MN Star Tribune reports..

Graco has signed a licensing deal with a Swiss company to use its special motors to help cool data centers.

The Minneapolis-based manufacturer announced Wednesday that it signed a deal with ABB, an international electrification and automation company, to supply devices called transverse flux motors (TFM) from a company Graco acquired in 2018.

Graco and Zurich-based ABB have partnered on other industrial applications. This deal will give Graco additional exposure into one of the fastest-growing industrial applications in the rapid build out of datacenters.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Graco is not the only Twin Cities company chasing the data center business. NVent has expanded its local factories because of its contracts, and 3M, Ecolab and Forgent Power also have large data-center businesses.