ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9602010004
SECTION: NRV ECONOMY PAGE: 24 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Eastern Repair & Fabrication, a privately owned Christiansburg company, is all about what vice president Bob Goncz likes to call "basic capacity, basic industry."
It is in the business of creating and repairing machinery that creates wealth, as opposed to recirculating it, he said. This year a small expansion of the plant - in the former Christiansburg Institute gymnasium and industrial arts building on Scattergood Drive - may create a few jobs, too.
The Christiansburg company rebuilds and restores the old, the damaged and the broken-down, especially machines that are used to manufacture parts or other machines. It is the kind of skilled detail work that uses planer mills, lathes, grinders, presses and hand-scraping to get a device back in service.
The company does less fabrication than repair. But it does manufacture precision-designed battery containers for Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. in Dublin, and it fabricated a new, improved set of goal posts for Virginia Tech in 1990.
Though stronger than past posts, one of the pair was bent last fall by rowdy football fans in the jubilation following the Hokies' defeat of the University of Miami. Eastern took the wounded goal post in and repaired it. (Though not to be outdone, Tech fans finally brought down one of the goals after the final home game last fall, the defeat of Syracuse.)
More typical is the work of scraper Curtis Graham. The art of scraping is one of bringing the final alignment of a machine into place so two flat pieces that slide against each other with lubrication can run smoothly and accurately. Graham, a scraper for five years, measures accuracy with a straight edge calibrated on a massive granite table, called a surface plate, that's accurate to within half a thousandth of an inch over its eight-foot length. (A human hair is about 3/1,000th of an inch thick.)
In the past, most manufacturers kept their own repair staffs on site. But through the years, industry cutbacks have created a niche market for industrial-equipment repair, explained Roger Polidoro, the company president and founder. It is a niche in which almost no order is a routine job.
"When a machine tool goes down, most people don't have redundant capacity," Polidoro said. "Every single job we have in here is in somebody's mind an emergency."
Founded in 1980, Eastern Repair has grown slowly but steadily, in part because it is dependent on business cycles and also because machine-tool repair requires a lot of money up front for equipment. This year though, Polidoro plans to bring a new, 5,000-square-foot addition on line that will give the company the ability to degrease, strip and repaint almost any piece of machinery.
While they were not ready to discuss details, the two executives said the new facility could mean added jobs for Eastern, which has grown from 19 employees in 1993 to a current roster of 26 full-time equivalent workers. The company does not release annual sales or revenues figures.
Machine-tool repairers are a cross between a mechanic and a machinist, Goncz said. They need to be self-directed and able to plan a repair from beginning to end, particularly the experienced employees who are sent for on-site repairs anywhere within an eight-hour drive of Christiansburg.
"It takes imagination to look at a part and beyond to what's needed," Goncz said.
Most new hires are experienced craftsmen, or high school graduates with some vocational training. Some also have gone through community college programs, such as New River Community College's offerings. (Goncz was a member of the Montgomery County School Board from 1986 until last month and has designed courses at NRCC.)
"The trick is, you need to get good machinery and good tools and allow a few more people to do a lot more work" with the aim of making the company more competitive, Polidoro said.
"In a small company, you cannot be just a number," Goncz added. "Everybody has to be a player."
Eastern Repair is certified as meeting international production standards required in European markets and elsewhere. The designation is an indication of the importance of quality, the company leaders said.
"We have to make sure the final product works - not just the details of the part," Polidoro said.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. 1. John Davis works on a lathe thatby CNBcan handle material up to 120 inches long. The lathe behind him is
even larger. 2. Steve Hoyt operates a planer mill that almost made
it to Japan at the beginning of World War II. The machine was
brought back from the high seas and stored in a warehouse until
Eastern acquired it. 3. Eastern Repair, near Christiansburg High
School, has grown slowly but steadily since its founding in 1980. 4.
Below, Curtis Graham checks the tolerance of a machine he is
rebuilding. The granite table he's using is accurate to within half
a thousandth of an inch over its eight-foot length. color. KEYWORDS: PROFILE