Opening Up the Refrigerator Door to Star Refrigeration’s History
Just as a refrigerator door at home collects cherished memories and milestones in the form of magnets, photos, and notes, our Refrigerator Door is a place where we celebrate the journey of Star Refrigeration from its founding in 1970 to the present day.
Here, you’ll find a collection of photographs capturing key moments, significant achievements, and the people who have been part of our story. Each image represents a piece of our legacy, a reminder of the challenges we’ve overcome, the innovations we’ve introduced, and the community we’ve built along the way.
We invite you to explore these snapshots of our past and join us in reminiscing about the moments that have shaped Star Refrigeration into the trusted name it is today. Welcome to our virtual Refrigerator Door – where every picture tells a story, and every story is a testament to our enduring commitment to excellence.
50 years of innovation
A history of Star Refrigeration
Today marks Star’s 50th birthday! The company started in business on Monday, 12 October 1970, and fifty years later, the 12th also falls on a Monday. A piece of serendipity we’re sure our three founding directors would enjoy! #50YearsofInnovation #StarAt50
The first in a distinguished line of photos of #refrigeration packages leaving the Star factory! (1971 at Thornliebank). #StarAt50 #Manufacturing #Birthday #Photos
Did you know? Our current Azanefreezer concept had its roots in packaged units that were built for export. In the mid-1970s we equipped a series of cold stores in Egypt with a robust and effective system that was a prototype for future packaged plantrooms. #StarAt50 #Innovation
Here is a low-pressure receiver package with two 3-port valves for defrost, installed by Star in 1974 and still in operation to this day! #StarAt50 #RetroFridges
One of Star’s first LPR (low-pressure receiver) systems, which prevented liquid flood back to the compressor and had many of the benefits of liquid pump circulation without the complications associated with refrigerant liquid pumps! #StarAt50 #Innovation #Refrigeration
While we’re still in the #retro bit of our 50th birthday retrospective, here’s a look at our oldest #refrigeration plant, for Associated Seafoods cold store on the Moray Firth cost of Scotland, still going strong after 40 years!#StarAt50 #AgingGracefully
Star’s TELSTAR system, developed in 1983, was the first affordable #refrigeration plant control system with the ability to allow offsite monitoring and alarm-raising. This Mk1 transmitter had the optional extra data storage module! (below) #StarAt50 #Innovation #Engineering
In 1985, Glasgow hosted the World Curling Championships on an ice rink built by Star in the Kelvin Hall in just 8 days. Another #BirthdayMemory for the collection! #StarAt50 #ThoseWereTheDays #Curling #Cooling
In 1986, the first of Star’s thermosyphon cooling systems was installed for the Anglia Building Society in Wellingborough. These exceptionally efficient water chilling systems for computers used only 10% of the power of computer room air conditioners. #StarAt50 #Innovation #Photos
Foreseeing the demise of CFCs in the late 1980s, Star developed a new refrigerant, “Starton 69”. Its test equipment included this calorimeter, designed to measure its performance when used as a drop-in replacement for CFCs in #refrigeration systems! #StarAt50 #Innovation #RetroKit
Sun, sea and…ice-skating? In the summer of 1988 this ice rink plant went all the way from Star’s Glasgow factory to serve a temporary ice rink in Marbella, Spain… before returning to its permanent home in East Kilbride, just 10km from the factory! #StarAt50 #WellTravelled
Another flashback to 1988 with three modular #refrigeration units headed for the ASDA warehouse at Grangemouth! Built for the new wave of refrigerated distribution centres, they used the system architecture now embedded in our Azanefreezers. #StarAt50 #Innovation #ColdChain
Thermosyphon chillers installed in 1990 at the Dept of Social Security data centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear. This is where child benefit cheques come from. We also provided #cooling for the unemployment benefit cheques and the old age pensions at other DSS sites. #StarAt50
As our #retrospective hits the ’90s, here’s engineer Harry Pittam testing an ice slurry plant in a fish factory in the north of Scotland! The ice is pumped through a ring main and hosed directly onto the fish once they are packed in boxes. #StarAt50 #FishSupperAnyone? #BoxFresh
Climbing the walls! In the 1990s we expanded the leisure #ice business from ice rinks, to climbing walls (pictured) and even the real iceberg at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. We also equipped Torvill and Dean with a mobile plant for their world tour! #StarAt50 #HavingAnIceTime
A 4-year Star project for this freeze dried coffee plant began in 1997. It replaced an R-22 plant with the first ammonia/carbon dioxide cascade plant to be installed anywhere in the world since the 1930s! It became the blueprint for many more installations. #StarAt50 #Innovation
And here’s @docfridge installing stirring paddles in a fish factory ice slurry tank in the far north of Norway. Andy says, “I think that winter was the coldest my feet have ever been. I remember being so happy to find the hotel bathroom had underfloor heating…” #StarAt50
As our birthday #retrospective hits the 2000s, it’s 2002 and Star develops the world’s first distribution centres to use CO2 for both the chilled and frozen rooms! This plant room converted an old warehouse from R-22 to extend the asset life. #StarAt50 #Innovation #RecentHistory
In the #2000s, many ice rinks turned to ammonia in packaged chillers to get away from HCFCs. These systems are efficient and compact, with very low ammonia charge, so can operate safely in an ice rink environment – seen here at Aberdeen Curling Rink! #StarAt50 #Curling #Cooling
More 2000s #memories! Star’s Indigochiller using the revolutionary Turbocor compressor has been used in many applications including this corporate head office in London. But it owed its development to a chance encounter in Australia in 2004… #Serendipity #Cliffhangers #StarAt50
Star has always supported industry organisations. In 2005 we were present at the first @IIFIIR conference on Ammonia systems, at the beautiful Lake Ohrid in Macedonia and have been back for every conference since then. Looking forward to May 2021! #StarAt50 #Birthday #Memories
Possibly the cheapest environmental test chamber in the world Tarpaulin £16. String £3.95. Testing how a chiller performs in a 45°C ambient at our factory…… #StarAt50 #RefrigerationInThe2000s #NoExpenseSpared #Innovation #HotAir
The outside of one of our #chillstores for flowers and fruit! The #2010s have seen long-term chill storage be transformed by the Azanechiller, with #energy consumption often less than 20% of what might previously have been called “best practice”. #StarAt50 #EnergyEfficiency
Did you know? Star’s Neatpump concept is short for NH3 heatpump. Here’s a Star Renewable Energy Neatpump plantroom design from 2010 – we’ve identified industrial #heatpump systems as the solution to take the UK to #NetZero by the middle of the century! #StarAt50 #Innovation
In 2013 Azane Inc. was established to take Star’s novel approach to #ammonia systems to the U.S market. With offices first in San Francisco then Montana, the USA became a manufacturing base for this game-changing ‘low-charge ammonia’ Azane technology! #StarAt50 #RecentHistory
Star was delighted when the Scottish Wheelchair #Curling Association accepted our sponsorship of their annual National Wheelchair Curling Pairs Championship – and even named the event after us! Here’s us with the 2013 winners. #StarAt50 #ProudSponsor #BirthdayMemory #LoveCurling
To complete the #2010s here’s a great moment from 2018, when our #refrigeration plant analysis system Ethos won Product of the Year! We believe that Ethos will be a game-changer for industrial refrigeration. #StarAt50 #Innovation #EnergyEfficiency #CostSavings #NetZero
Really enjoyed our #TeamDay yesterday, ‘Playing The Game’ with Star staff via this mobile adventures app! Thanks to all for taking part – and for the heated competition we all know is secretly at the heart of industrial #refrigeration 😉 #Phew #BirthdayCelebrations #StarAt50
It wouldn’t be a Star welcome without a celebration! Lottie took part in the cake competition as part of #StarAt50 virtual celebrations. Keep an eye on our social media to see what Lottie gets up too in her week at Star 😄#WESLottieTour #TEWeek20 @WES1919 @Lottie_dolls