Iowa History Daily: On December 28, 1977, Precision Pulley & Idler Inc. (PPI) first posted a help-wanted ad. The Marion County company still stands as the industry leader in conveying components, with over a million square feet of manufacturing space and 25 global facilities.
Started in Knoxville, the company moved to Pella’s south industrial park during 1979. Starting as a manufacturer of conveyor pulley systems, the company quickly grew to seventy workers at the new Pella facility. Providing flat belt conveyor pulleys for industries including grain, ore, aggregate, and coal, PPI started shipping products all over the country during the 1980s.
The company continued to diversify products and enter new markets while ultimately becoming the number one pulley and idler supplier in the United States. Expanding globally during the early 2000s, the company expanded operations in Pella while also bringing on two international manufacturing facilities. An employee-owned company, the continued growth of PPI allowed for continued profitability as the company entered nears the half-century mark.
In 2018, they opened a new Technology Center to serve as the home base for the company’s engineers. Today, PPI still represents the leading supplier of conveying components in the aggregate, mining, forestry, grain, unit handling, and food processing industries while operating out of a headquarters in Pella. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
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