Klein Tools Inc. confirmed plans to open a small research and development facility in Mansfield, Texas that will employ between 20 and 30 people

The Lincolnshire-based company bought a 126,000 square-foot building for $4.5 million in Mansfield earlier this year to prepare for the facility, which will be used to test certain robotic and automated equipment, Chris Hargan, Klein Tools senior vice president of operations told the Tribune.

Klein Tools employs more than 1,000 people and has 11 manufacturing plants around the world including eight in the U.S.

The Texas plant is small in size. By comparison, the company opened a much larger facility in 2004 in the northwest Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village that employs about 120, Hargan said.

bjapsen@tribune.com