Using plasma lighters instead of traditional butane lighters is the greenest way to get an instant spark . First of all because, over time, as the butane gas inside the lighter reservoir runs out, it is likely to end up in a landfill.
In addition, these plasma lighters do not cause charring; can be turned on from virtually any position, even vertically; and they only have to be charged when they run out to continue to be used over and over again.
The use of plasma lighters dates back to a 2015 Kickstarter crowdfunding project to develop a consumer-friendly commercial version.
ArcLighter
That first model for Kickstarter, called the Illume ArcLighter , was designed as a flameless electronic lighter that bore some resemblance to a vape or electronic cigarette. Its name (which we can translate as “arc of light”) refers to the high intensity electric arc that is created at the tip of the lighter, thanks to the power of the plasma.
A typical lighter of these characteristics takes an hour to charge via USB and the estimated battery life is just over 4 minutes discontinued, which amounts to between 50 and 100 ignitions . It is a short autonomy time, but the advantage is that it can be recharged indefinitely.
Five years later, the company responsible for the Illume ArcLighter opened its own store, adding a new pocket plasma lighter to its catalog, and now many competitors are making and selling similar products online.
In addition, for many consumers using the plasma burner makes them feel almost as if they were using a Jedi lightsaber from the galactic Star Wars saga, and not only because of the appearance of the light arc: plasma is one of the four basic types of matter. (in addition to liquid, solid and gas), and it is also the most mysterious.
Yet plasma abounds in the universe. According to ITER, an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project based in France, 99.99% of all matter in the visible universe, including stars and intergalactic matter, is in a plasma state .
In liquids, gases, and solids, the nuclei of atoms and electrons are closely related, but in a plasma, electrons shed their atoms under conditions of varying temperature. This dissociation creates an ionized gas with properties very different from those of typical gaseous matter . Unlike gases, according to ITER, plasma is a great electrical conductor that can be generated thanks to magnetic fields. Thus, it is similar to the gaseous state but a certain proportion of its particles are electrically charged (ionized) and do not have electromagnetic balance.
In the case of plasma igniters, a high voltage electrical current passes between two nodes to create a plasma arc. The principle resembles that of creating lightning in a storm . Or the lightsaber of a pocket Jedi.
