The Hindu : Front Page : New Caparo device to prevent ‘mis-fuelling’ of diesel cars

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Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
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New Caparo device to prevent ‘mis-fuelling’ of diesel cars

Special Correspondent

LONDON: The United Kingdom-based Indian industrialist Swraj Paul’s Caparo group has helped develop a simple, low-cost device that stops diesel-run cars being filled with petrol at the fuel outlet — a simple dispensing mistake that reportedly happens to around 400 British motorists every day at the pump, costing them hundreds of pounds in clean-up and repair costs.

The device will presumably be useful elsewhere in the world as well.

How it works

Its inventor, Martin White, said: “It is almost impossible to pump diesel fuel into a petrol car because the larger diameter of the pump nozzle prevents it being inserted into the smaller filler neck of a vehicle designed for petrol.”

Mr. White added: “Caparo Rightfuel, which replaces the vehicle’s filler cap, uses the difference in nozzle diameters to protect diesel vehicles. If the correct diesel nozzle has been presented, Rightfuel’s patented mechanism disengages its prevention flap, allowing fuel to be pumped into the tank.”

A statement from the Caparo Group said the device was moulded in tough engineering plastics, was light-weight and totally corrosion proof.

“Specialists at the Caparo Innovation Centre at the University of Wolverhampton helped refine and validate the design. It was presented to Caparo’s CEO Angad Paul who immediately saw the potential and agreed to back it through to production,” the statement said.

The invention, claimed to be the only retro-fit device that completely blocks the delivery of the wrong fuel type, will be launched in Britain next month.

Innovations

Mr. Angad Paul said Caparo had a history of bringing innovations to market. It funded the Caparo Innovation Centre specifically to help inventors win commercial success.

“We are full-time investment dragons with a proven record of success. When we back something, we have done our research and we know it is going to work,” he added.

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