Aerospace tour brings ideas for locals: Part II

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

As part of the Aerospace tour the group visited two local businesses including Industrial Electric in Orangeville and EAO Services in Lawrence.
At Industrial Electric, Todd Hinkins gave the group of tour of the facility. They watched the various employees perform their duties as Hinkins explained the operation. They rebuild electrical motors. Their business is down recently with the decline of coal mines in the area. Hinkins said only six-eight coal mines remain and at one time there were 27.
They also do limited work for the power plants. They have added the trona mines in Wyoming to those doing business with them.
First the used motor is burned out and then cleaned out and rewound. Hinkins said this rebuilding process can be used several times until the part wears out. They purchase their copper from Denver and Salt Lake. Copper prices are down a bit at this time. They have picked up some business from farmers with the new sprinkling system irrigation which has been installed in recent years. Hinkins said, “When a farmer brings in pump or motor, we get right on it because if the sprinklers are down, then they aren’t watering their fields.”
Any old copper that comes off the machines is salvaged. Hinkins said, “We have 18 employees and two sales people. We have one secretary, my brother David and my brother Ross. We’ve had as low as 12 employees and as high as 30. Eighteen is working out for us right now. Most of our employees have 20-30 years experience and have been here since high school. Long wall miners only have two motors. Continuous miners have six motors. So there’s less work for us with a long wall miner. Deer Creek Mine used to be 50 percent of our business. We have picked up Bridger Coal Mine and some mines in Colorado.
Industrial Electric came to be when David Hinkins at 22 years old opened a small motor rewind shop on Orangeville’s Main Street in 1976.
“It was a good place to start, but I don’t think the neighbors there enjoyed the noise we made grinding and welding much,” he said.
By 1978 they had grown enough that they moved to southwest Orangeville, the location where they are in business today. Growing from three employees who worked largely with local mines Industrial Electric Motor Service works with industry in many of the surrounding states.
“We work with about 30 mines in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah,” said Hinkins.
The company provides and repairs motors and pumps for mines, does control repair and custom controls and works with and provides some communication systems for mines. The company handles such lines as Flygt, Appalachian, Ocenco, Line Power, Baldor and Stancor.
“We want to be sure what we send customers will work right for the application they need,” states Hinkins. “We rebuild motors so that they provide the power needed and make sure the paperwork on the tests we do on them go to the customer. Without the testing you can never be certain that even if a motor is rebuilt it will provide the power that is needed in a mine. It can be quite a deal if someone goes to all the trouble to install a motor in a mine and then find out it isn’t capable of what they need.”
Hinkins and his brothers come from a coal mining family, but also had a lot of agriculture in their blood as well. He credits his family and upbringing for a strong work ethic and willingness to try and succeed, for he and his brothers success. Education also helped.
Industrial Electric is one of the companies that will be looking at the aerospace industry to see if there is anything this Orangeville Company can provide them.
The next leg of the tour visited the EAO machine shop in Lawrence. You might not think the sleepy town of Lawrence is the spot for a thriving cutting edge machine shop. This company is also looking to expand their presence in the aerospace industry. Currently they have helped Conductive Composites design a machine they needed to produce items for the aerospace industry. Conductive Composites is a Heber City company with a satellite location in Cleveland.
Dale and Angie Fillmore operate the machine shop in Lawrence along with their son Evan. “We operate a family business with two part-time employees. Our business has grown a lot and we have invested a lot. We do work that has brought a new business opportunity to the county. We build brakes and have a patent pending on our brake. We have designed a wet disc brake for underground equipment. We are working on expanding that product. We do a lot of machine work. We designed it, built the machine that makes it and sold it.
“We have also worked on an in-take flame trap. This works on the intake of a diesel engine and makes it flameproof. We have several orders for this product. We also produce an exhaust flame trap. We sell a lot of products in Canada. We have invested heavily in CNC equipment. We also build a nut for the power plant.
Fillmore said their company does a little bit of everything. Dale said, “There are a lot of old products out there that you can’t get parts for any more. We can build parts like that. We do a lot of specialty work. We design the part on the computer first. We can take older machinery and keep it running for you. It’s easy to build the part, once you have the design. When Conductive Composites came to us they described what the machine should be. It was something we could build that they needed. We need to find our niche. Supplying people with what they need. We like to tackle things. I have a mining background and my son Evan does a lot of the construction.”
Fillmore said they are proud of their flame arrestor, which allows air to flow. Other places tried to build it, but EAO Services got it right. Their products go out around the world. Their business too has shrunk with the down swing in the coal mining industry in the area.
Joe Rice from Lockheed Martin invited Dale and Evan to get on the website and see if there are any parts they could produce for them in Lawrence.
Fillmore said they like to listen to their customer.
They would go into a mine and ask them what their biggest problems were and then EAO would work to solve them.
Rice said it’s exciting to think of the possibilities the aerospace industry could bring to a small business like EAO Services.
He said that’s the purpose of the aerospace tour to bring these ideas to rural Utah and to inspire local small business to think beyond their county lines and to find a place for themselves in a bigger market.
Rice said the aerospace industry is highly regulated and much is expected as far as quality.
The state office of economic development can help small businesses to go after opportunities that exist and learn to bid on them.
George Hansen from Conductive Composites said he has appreciated the work EAO Services has done for them and it was worth every penny.
Rice said, “Be the best you can be at your niche. Find out what we’re doing. Find out what services and contracts we need. Our company is all across the nation in all 50 states and in 27 countries. We employ 98,000 people.”