GALAXY FLOOR SANDING MACHINES... A TRUE REFLECTION OF THE
COMPANY’S COMMITMENT TO INNOVATION
Canadian
Industrial Machinery 
July 2002
It was just 25 years ago when Jim Tasikas began repairing
motors for US-built floor sanding machines. “Hardwood floors
were very popular at the time,” said Galaxy President Jim
Tasikas, “and the U.S. manufacturers were almost too busy
selling machines to start rebuilding them. Over a period of time,
say 5 to 7 years, our customers gradually began asking us to repair
other parts of the sanding machines, until we reached a point where
we thought we should just start making machines ourselves.”
Galaxy designed their first machine to resemble existing
products in the North American market. Except for the motors, many
of Galaxy’s component parts where out-sourced from other suppliers.
Typical of Tasikas’ style, he began talking to the contractors,
asking his patented question - “if you could have another
new machine, what special features would you want?” This was
the foundation for years of innovations created by Tasikas, for
his line of Galaxy floor sanding machines. Galaxy currently holds
several patents on their products. “I use this customer input,”
comments Tasikas, “as a challenge to develop features that
were previously not available on any products in the industry. I
believe that is what gradually enabled Galaxy to become the market
leader.” Galaxy markets their products in North America and
Europe and currently sells more floor sanding machines than all
of their competitors combined.
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Galaxy maintains a large inventory of most models of their
machines. |
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Galaxy currently manufactures 11 different models of machines, each
of which offers a unique benefit to the operator. “One model,”
says Tasikas, “uses a large drum for sanding, which offers an
excellent finish but the type of paper required can get a little expensive
for some applications. Another model has a belt and drum together.
The belt sander can be used for heavy rough sanding and the drum for
finish sanding. We recently developed another model that has a buffer/sander
plate that moves in a linear motion. No other manufacturer offers
this feature. The advantage of
this design for the contractor is that it offers a superior finish
because it moves in the same direction as the grain of the wood,
avoiding the creation of lines against the grain.”
Continuing his efforts to make the contractor more
productive, Tasikas noticed after surveying a number of contractors
that many of them had difficulty handling heavy equipment, including
sanders, to the second story of unfinished homes. “After 10
hours working in the field, lifting heavy equipment can get a little
tiring,” says Tasikas, “so I began to experiment with
different ways of making it easier to transport our sanding machines.
Within a very short period of time we will introduce an optional
accessory that will enable our machines to walk up a stairway almost
completely under their own power.”
In their current location on Northline Road in Toronto, Galaxy’s
facility spans a healthy 22,000 square feet of manufacturing and
office space. “Since we moved here,” says Tasikas, “we
began manufacturing all of our own components. We manufacture everything
but the castings for the machines. Our machines are especially well-known
for the quality of our motors - a compact, 7 1/2 horsepower, high
torque unit that we perfected after years of experience from rebuilding
other manufacturers motors.
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Rob Fletcher of TopTech inspects parts with Jim Tasikas.
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Investing in new technology is another way Galaxy can concentrate
on adding quality to the construction and design of his machines
and at the same time controlling costs. Recently, he purchased a
Top Tech CH7520 turning center from Top Tech CNC Machine of Concord,
Ontario. “After surveying the marketplace for the right machine,”
says Tasikas, “we decided on the Top Tech machine because
it offered high technology and accuracy at a very reasonable price.
We can easily hold two tenths on our components and, with this machine,
we have almost cut our production time of small components in half.
The CNC Top Tech lathe is a 3-axis, 45-degree slant bed turning
center with a full C-axis and live tooling on all of the turret
stations. It also has a built-in tool presetter, parts catcher,
bar feeder and a programmable tailstock. Now we can do turning,
milling, tapping and drilling on the same machine.” How much
time is saved with this machine? “We haven’t actually
done time study analysis,” insists Tasikas, “but most
of the small parts that were manufactured on two machines (a CNC
lathe and machining center), are now done on the Top Tech in one
set-up.”
Tasikas wouldn’t go as far as saying he is leaving competitors
behind in his dust but agrees that his ongoing new product development
is helping continuing to make small gains on the marketplace.
For more information contact Top Tech Machine of Concord,
Ontario
or Galaxy Floor Sanding Machines in Toronto, Ontario
Web Reply #348M
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