MILFORD, OH-The recent acquisition of Computer Technology Corp. (CTC), headquartered here, by Parker Hannifin Corp. (Cleveland, OH) will enable the latter company to offer distributors and customers a broader base of automation solutions for the factory floor.
CTC will be an operating division of Parker's $550 million worldwide Automation Group, continuing to operate from its Milford location with no planned personnel changes. "The CTC acquisition gives Parker Hannifin a human-machine interface [HMI] line of both hardware and software products that will take us to the next level in the motion-control industry," comments John K. Oelslager, president of Parker Hannifin's Automation Group. "The CTC product line allows us to bundle solutions with our electro-mechanical products and our serial interface products, especially on the pneumatic side of our business."
Parker Hannifin produces motion and control components for the industrial and aerospace markets, achieving sales of more than $4 billion in fiscal 1997. CTC has been designing, manufacturing, and marketing both hardware and software to provide factory-floor machine-control HMI solutions for automation projects worldwide.
Jay Vierling, founder and president of CTC, says, "The evolution of automation from pushbuttons, lights, and meters to software-driven, 3-D digital images with alarming, data tracking, and diagnostics features fueled a large demand for advanced control systems. CTC has been able to fulfill this demand with our Interact software product."
CTC also designs, engineers, and manufactures a line of open architecture, PC-based industrial hardware platforms called PowerStations that run the company's Interact package. "We will be able to provide our customers with an integrated HMI, control, and motion product as an integrated solution for the marketplace," Vierling continues. "CTC customers will be able to access a broader worldwide network of service and support through Parker's international network. In addition, because Parker brings such financial strength, it provides us with the resources to continue the aggressive development of some new products and technologies. And, it allows us to bring those technologies to market faster than we might on our own.
"From Parker's perspective, their customers have had to go elsewhere for the technologies we provide," Vierling continues. "One of Parker's objectives is to provide its customers with solution sales, so now it will be able to provide more of a total solution to its customers." MA