Parker Hannifin Corporation ,
the world’s leading motion-control technology company, plays a vital role in
making humanity’s first permanent home in space habitable. The company’s
technologies are critical to sealing, heating and cooling the International
Space Station as it orbits 230 miles above the earth.
Hurtling through space and passing from direct sunlight to nearly complete
darkness, exposes the station to unearthly temperature extremes. Even though
protected by thermal blankets and heaters, Parker’s connector and sealing
systems must function over a temperature range of -140 to +120 degrees
Fahrenheit, -95.5 to +48.9 degrees Celsius. Such extremes, coupled with
atmospheric differences between the pressurized station and the vacuum of
space, present significant challenges to maintaining a life-sustaining
environment for the station’s international crew.
Parker provides the connections and sealing technologies for a variety of
critical onboard controls, including temperature, avionics, pressurization and
water supply.
These products are proprietary, designed and produced by Parker
especially for the space station after more than 10 years of development and
testing.
Parker’s international scope and experience meeting worldwide engineering
requirements were important factors in providing service to support the
project, which is a collaboration of 15 countries. For example, Parker seals
on the Italian-made interface cupola are manufactured in Germany, while the
company’s California and Illinois facilities produce heating and
pressurization systems supporting the U.S., European, and Japanese modules.
Inside the space station, Parker technologies ensure that conditions in
the laboratory spaces and living quarters remain comfortable and free of
contaminants.
Over the next five years, Parker will work with the US National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its contractors to design and
produce more than 3000 assemblies needed to complete construction of the
project.
While the International Space Station represents a recent example where
Parker products are mission-critical, the company’s motion-control
applications range from space exploration to general and commercial aviation;
telecommunications; energy and power generation; semiconductor fabrication;
climate and industrial controls; processing industries; and automation.
With annual sales of $6 billion, Parker Hannifin is the world’s leading
diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems,
providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of commercial,
mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. The company employs more than 45,000
people in 46 countries around the world. For more information, visit the
company’s web site at www.parker.com or its investor information site at
www.phstock.com .
