Parker Hannifin - Parker Aerospace

Parker Hannifin Corporation, originally Parker Appliance Company, usually referred to as just Parker, is an American corporation specializing in motion and control technologies. Its corporate headquarters are in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, in Greater Cleveland (with a Cleveland mailing address). The company was founded in 1917, and has been publicly traded on the NYSE since December 9, 1964. Parker Hannifin is one of the largest companies in the world in motion control technologies, including aerospace, climate control, electromechanical, filtration, fluid and gas handling, hydraulics, pneumatics, process control, and sealing and shielding. Parker employs about 58,000 people globally.

In 2016 the company was ranked 230 in the Fortune 500.

Business groups

Parker is divided into 7 operating groups with service to 55 countries on six continents in these 9 technology areas.

• Aerospace
• Climate Control
• Filtration
• Fluid & Gas Handling
• Electromechanical
• Hydraulics
• Pneumatics
• Process Control
• Sealing & Shielding

History

Milestones:

• 1917: Parker Appliance Company was founded by Arthur L. Parker.
• 1919: On a promotional trip to Boston, the truck and trailer carrying the company's entire inventory blew a tire, destroying all of its inventory. Parker Appliance Company became bankrupt, and its founder returned to an engineering post at a Nickel Plate Road plant, but vowed to start again.
• 1924: Arthur L. Parker saved and restarted the Parker Appliance Company and the pneumatic/hydraulic components division succeeded by serving automotive and aviation customers.
• 1927: Parker's reputation for producing reliable, high-pressure connections led aviator Charles Lindbergh to specify Parker fittings for the Spirit of St. Louis' historic first Atlantic crossing.
• 1935: In the midst of the Depression, optimistic Arthur Parker bought a 500,000-square-foot (42,000 m2) Cleveland auto plant from Hupp Motor Car Company to house his 38-employee company.
• 1939: Parker Appliance sales reached $3 million.
• 1943: Parker employed 5,000 Clevelanders, all in defense production.
• 1945: Company founder Arthur L. Parker died; World War II's end halted defense contracts. With no industrial business, the company faced near liquidation. The founder's wife, Helen Parker, refused to give up, and hired new management, who gradually rebuilt industrial business. Son Patrick S. Parker eventually took control of the company.
• 1953: Parker made its first acquisition, the Synthetic Rubber Products Company in Los Angeles, California.
• 1957: An acquisition era is underway. With the acquisition of Hannifin Corporation came new cylinder and valve products and a new corporate name: Parker Hannifin Corporation.
• 1960: A new International Division was formed to market Parker products abroad.
• 1964: Shares of Parker Hannifin stock (NYSE: PH) were traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time.
• 1966: Parker Hannifin entered Fortune-500 listing of top companies.
• 1969: Parker has operations in 10 countries in Europe and Latin America. Pat Parker, the founder’s son, was elected President of Parker and Parker products land on the moon with American astronaut Neil Armstrong.
• 1975: Parker introduced a new company logo.
• 1977: Parker sales reached $500 million.
• 1978: Parker strengthened its position in the aerospace market with the acquisition of the Bertea Corporation, which laid the foundation for future leadership in flight controls, hydraulics, and fuel management systems.
• 1981: Parker sales reached $1.1 billion.
• 1983: Parker formed a joint venture in China.
• 1988: Marking its 70th anniversary, Parker made seven acquisitions and exceeded $2 billion in sales.
• 1992: Parker globalized its business by forming worldwide products groups.
• 1994: The first retail store, ParkerStore, opened with the objective to reach the aftermarket and gain a greater customer share.
• 1997: Parker moved to brand new World Headquarters building in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
• 2000: Parker sales reached $5.4 billion. The company merged with Commercial Intertech, its largest deal at the time, and completed four other acquisitions.
• 2001: Parker introduced the Win Strategy with the single goal to raise the performance of the company to a higher level. In Europe, Parker acquired several large companies in the fluid power business from 1997 and forward, such as Commercial Hydraulics and VOAC Hydraulics.
• 2005: Patrick S. Parker died. Parker sales reach $8.2 billion, and the company acquired six companies, and was awarded the hydraulic subsystem for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jet.
• 2006: Parker had made 210 strategic acquisitions since the company's founding.
• 2007: Parker opened its 1,000th ParkerStore.
• 2011: Parker reached record sales of $12.3 billion.

Aerospace group

Parker Aerospace is a global leader in hydraulic, fuel, flight control, pneumatic, electronics cooling, and fluid conveyance components and systems and related electronic controls for aerospace and other high-technology markets. Its products are used on aircraft manufactured throughout the world today, including commercial transports, military fixed-wing planes, regional and business aircraft, helicopters, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Based in Irvine, California, Parker Aerospace operates 39 facilities in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The latest programs include the COMAC C919, Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine, Bombardier CSeries and Global 7000/8000, Embraer Legacy 500/450, Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Gulfstream G650, Model 850 Citation Columbus, and Airbus A350 XWB.

Greener aircraft and reduced emissions

Parker Aerospace is a longtime Airbus supplier, with special competencies in multifunctional system integration. Parker is partnering with Airbus to develop fuel cell technology as an alternative energy source for on-ground and in-flight electrical power supply. Within this partnership, Airbus will be responsible for the overall aircraft system architecture and technology integration into the aircraft, and Parker will supply the multifunctional fuel cell system and manage different subsystem suppliers. A fuel cell is a device which transforms the energy contained in hydrogen and oxygen into electricity through a direct chemical conversion at a low temperature without moving parts. The exhaust product is water, and in the case of an air-breathing system, oxygen-depleted air. The electricity produced by fuel cells can be cleaner and more efficient than combustion engines, depending on the hydrogen source. In addition, the water and the oxygen-depleted air (inert gas) can be used on the airplane to substitute the water and inerting systems.

The objective of the cooperation is the development of a technology demonstrator followed by a joint flight test campaign for the middle of the decade, including operational and infrastructural tests. With Parker Aerospace involved in the project from this earliest phase, industrialization can be considered throughout the development of the process, rather than at the end. Airbus considers fuel cell technology as a key contributor to meeting the ACARE 2020 goals, which foresee the reduction of CO₂ emissions by 50%, NO_X emissions by 80%, and noise by 50%.

Boeing 737 incidents

In 1995, it was discovered that failures in a servo unit supplied by Parker Hannifin to Boeing for use in their 737 aircraft may have contributed to several incidents, including that of United Airlines Flight 585 and USAir Flight 427.

In 2004, a Los Angeles jury ordered Parker Hannifin to pay US$43 million to the plaintiff families of the 1997 SilkAir Flight 185 crash in Indonesia. Parker Hannifin subsequently appealed the verdict, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount. The National Transportation Safety Committee could not determine the cause of the crash due to the near total lack of physical evidence and complete destruction, this in contrast to the US National Transportation Safety Board, however, which disagreed and determined that the crash was caused, possibly intentionally, by the pilot.

The FAA ordered an upgrade of all Boeing 737 rudder control systems by November 12, 2002. Parker argued that the components they supplied were not at fault, citing that the product has one of the safest records in its class, but the FAA directive went through regardless.

F-35

On 18 January 2013, the F-35B variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II was grounded after the failure of a fueldraulic line in the aircraft's propulsion system that controls the exhaust vectoring system. This was in response to an incident on 16 January where the propulsion system experienced a fueldraulic failure prior to a conventional takeoff. The precautionary flight suspension is to preserve safety while providing time to understand the origin of the failure of the propulsion fueldraulic line. The failure was found to be a manufacturing defect by Parker Hannifin's Stratoflex division.

References

External links

• Parker Hannifin Corporation