The facility is used for technology development and testing, and a training area with a hands-on hose assembly zone, contamination control center and fluid power circuit lab. Secure vehicle bays provide space to Gates customers in equipment manufacturing to conduct confidential application testing and development.

The facility at 330 Inverness Dr. South employs 60 engineers and scientists previously employed at the former Gates facility at Interstate 25 and Broadway, and also includes transfer employees from Gates facilities in Rockford and Galesburg, IL, as well as new hires. Denver was selected over Atlanta and Kansas City as the site for the facility in recognition of the concentration of Gates engineers in the Denver area and the Inverness Business Park's proximity to both Gates world headquarters in downtown Denver and Denver International Airport.

Gates never considered outsourcing the jobs overseas, a company spokesman tells GlobeSt.com. This is the only Fluid Power Division testing facility in the world. Its Power Transmission Division, by contrast, has testing facilities in Rochester Hills, MI, Aachen, Germany, and Nara, Japan.

"Gates Corp. has built its reputation as a global innovator and market leader in belts, hose and hydraulics," says Richard Bell, president of Gates. "The Customer Solutions Center will reinforce that reputation by bringing together the our scientists and engineers with our partners and customers from around the globe, creating a state-of-the-art, collaborative environment for innovation."

Lou Braga, Group President of Gates Worldwide Fluid Power Division, notes, "The needs of our customers are constantly changing, requiring Gates to strive for new technologies and solutions to meet our customers' challenges. The Customer Solutions Center will strengthen our customers' role in our product development process and enable us to meet the needs of our customers, faster."

At the Customer Solutions Center, Gates scientists, engineers and technicians focus on innovative fluid power solutions for a range of Gates products used in an array of machines ranging from automobiles, rock crushers, copy machines, snowmobiles, air conditioners, to heavy construction equipment. Gates products are tests for resistance to heat, cold, abrasion, vibration and other conditions in the field. Gates has 43 manufacturing facilities worldwide and 27 distribution centers in 20 countries--Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom and the US.

Gates is one of the world's largest manufacturers of automotive and industrial products, systems and components. Gates has sales and marketing operations in every major industrial and automotive market, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. Tomkins is a publicly traded company with 36,000 employees worldwide.