Burke Porter Group rebrands, expands transportation division to include EV propulsion & more
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Announced on Thursday, Burke Porter Group has rebranded to Ascential Technologies with a focus on technology and data-driven solutions.
However, its transportation services and products will still be under the name Burke Porter. Services include OEM vehicle end-of-line testing on 40 million vehicles every year and factory-level performance-grade advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) calibrations.
“I like to think of us a bit like ‘Intel Inside,'” said Jeff Moss, Ascential Technologies CEO, referring to a former Intel Corp. ad campaign. “We don’t invent the ADAS sensors that go on the cars but we calibrate them to factory-level standards. We don’t innovate gene therapies and medical life sciences that detect and fight cancer but we automate our customers’ innovation in the form of instruments and medical devices that they sell to leading research laboratories. In all three of our divisions, we have a common purpose and that’s harnessing science and saving lives.”
For 70 years, the company has designed, developed, and automated diagnostics, inspection, and test processes — first in transportation then, for the last 15 years, in medical and life sciences and specialty industrial end markets. Now, under its new name, the company plans to provide services in other markets as well.
Ascential’s suite of solutions includes safety-validated equipment, services, and data management capabilities as well as aftermarket services.
Burke Porter’s brands are now divided into three divisions under Ascential, which Moss said is a combination of the word “ascend” and “essential.”
“We handle our customers’ toughest problems, especially when it’s mission-critical,” Moss said. “That’s when they come to us. ‘Ascential Technologies’ really allows us to simplify our message to the market. We had 18 different brands that are now coming together into three distinct divisions with clear end-markets.”
The divisions are Burke Porter, Medical and Life Sciences, and Industrial.
Burke Porter is expanded to include product design, development, laboratory services, electric vehicle (EV) propulsion, and aftermarket products and services. This division collects and reports on data at every stage of development to optimize product delivery, according to Ascential.
Its most recent addition included the creation of an aftermarket business division earlier this summer to offer industry-wide ADAS calibration.
“We’ve had really good traction in that market,” Moss said. “Our benefit there is offering factory level calibration resulting in factory level accuracy. It’s also doing an automatic match between the [OEM] calibration procedure and the vehicle. As you can imagine, the number of vehicles with sensors is growing and the number of sensors on each vehicle is growing but the complexity is crazy.
We offer not only the ability to do factory-level calibration in our software algorithms [but] we have developed the ability to match the calibration procedure with the vehicle… There’s this growing need for [a] technician base in the collision repair industry and a lack of technicians to do that… One of the benefits of the service that we offer in our calibration is it results in less manpower so in a market that’s strapped for technicians, we believe we’re more efficient.”
Medical and Life Sciences include genomics, personalized medicine, new instrument go-to-market projects, automated manufacture, and testing and diagnostics.
Industrial provides safety and efficiency testing products and solutions for companies in HVAC, white goods, heavy industry, and energy sectors. It will continue to go to market under the current brand names Cimat, Titan, Galileo, Lismar, and Kleinknecht.
For more information on Ascential Technologies, visit www.ascentialtech.com.
Images
Featured image: The Ascential Technologies logo on one of the company’s buildings. (Provided by Ascential)
A technician performs ADAS calibrations at a Burke Porter Group facility. (Provided by Ascential)