|
Air starters are starter motors that use compressed air. They are about the size and shape of regular electric starters, but you attach a large air hose and control it with a valve. I've used them on stationary diesel motors, like Detroit Diesels and Caterpillars, where you have access to lots of compressed air. I don't know the minimum air volume and pressure requirements. We were using a large 750 cubic foot per minute compressor to provide the air, so it wasn't a problem. If I remember, Ingersoll Rand made them. They have to be the ultimate way to start diesels. We also used hydraulic starters occasionally. They had a small hand pump, sort of like a porta-power, to pump hydraulic fluid into a steel chamber that was about a gallon in size. The chamber contained a large spring and diaphram, so that the fluid compressed the spring. After you pumped it up, you opened a valve that let the pressurized fluid into the starter motor, which was just a hydraulic motor. It would give you about 10 seconds of cranking, which was usually enough. The spent fluid then drained into a sump where the hand pump could pick it up again. Occasionally, you had to pump them up several times before the motor would start. They were great in the sense that they required no outside power sources such as batteries, jumper cables, or compressed air, but we always used air starters whenever possible since they worked so well.
|
