial ground system, when the residual ionisation rears its ugly head the charge coming down the centre electrode sees it and moves to the next area under the triaxial ground system that is residual ionisation free. That's why the plasma appears to move around the dome in a circular motion."


Krupa's new FireStorm spark plug is in a league all of its own. It has received rave reviews from a major spark plug company. Krupa explained: "Bosch conducted an eight-week-long durability test of my FireStorm plugs against their best, and they said that the FireStorm plugs produced zero per cent gap growth. And they predicted that [the plugs] will never wear out." That might be one reason spark plug companies are not interested in manufacturing the FireStorm. Another big reason is that the currently used standard design of spark plugs would rapidly become obsolete. However, the main reason no spark plug manufacturer is willing to make the FireStorm is that there is no way anyone can create a knock-off that gets around Krupa's worldwide patents on his designs.

According to Krupa: "What we did was sit down and decide what the best configuration was for firing. Then we set that aside and for the next seven months we designed knock-offs and incorporated every one of them into the patent." A final important factor to consider is financial. Most spark plug manufacturing plants are over 100 years old. They would need to invest vast amounts of money to retool before producing the FireStorm design because standard centre electrodes in generic plugs are manufactured in three parts. The FireStorm spark plug's centre electrode is only made of one part. Because of this, Krupa's company, CDI Limited, has decided it will have to manufacture the FireStorm plugs on its own. This is a massive undertaking that Krupa and his team did not initially plan for, but it has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for venture capitalists and investors to get on board early.

Consider this: annually, there are over six billion spark plugs made and sold worldwide. Krupa's team at CDI Limited estimates that the FireStorm spark plug will cost US$1.50 per unit initially to manufacture. The team also estimates that once FireStorm spark plugs become available, they will quickly capture 80% of the market share—even if they cost $10.00 or more per plug. That equals a lot of money.



Moreover, an enormous amount of money will be saved by consumers when they fill up their gas tanks—even as fuel prices continue to rise. This will have a positive impact on the world's economy. And it couldn't come at a better time. In a recent report, Bill Powers, the editor of an investment newsletter called Canadian Energy Viewpoint, predicts that the price of crude oil will reach US$80 per barrel in the next 24 months!

(See web page: http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/powers/2004/1104.html.) When asked if there were any conditions he required of future business partners, Krupa stated: "Well, we would have to sit down and talk about the details and see what they want and work out a deal that everyone agrees on. And no matter who's going to be involved, I would like to be in charge of the quality control end of the manufacturing. Because if you don't make it right, then it's like shooting yourself in the foot before a race."

Much like Edison, who refused to rest until he'd invented a better light bulb, Robert Krupa was inspired and determined to invent a better spark plug. In so doing, he has given the internal combustion engine and our environment a brighter future. When asked about the legacy of his life's work, he proudly said: "I tell people I took the lowly spark plug from the Stone Age to the Space Age."

Inventor Robert Krupa is an accomplished engineer and scientist who specializes in electrical and mechanical media. He's travelled around the world four times and has been featured on TV, radio and in magazines. He has also written many articles for the "hot-rod" world. Robert Krupa can be emailed at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Visit the FireStorm web page at:  www.robertstanley.biz/firestorm.htm Patents

US 6060822
US 5936332

Replicas

Replica by Rosco1
Another replica by Rosco Radio interview

Audio Version: Interview with Robert Krupa


STANLEY: Sounds great! Do you have any idea how much it would cost to begin manufacturing the FireStorm spark plugs?

KRUPA: We did a study on this and we estimated it would initially cost $1.50 to manufacture each plug.

STANLEY: Okay, but I am asking about the cost of building a new manufacturing facility somewhere in the world. Do you have any estimate as to how much that would cost?

KRUPA: No I don't. We didn't go that far because I was busy looking for an existing company to produce my plugs.

STANLEY: So the $350,000 would be for more research and development?

KRUPA: Not exactly. The Research and Development are finished and the FireStorm is patented Worldwide. However, we need to get production intent plugs made, and installed with a new ignition system operating off a 42-volt battery.

STANLEY: Why is that?

KRUPA: Automotive companies are switching to a 42-volt system.

STANLEY: When will that happen?

KRUPA: It's in the works.

STANLEY: And what's the advantage of that?

KRUPA: Most new vehicles have radios, DVD players, cell phones, etc.

STANLEY: I get it now.

KRUPA: And that's on top of the load of lights and instrumentation and everything else. They even have sensors that monitor tire pressure now. So the auto consortium got together and decided that 42-volt systems were the next logical step.

STANLEY: That seems a little redundant if you are driving a hybrid vehicle that generates electricity on board.

KRUPA: Not really. I have been looking at hybrids and they are predicting that they are still about 15 to 20 years down the road.

STANLEY: They are more complex to manufacture and for a hybrid vehicle efficent energy storage is a still a problem. High-density units like supercapacitors are going to be a critical part of those storage systems in the future.

KRUPA: Before I entered College, I was taking Electrolytic capacitors and mounting them to the plus side of the distributors to smooth out the pulses going to the distributor and the spark plugs. I was able to make cars run smoother back then. So, that was the start of this engineering journey I am on.

STANLEY: What year was that?

KRUPA: In the late '60s.

STANLEY: When you invented the FireStorm plugs you really were not looking to become a spark plug manufacturer, right?

KRUPA: Correct. All I wanted to do was be involved in the quality control end of it.

STANLEY: But you know that whoever invests the venture capital to get this project going will make a massive amout of money.

KRUPA: Oh absolutely. Currently, there is an excess of 6 billion spark plugs made world wide annually. And we predict that the FireStorm will take about 80% of that market share.

STANLEY: Wow!

KRUPA: Well, look at Venezuela, Mexico and other countries in that area which are just beginning to become concerned about emissions, smog and pollutants.

STANLEY: Don't forget China.

KRUPA: Oh! That will be an explosion.

STANLEY: They are currently second in the consumption of oil world wide. The U.S. is first. They clearly have a growing middle class that want automobiles.

KRUPA: Absolutely. Bicycles are on the way out there.

The important thing to understand is that automotive companies have been trying to discover a way to run their engines lean for many years now. And I was able to lean an engine all the way out to 40 to 1 using my FireStorm plugs.

STANLEY: That would be considered extreme.

KRUPA: Yeah! Forty parts of air to one part fuel is extremely lean.

STANLEY: I imagine that once you are actually producing FireStorm spark plugs for the general public, marketing them will be relatively easy.

KRUPA: Oh, I know it will be. I have got people waiting for this product already.

STANLEY: Do you have a distributor yet?

KRUPA: I do. The new "Master Distributor" is Yee Automotive. They are located at: 16541 East Ten Mile Road. Eastpointe, Michigan 48021-1192. Their phone number is (586) 771-0215. Fax is, 771-3301.

STANLEY: So, all you really need now is a few good investors or a smart manufacturer that want to get on board.

What can you say that would make them want to get on board - do you have any conditions regarding who you will work with on the production?

KRUPA: Well, we would have to sit down and talk about the details and see what they want and work out a deal that everyone agrees on - a win-win situation for all concerned. And no matter who's going to be involved, I would prefer to be involved in the quality control end of the manufacturing. Because if you don't make it right then it's like shooting yourself in the foot before a marathon.

STANLEY: So, what are the rules of the road that an investor or manufacturer can expect going into business with you?

KRUPA: Well, you have seen my video of the FireStorm and how it fires compares to a regular spark plug right?

FireStorm (left) vs. Standard Spark Plug (right)

STANLEY: Yes, it was very impressive.

KRUPA: Okay. That is my only criteria. Every plug off the assembly line has to work that well.

STANLEY: I see. You have a standard that others must be willing to meet.

KRUPA: Yes, because In the past I have gone into a company and looked at their machines and made suggestions to improve throughput.

STANLEY: I happen to think that because your invention dramatically reduces air pollution it would really appeal to an investor that is concerned about the environment.

KRUPA: Well, not only that but someone that loves the internal combustion engine would be helping greatly to insure that it exists in the future and evolves to the next level.

STANLEY: Good point.

Didn't you say that the FireStorm plugs behave differently than standard plugs regarding the various grades of fuel?

KRUPA: FireStorm spark plugs completely eliminate misfiring.

STANLEY: Is that the same thing as detonation?

KRUPA: Well, detonation would no longer exist because there is no detonation with this spark plug.

STANLEY: What do you mean?

KRUPA: I mean, how can it detonate when it literally burns everything in the combustion chamber?

STANLEY: Right. And you told me that the emissions go up for a while when you first put in a set of FireStorm plugs.

KRUPA: That only lasts for a few hours of running time max. It all depends how much carbon has built up in the combustion chamber. The more carbon, the worse the emissions will be until it's all burned clean.

STANLEY: Does it matter if you are running "regular" gasoline?

KRUPA: If there is a vehicle that requires "premium" fuel, and they install FireStorm plugs and perform the modifications I suggest... they could run "regular" fuel in the engine and it won't detonate.

STANLEY: Okay. You mean no hesitation, pinging or misfires?

KRUPA: Yeah. The only reason you need higher octane fuel is for higher compression engines. And if an engine is pulling a heavy load it has a tendency to go into detonation with a regular plug.

STANLEY: Do the FireStorm plugs increase the torque as well as horsepower?

KRUPA: Of course.

STANLEY: Have you measured it?

KRUPA: Only on the road while driving my modified vehicles. We haven't put it on a dynamometer for that yet. But horsepower and torque go hand in hand essentially. They would have to go up equally, but the torque is always a lower number than horsepower.

STANLEY: And all this increased power is coming from a leaner, cleaner combustion of fuel?

KRUPA: Yes. A 14.7 to 1 air-fuel ratio is always going to be incomplete combustion. That's the rule. FireStorm is the exception. It burns everything in the combustion chamber. It burns it clean.

STANLEY: Maybe that is where the slight heat loss in the combustion chamber is coming from? Carbon build up causes more heat from friction. Lose the carbon and you decrease the friction/heat.

KRUPA: You know, you may have hit the nail on the head.

STANLEY: Well, it's just an observation.

Regarding emissions, are smog pump systems still mandatory for all vehicles?

KRUPA: Absolutely. They are even doing that digitally now.

STANLEY: But you have said that part of the emissions system can be eliminated using FireStorm plugs?

KRUPA: Yes. That goes away. You use EGR to induce exhaust gas into the intake system to lower the combustion temperature to reduce Oxide of Nitrogen.

STANLEY: What is that?

KRUPA: Oxides of Nitrogen are a chief component of air pollution that are produced by the burning of fossil fuels.

STANLEY: When it is recycled, is it burned up or not?

KRUPA: With catalytic converters, yes.

STANLEY: Okay, but they still emit pollution.

KRUPA: Yes, but all modern cars emission control systems use a combination of EGR and catalytic convertors.

STANLEY: Well, if you were able to eliminate the old emission system about how much would you be saving on the price of an automobile?

KRUPA: On a production run per year? Around a billion dollars.

STANLEY: You mean for one model?

KRUPA: No, I am talking about all the models that one car manufacturer would make in a year's time.

STANLEY: That's a lot of money to the manufacture which should translate to savings for consumers as well. Are you guessing at the amount of money involved here?

KRUPA: No. We actually figured this out.

STANLEY: That's good to know.

You know some people are going to say that this is too good to be true.

KRUPA: I've heard that more than once about my FireStorm plugs.

STANLEY: Well, that's because we all have seen or heard things that really were too good to be true. FireStorm is clearly not a gimmick, but I think people's first reaction is to be cautious.

KRUPA: It sounds like smoke and mirrors.

STANLEY: It could if you didn't take the time to get to know the product.

KRUPA: When I was doing some of the early testing, I hooked up an emissions analyzer to the car and I had equipment in the car to change air-fuel ratio and idle speeds. I was doing this at an automotive after market speed shop. The guys were coming over to see what I was doing. I had my test vehicle running at 250 RPM.

STANLEY: Wow!

KRUPA: Engines do not like to idle at 250 RPM's.

STANLEY: I didn't know you could even do that?

KRUPA: You can with the FireStorm plug.

STANLEY: Really?

KRUPA: Oh yeah. I'm telling you... when you said, "It's too good to be true" that's what popped into my mind.

STANLEY: What did the engine run like at that ultra-low idle?

KRUPA: It just loped along really smooth, but it was constant. No hesitation or misfires. It's a sound like you have never heard before. Anyone that heard an engine before would turn their head to see where the sound was coming from.

STANLEY: Wouldn't that also save a lot of fuel, if you could tune an engine's idle down that low?

KRUPA: Oh, absolutely! When I did that test on a T-Bird and got a 44% increase in fuel economy I was using the air conditioner at the time.

STANLEY: Wow!

KRUPA: And nobody uses the air conditioner when they test for fuel mileage.

STANLEY: No. But people in the real world use their air conditioners a lot.

KRUPA: Right. I was doing real-world testing. In fact, the EPA is thinking about revising their air/fuel testing so that it reflects real driving conditions.

STANLEY: And how much was the percentage of horsepower increased on the T-Bird you tested?

KRUPA: Well, I got 33 more horsepower out of big-block Chevy. But the T-Bird didn't get on the dyno.

STANLEY: Just by adding FireStorm spark plugs?

KRUPA: Yes, but I also optimized the tuning of the engine.

STANLEY: That makes sense.

KRUPA: Oh yeah. By using this plug I discovered that an engine can run further out in the RPM range. In other words, when standard spark plugs reach extremely high speeds the engines power curve starts falling off.

By using FireStorm plugs, I can operate from 600 to 800 RPM faster with the power curve still heading up rather than down.

STANLEY: Are you talking about engine speeds above "Red-Line?"

KRUPA: Absolutely.

STANLEY: Wow!

KRUPA: I can pull more RPMs and power out of an engine and still deliver better fuel economy.

STANLEY: This really is incredible, but it makes a lot of sense.

KRUPA: Yes. Because even at extremely high speeds of operation the FireStorm plugs still produce plasma that burns all the fuel in the internal combustion chamber. A regular plug, with its tiny little spark, is not going to fire well in a combustion chamber that's running at high speed.

STANLEY: I see what you are saying Bob. That kind of limited spark can't keep igniting the increased flow of air-fuel mixture properly.

KRUPA: Everyone I have been involved with, when they see this thing running, they can't believe their eyes. It completely revamps what everyone thought about internal combustion engines. In fact, I met Smokey Yunick when I was working at G.M. When I went to work with him on a hot vapor cycle engine some of the stuff I did amazed him so much that he offered me a job.

Over the years, I had taken the SplitFire spark plug to him and a couple of other types of plugs as well. And he said, "Aaaa, that's just gimmicks." And when I developed the first prototype of the FireStorm I called him up and told him what they did. I explained that with the plug I developed I can run an engine at the same speed with less throttle angle. And he said, "Come on down."

He was in Daytona Beach, in Florida. And when I went there, he was a good friend of mine. I stayed at his home and ate at his table. I got there on a Friday night. That Saturday, I did some sand blasting for him. And after lunch that day at Sonny's Barbecue he said, "Well, what about this new plug of yours?" At that time, I only had 8 prototypes and they were installed in the car I drove to Florida. So I took one plug out and I had a portable test bed with me. I took it into the back of his shop and asked Smokey for a car battery.

I heard him rummaging around the shop and he soon found a battery I could use. He then went into his office for a few minutes while I got things set up and firing. When he came out of his office he sniffed the air. He came around the corner and sniffed again. Then he came up to where the plug was firing and sniffed again, and said, "Now I know how you are running less throttle and getting the same speed. You're producing ozone!"

One of his tricks was to blow compressed air over a test plug to see if it would flame out. Anyway, I asked him for a compressed air hose and nozzle. I plugged the nozzle in and aimed it at the FireStorm plug. I pulled the trigger on the air hose and a spray of water came shooting out.

STANLEY: Yeah. I've seen that happen when condensation builds up in the hose.

KRUPA: But the amazing thing was that the FireStorm plug was firing through the water and then when the air hit it the damn thing grew to the size of a golf ball.

STANLEY: Wait, the air stream made it grow bigger?

KRUPA: Yeah! It looked bigger then like a blow torch. So Smokey said, "Shut that off and come into the office!" I shut everything down and walked into his office. He was sitting at his desk. And he said, "Bobby, why are you here?" I told Smokey that I wanted to sign him up to be a consultant to my company. And in one fell swoop, he took his big arm and slid everything off his desk onto the floor. Then he folded his hands and said, "What do we got to do?"

STANLEY: Sounds like a great guy to have on your team.

KRUPA: Well, we crossed our T's and dotted our I's. And he said, "After my 30 years consulting for Champion, I have never seen a spark plug fire like yours. You are going to turn the auto industry on its ear!" So, with that endorsement, I knew I had a winner.

STANLEY: In your video of the FireStorm spark plugs firing on a test stand I noticed that the electric plasma swirls around the combustion chamber like a little tornado. Why is that?

FireStorm (left) vs. Standard Spark Plug (right)

KRUPA: I have coined the term,"Residual Ionization" to address the effect of the firing of the FireStorm spark plug. When a generic spark plug fires in a pressure chamber or your vehicle, it will fire six to eight times and then misfire once. The misfire is caused by the "Residual-Ionization" left around the plug proper. When the charge comes down the center electrode, it sees a high impedance and cannot jump the gap, hence a "Misfire".

There is also "Residual Ionization" left over in the "FireStorm" spark plug. However, because of the Huge Surface Area in the configuration of the "BALL", and the triaxial ground system, when the "Residual-Ionization" rears it's ugly head, the charge coming down the center electrode sees it and moves to the next area under the Triaxial Ground System. That's why the plasma appears to move around the ball in a circular motion.

STANLEY: I'm sure you have had time to think about the impact of your invention. What would you say that your legacy will be?

KRUPA: I took the lowly spark plug from the Stone Age to the Space Age.

STANLEY: Sounds great! Do you have any idea how much it would cost to begin manufacturing the FireStorm spark plugs?

KRUPA: We did a study on this and we estimated it would initially cost $1.50 to manufacture each plug.

STANLEY: Okay, but I am asking about the cost of building a new manufacturing facility somewhere in the world. Do you have any estimate as to how much that would cost?

KRUPA: No I don't. We didn't go that far because I was busy looking for an existing company to produce my plugs.

STANLEY: So the $350,000 would be for more research and development?

KRUPA: Not exactly. The Research and Development are finished and the FireStorm is patented Worldwide. However, we need to get production intent plugs made, and installed with a new ignition system operating off a 42-volt battery.

STANLEY: Why is that?

KRUPA: Automotive companies are switching to a 42-volt system.

STANLEY: When will that happen?

KRUPA: It's in the works.

STANLEY: And what's the advantage of that?

KRUPA: Most new vehicles have radios, DVD players, cell phones, etc.