Isothermal Systems Research Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of cooling technologies for electronics, has opened branch offices in both Seattle and Wichita, Kansas, and has formed a strategic partnership with Seattle-based Callison Architecture Inc.


The fast-growing company has expanded from about 200 employees in January to about 260 now, and will double the number of workers in its new Seattle office to 10 by the end of the year, says Rob Savette, general manager of its commercial division. He anticipates the company will open offices in San Jose, Calif., and New York City within the next year as well.


ISR, which last year generated almost all of its $32 million in revenue from military contracts, wants to be better connected with players in the Wichita area, such as Raytheon Aircraft Co., Boeing Co., and Cessna Aircraft Co., and so has opened its office there to attract more aerospace business, says spokesman Karsten Olson. He says both the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy also have strong presences in that area.


ISRs Wichita office opened in late August with four people, and theres a good chance that more workers will be added there later, says Olson.


ISR now has offices in Liberty Lake, Pullman, and Seattle, Wash.; Wichita; and Washington, D.C.


In addition to its military work, ISR is seeking to expand the market for its SprayCool technology, which uses a dielectric fluid to cool electronics, in the private sector. The company launched a commercial division last year with that goal in mind, says Patchens Noelke, that divisions marketing director.


He says the partnership with Callison, a 500-employee concern, will help expand ISRs presence in the commercial market through Callisons strong customer base of clients with data centers who face an ongoing problem of too much computer-generated heat.


By using SprayCool instead of air to cool electronics, data centers can achieve a threefold increase in computer power, claims Leonard Ruff, associate principal for Callison.


The use of SprayCool products in the data center reduces the amount of power used per server for cooling, increases the number of servers that can be powered per rack, and dramatically increases the amount of computing power than can be put into existing data centers and racks, he says.


Noelke asserts that use of SprayCool can help companies delay or avoid expanding the size of their data centers.


Callison says its been designing data centers since 1986.