Starter Business and Model 30 Starter
Learn how Hilliard revived the Model 30 Starter, combining decades of engineering experience with modern manufacturing to support legacy equipment.
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As with all opportunities, the beginning of the starter business began with a need. Ingersoll-Rand (now Siemens Energy/Dresser-Rand), in the late 1960s, had a requirement to start a large 20-cylinder reciprocating gas engine with ten power cylinders and ten compression cylinders. Paul Webb and Grover Fraser, two veteran engineers of Ingersoll-Rand, became interested in the application and formed the Fraser-Webb company. With their axial screw compressor experience, they developed a starter that would take the gas pressure available at the pipeline station and expand the gas in the starter to crank the engine. Ingersoll-Rand placed an order for ten Model 30 starters with the Fraser-Webb company. The Model 30 starters were delivered and commissioned at sites throughout the United States in the early ’70s. The Model 30 starters have proven reliable and durable, as there have been very few spare parts sold or calls for repairs in the over 50 years of service. The market in the 1970s was moving away from reciprocating engines to industrial gas turbines. Grover and Paul recognized that there would be opportunities in the new gas turbine market for starters based on the basic axial expander design. Hilliard bought the Fraser-Webb company, and eventually both came to work at Hilliard. Paul and Grover brought a wealth of engineering experience gained at Ingersoll-Rand. Grover served as Engineering Manager until his retirement in 1991, and Paul as Vice President and eventually COO until his retirement in 2010. Both Grover and Paul were instrumental in many early key product developments for Polaris and HILCO products, such as the Wheel Clutch, Transfer Valve, and Starters. The addition of Hilliard’s clutch experience to the starter product was key to the future development of the starter business.
Hilliard built a Model 30 with a different internal gear ratio to replace a starter on a Cooper engine in 1987. Since then, there was interest, but pattern equipment for the castings was lost and expensive to replace. Hilliard received a call from Kinder Morgan in Sayre, Oklahoma, in early 2023, stating that they needed a new Model 30 Starter. Kinder placed an engineering order for Hilliard to investigate the feasibility of manufacturing a Model 30 and provide a firm quote. Innovations in low-volume, large-casting manufacturing uncovered by our manufacturing group led to a feasible casting supply. The main rotor housing and outlet castings were some of the major challenges of the project. Models were created from the Fraser-Webb hand drawings and used by the casting vendor for additive manufacturing of the pattern equipment. The project proved much more challenging than expected, with several setbacks in the manufacturing and assembly of the castings, gears, and gear housing. However, all involved in the project stepped up when needed and solved problems and issues, resulting in Hilliard shipping the Model 30 during the week of 6/9. The Sayre site is going to install the new starter and send the old unit back to Hilliard for evaluation and repair. Kinder Morgan operates (3) starters at the Sayre site. There are other Model 30 starters operating, and Hilliard hopes to secure future orders for new units and repairs.
Written by: Jon Williams and Steve Lovell