Cummins Inc. will sell its exhaust business to Global Tube so it can focus more on core business, the Columbus engine maker said Tuesday.

Global Tube is a portfolio company of the Chicago-based private equity firm Wind Point Partners.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March.

Cummins said the exhaust business is part of its emissions division, which provides after-treatment technologies to control diesel engine fumes. Those include the Diesel Particulate Filter and the Selective Catalytic Reduction systems used to meet emissions regulations for on-highway diesel engines mandated last year by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The exhaust business includes plants in the Wisconsin cities of Stoughton, Viroqua, Arcadia and Black River Falls, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

According to the newspaper, the new business will be called Nelson Products and be based in Stoughton. In 1998, Cummins spent $488 million to acquire a Stoughton-based company called Nelson Industries, which made filters and exhaust systems at 10 Wisconsin factories and others in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. It had 2,700 employees and annual sales of $260 million.

Janet Williams, Cummins director of corporate communications, told the Wisconsin State Journal that the new Nelson Products will have about 900 Wisconsin employees, including an estimated 200 temporary workers.