Parker Aerospace buys SprayCool

Liberty Lake tech company SprayCool announced it has been acquired by Parker Aerospace, a business group of worldwide technology provider Parker Hannifin, based in Cleveland.

Terms of the purchase have not been disclosed, said Parker Aerospace spokeswoman Alison Dittmeier, based in Irvine, Calif.

The takeover will have no impact on the roughly 40 workers at SprayCool’s Spokane-area office, she said.

SprayCool was the later name for tech startup Isothermal Systems Research, launched in the late 1980s by brothers Donald and Chuck Tilton in Clarkston.

ISR moved to Liberty Lake in 2002 and changed its name by 2006.

It makes highly efficient cooling systems for electronic components and sealed enclosures used in advanced military vehicles. SprayCool has developed enclosed cooling and energy-control systems used on unmanned aircraft and inside the Defense Department’s high-altitude U2 spy plane.

In 2009 privately held SprayCool had $11.4 million in sales, Dittmeier said.

The Liberty Lake office will become part of the Parker Aerospace division known as gas turbine fuel systems. That division has locations in Mentor, Ohio; Clyde, N.Y.; Glendale, Ariz.; Moncks Corner, S.C.; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

One major reason for the purchase, Dittmeier said, was to complement Parker Aerospace’s thermal management product line. Among other customers, its heat-reduction technology is used in the Airbus A350 aircraft.

Parker’s purchase of SprayCool gives Parker access to technology being used in military ground vehicles and on unmanned aircraft, two areas the global firm sees as solid markets, said Dittmeier.

“It will be great for both of those areas to be combined (with Parker Aerospace) to provide broader product offerings for our customers,” she said.

Publicly traded Parker Hannifin had $10.3 billion in sales last year, with 52,000 employees worldwide.