Franklin Power Products.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Ventures - Company profile

Recycling finally has come into vogue in a big way, and no one could be happier about it than Mike Jarvis.

Jarvis' business has nothing to do with aluminum cans or glass bottles. He and his co-workers at Franklin Power Products recycle engines.

And remanufactured engines look and perform like new when they leave the factory. A worn diesel engine that's unloaded at Franklin Power Products may have propelled a truck in excess of a quarter of a million miles, and it's not a pretty sight. Employees inspect the engine to discover missing or damaged parts, and if the engine passes inspection, it is cleaned with a chemical bath and burning. Worn parts are discarded. Employees bore the block to restore it to original specifications, bore and hone cylinders. The block surface, cranks, camshafts, heads and connecting rods are inspected and machined as necessary, and engine parts are reassembled by hand. The finished product undergoes tests that include running on its own power so performance data can be monitored. What was a grimy, oily, worn engine is transformed into a clean, brightly painted product that looks and runs like new.

"I think with the emphasis on conservation today, remanufacturing's future looks very bright," forecasts Jarvis, president of the Franklin-based company. "The remanufacturing business is the fastest-growing segment in the automotive industry."

"People now are starting to recognize the need to salvage and reuse materials," Jarvis notes. "With the labor and raw materials that are put into new products, it's foolish to throw them away when you can remanufacture them back to a new state."

Not only is it foolish to ignore a worn engine's potential for new life, it simply doesn't make economic sense, says Barry Soltz, president of the Buffalo Grove, Ill.-headquartered Automotive Engine Rebuilders Association. "With the price of a new vehicle and with the quality of rebuilding, you have to weigh the economics."

The economics of engine remanufacturing have been clear to those involved with Franklin Power Products for some time-in fact, before the company's birth seven years ago. Prior to the summer of 1983, what is now Franklin Power Products was the remanufacturing division of international Harvester Co. Times were tough for Harvester, which now is known as Navistar International Corp., and the company chose to divest itself of its interest in remanufacturing the engines it built.

Jarvis, who had worked for International...