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Parker Hannifin Corp.'s Gas Turbine Fuel Systems division is growing in Mentor thanks not only to increased demand for its jet engine fuel nozzles, but also because it's finding the same technology that sprays fuel into a combustion chamber also can be used to cool the chips in supercomputers and other hot electronics.
"Thermal management is becoming more and more important," said David McKnight, the unit's director of business development.
Then he laughs.
"I'll give you a dollar if you quote me on that," he says.
Mr. McKnight is amused, he said,
because there isn't a single one of the division's 135 local employees who hasn't heard him say those words--to the point where, when he starts the sentence today, someone else usually finishes it for him.
But Mr. McKnight is more than willing to take some kidding over his mantra, because it's helping the unit find new markets for its core technology. And those new markets, he said, mean new avenues to growth.
It turns out the Parker unit has discovered how to spray fuel and just about anything else with great precision. Its chief new market for the technology is electronics, where nozzles similar to those that disperse fuel in jet engines are used to spray electronic components with coolants.
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