FIRST LEGO LEAGUE
What once begun as a suggestion from a staff member, is now a 8 year uninterrupted tradition of sponsoring the "Darien Team" in the local FLL chapter. Most rewarding for students, coaches, and parents.
Headquarters: 7800 S Cass Ave. Darien, IL 60561
Test Facilities: 2400 Ogden Ave, Lisle, IL 60532
Telephone : (630) 908-7332
SAE CONGRESS - DETROIT APRIL 2026
"Effect of Liquefied-Gas Fluid Properties in a
High-Pressure Fuel Pump"
De Ojeda, William and Simon (Haibao) Wu
SAE Technical Paper 2026-01-0273, 2026
Paper considers the effects of fluid properties from liquified gases during high pressure pumping, at ranges from 200 to 1500 bar, and at speeds of 500 to 1500 rpm. Tests represent highest to date pressure ranges attained with liquified fluids such as DME. The paper examines the effects of compressibility on the pumping and resulting loading torque characteristics described over the pumping cycle as resolved by a high-fidelity sensor. Experimental tests and simulated performance based on a 1-D model are compared for Diesel and DME for a high-pressure fuel pump, piston style, featuring two plunger-barrels.
WMI AWARDED PATENT
US 2025/0382933 A1 (DECC 18, 2025)
"High Pressure Fuel Pump for use
with DME and other Liquified Gases"
Inventors:
William de Ojeda
Simon (Haibao) Wu
This invention was made with government support under contract DE-EE0009878 awarded by the Department of Energy.
The invention enhances the performance of a high-pressure fuel pump. The pump includes a seal around the pump piston plunger to prevent fuel from entering the crankcase and features a recirculation path from the fuel side of the seal back to the pump inlet. The recirculation passage can be exposed to the seal or to an annulus groove in the pump housing bore placed along the plunger isolating the seal from the inlet pressure pulsations taking place during the pumping process.
SAE CONGRESS - DETROIT APRIL 2025
"Design of a High-Pressure Fuel System
for Use with Dimethyl Ether"
De Ojeda, William and Simon (Haibao) Wu
SAE Technical Paper 2025-01-8441, 2026
The paper documents the modeling and experimental work on a common rail fuel injection system for Dimethyl Ether, a potential diesel substitute with a low carbon intensity signature. The DME fuel system is deployed on a light duty 2.2L compression ignition engine. The paper describes the injector optimization to shift to higher flows to account for the lower heating value and density of the DME when compared to diesel. The type of the injection system used for the DME application is an advanced rendering of the Common rail noted for a one-piece piston-needle injector construction and a solenoid driven spill valve featuring a pressure balanced poppet. A dedicated high-pressure fuel pump designed to pressurize DME is used. The design results in a fast acting open and close injection event, reduced leakage, with reduced cavitation in the fuel injector volume. Design parameters for system optimization included fill and spill orifices, needle lift, bias spring, and injector hole size. The design model provides good correlation of the instantaneous rates of injection with experiments across a wide range of pressure and injection timings. Proposed performance milestones for the design included similar DME injection duration to the diesel counterpart for same fuel energy injected into the cylinder to retain high engine cycle efficiency. The dedicated DME design provided reduced hydraulic delays of 50%. Tests demonstrated sustained operation at pressures of 1000 bar, with capability to reach 1500bar. Durability tests showed no cavitation-deterioration over a 200-hour test cycle by means of spray imaging and hardware inspection.
DOE PROJECT TO DEVELOP
LD PROPANE-DME ENGINE TECHNOLOGY COMPLETED
2022-2025
WMI fuel system was installed on the 2.2L LD CI Hyundai engine, targeting new industry injection pressure benchmarks above 1500bar. The direct injection system featured WMI inlet metered pump technology. Project successfully demonstrated 2027 emissions and fuel economy standars.
FTP cycle results attained exception fuel efficiency
ECHO XE LAUNCH
Feb 2022
The Engine Controller High speed Oversight eXtreme Environment is specially designed for deployment in harsh environment and easy integration in production vehicles and aircraft. The ECHO XE is built on the same control and data acquisition platforms as the base ECHO, featuring P67-rated sealed connectors and enclosure, CPU operating temperature range -40°C to 150°C, double RAM @ 4GB, 20% reduction in the footprint.
ECHO LAUNCH
September 2020
WM international proudly introduces ECHO - a powerful data acquisition and analytics tool that is capable of performing combustion analysis and feedback in real-time. ECHO is designed to serve and integrate into projects that demand high performance. ECHO has deployed to the field to serve our early customers, and more features are been actively developed. Learn more about it on our product page.
ECHO XE
for eXtreme Environments
released in Feb 2022
FORD POWERTRAIN WORKSHOP
5 December 2019
Windsor, ON - Canada
WM international commissioned at FORD motor company its Dual Fuel Diesel - DME generator, contributing to FORD's program to develop an automotive DME application based on its European MONDEO vehicle.
2nd ALTERNATIVE FUELS WORKSHOP
14 - 15 May 2019
Illinois Institute of Technology
WM international, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Productive Resources teamed up to exploring t he economics of fuel production,
how Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel compliment the electrification movement, how Fuel Can be created from Waste Products, advances in Gas-to-Liquid Fuels, and ehe emerging Hydrogen Economy.
8th International DME Conference
10 - 12 September 2018
Sacramento, CA
WM International participated in the 8th IDA workshop which included a showcase of its Dual Fuel Diesel-DME generator.
1st ALTERNATIVE FUELS WORKSHOP
17 - 18 May 2018
Illinois Institute of Technology
WM international and the Illinois Institute of Technology teamed up to exploring key alternative fuels that are viable replacements on modern engines.
ALTERNATIVE FUELS WORKSHOP
Chicago, IL
May 17-18 2018
ALTERNATIVE FUELS WORKSHOP
Chicago, IL
May 17-18 2018
Design and Manufacturing Outreach
Fall 2017
Majid Naghshineh, WMI VP of Business Development, led a graduate level course in Computer Aided Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. WMI and DONSON Machine based in ALSIP, IL team up to bring the practical aspects of this industry to students.
7th International DME Conference
14 - 16 September 2016
Houston, Texas
The DME industry's flagship event provided an in-depth look at developments worldwide connected with DME's production, commercialization and use, with a special emphasis on DME's introduction as an automotive fuel
Sandia National Labs
8-11 Feb, 2016
The conference captures the latest Combustion research. WMI and MTU presented their latets combustion tests with DME at elevated injection pressures.
Injection pressure will play a critical role to extend the DME efficiency potential over the Diesel benchamrk
November-December Dual Fuel
Engine Tests
Progress on the Dual Fuel DME-Diesel System has been steady. Initial prototype has been tested and shown to successfully run our GENSET with both fuels.
Injection pressure and flow rate of DME at 3600rpm for target fuel of 20mm3/stroke.
9th Asian DME Conference
Wu Zhen, China, 17-18 October, 2015
The conference was marked by excellent interactions and technical discussions. DME's soot free combustion is an important attribute of DME, yet the importance to demonstrate "real-life" fuel economy advantage with respect to the Diesel benchmark was discussed.
Delegation at the 9th Asian DME Congress