The Clarcor Innovation Center will house research scientists and engineers, along with the company’s Advanced Filtration Solutions group. The new facility will serve as Clarcor’s central R&D centre and support operating companies around the world. It will include research laboratories, high-end testing equipment, pilot and semi-works production lines, and a learning centre.
Clarcor will begin remodeling activities and relocating assets from a smaller R&D facility in Ohio as soon as the purchase of the Columbia facility is completed.
The Clarcor Innovation Center will be located a half hour from the company’s corporate headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee.
“Our strategy with the Innovation Center is to complement the talented scientists and innovators working in our various operating companies around the world with a centralized resource to better leverage our significant synergies and launch more best in class filtration products and technologies across Clarcor," said Clarcor chairman, president and CEO Chris Conway. "The Innovation Center will focus on developing unique filtration media, advancing our nanofiber capabilities, and creating innovative processes and differentiated filtration products that can deliver increased value to our customers, employees and shareholders.”
Clarcor plans to invest more than US$10 million and create 35 new jobs in Middle Tennessee over the next five years.