Here is the first of 3 articles about the people that started Taimi.
Michel Taillon is the founder of Taimi. His background as head of engineering in a manufacturing company gave him a clear vision of the mobile machinery world. He witnessed first-hand the problems of machinery and fixed them with creativity, collaboration and innovation.
In 2005 he was in the field checking a new machine and got hurt badly. He had to take some time off. While at home for recovery, he thought about fixing a big problem impacting machine up time and the environment; Oil leaks.
He first tackled forestry; Tree harvesting machines have rotating attachments with hydraulic hoses to power them. These hoses get twisted in every direction. All this twisting reduces hose life and creates oil leak. Hose life can be much improved using hydraulic hose swivels. But the problem was that all the swivels on the market did not last long. They needed to be changed often. When a hose or a swivel needs to be changed, it takes a mechanics, and the down time during the repair affects productivity.
Michel thought that this problem could be fixed if swivels were more durable. How to do it? He’d have to come with a more reliable swivel which would have to last longer. He studied the existing swivel models on the market. They all where pretty much the same using ball bearings to allow rotation. When balls were worn, friction and leakage occurred. He came up with the idea to make a heavy duty swivel that did not use ball bearings. The most durable swivel in the world was born!
Michel initiated Taimi and gave it it’s vision and mission. The day to day role of Michel in the Taimi is to be creative by inventing products for the hydraulic market. He mostly draws and test prototypes, gives feedback to the team about new products and is a part of every decision taken in the business. He is our president.