BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (April 23, 2012) – The new home for PurePOWER Technologies (PPT) means room for the company to grow and additional high-tech jobs for the Bowling Green area.
PPT, a division of Navistar International, on Friday celebrated the opening of its new 13,000-square-foot facility at Western Kentucky University’s Center for Research and Development. It will serve as the design and development facility for PPT’s emissions control devices, valves and actuators, according to Jon Bigley, PPT’s Director of Engineering.
“These are critical technologies that are used in Navistar’s 2010 emissions-compliant MaxxForce diesel engines,” he said.
PPT’s emissions control devices started at Holley Performance in Bowling Green, and was purchased by Navistar in early 2010. With the help of the Central Region Innovation and Commercialization Center, PPT moved to the WKU Business Accelerator, located in the Center, where it quickly expanded to five suites.
With the need for more space came the corporate discussion of moving the operation out of Kentucky, according to Doug Rohrer, associate vice president for Research and Development at WKU.
“They didn’t want to leave and we didn’t want them to leave,” Rohrer said. “We met with management and showed them we could provide a first-class facility here. After the senior people saw the space and our commitment, they agreed to keep the facility here.”
Rohrer said PPT was the “perfect type of company to keep in the Commonwealth” because of their need for a high-tech workforce.
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