Hi, I need some help identifying this thing.

It is used as an igniter. A wire is soldered on each side. A discharge causes the plate to ignite with a white flame. The plate appears to be covered with copper, and then a silvery soft metal probably magnesium. The composite material inside is unknown, but it does have some obvious texture. It has a resistance of 1.2 ohm. Any ideas? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hi, I need some help identifying this thing.

And we need some help to help you. What is it out of? What was it supposed to ignite? do you have a model number and brand name of what it was in? Most of us have no crystal ball.

 

And we need some help to help you. What is it out of? What was it supposed to ignite? do you have a model number and brand name of what it was in? Most of us have no crystal ball.

I appreciate that, however I’m afraid I can’t give much more detail than that this is used to ignite explosives or energetic chemical mixtures. I was hoping that given how unremarkable it is on the outside, either you know what it is or you don’t. But if you have some specific questions that can help I’ll do my best to answer.

 

@Steinspon I think it would also help if you reduced the size of the images you post. I did not even look at them due to my slow internet speed etc. Not all of us are on super fast systems. The 6 images you posted total 32.9 MB.

 

@Steinspon I think it would also help if you reduced the size of the images you post. I did not even look at them due to my slow internet speed etc. Not all of us are on super fast systems. The 6 images you posted total 32.9 MB.

ok.

 

It is taking forever to open those images. Glad you are shrinking them.

From your description the only thing that comes to mind is that it is a piezoelectric transformer.

 

At a guess, it might be an Exploding Foil Initiator.

 

It is taking forever to open those images. Glad you are shrinking them.

From your description the only thing that comes to mind is that it is a piezoelectric transformer.

Thankyou Dick. Apologies for the size of the images, however you made a great suggestion. It appears this is a j-tek electric igniter (https://electricmatch.com/), and perhaps this uses some kind of piezo transformer or semiconductor bridge initiator since they claim they are lead free. Thank you for your suggestion, I learned a lot googling from that start point.

 

At a guess, it might be an Exploding Foil Initiator.

Thanks Yaakov, I think I found out that this is a j-tek electric igniter. I still don’t know what this plate is, but now I know the product. I think it could be some kind of piezoelectric transformer, for example the structure matches an image in an article I found (attached). Thanks for your input!