Fellowes Galaxy-E Electric Comb Binding Machine Review

Overview:

The Galaxy-E is the largest electric binding machine offered by Fellowes. It is designed for frequent use in medium and large sized offices.
This machine offers an ergonomic design that is intended to blend in with other equipment inside of your office.
It is the electric version of the Fellowes Galaxy manual plastic comb binding machine. It includes a high quality button activated electric punch and a heavy duty modular plastic comb opener.

Strengths / Features:

The Galaxy-E offers an electric punch that can punch up to twenty five sheets of 20# paper at a time. The electric punching mechanism is activated by a push button control on the right side of the machine and is exceptionally easy to use. With a punching capacity of 25 sheets, this machine is comparable to far more expensive electric binding punches on the market.
Like the entire line of Fellowes plastic comb binding machines, this machine offers a contemporary ergonomic design. the Galaxy-E folds closed when it is not in use. This allows it to provide a neat and tidy appearance for your office. Most other electric plastic comb binding machines on the market have an industrial look that tends to stick out in a contemporary office environment.
The comb opening device included on this machine is removable. This means that you can use the comb opener while it is attached to the machine or it can be removed and used by a second operator to help increase productivity. One user can punch documents while another uses the comb opener to insert the pages onto the combs.
This machine has a storage tray that slides out of the right hand side of the machine. The storage tray provides a document sizing guide that allows users to select the correct size of spine for their documents.

Weaknesses / Limitations:

Although the Galaxy E has a great punching capacity and an electric punch it is not an industrial grade machine. This machine is designed for use within an office environment. Users who need a production quality machine should consider a larger all metal machine such as the GBC CombBind C800pro, Akiles CombMac 24E or DFG E Titan Comb. The larger alternatives offer metal construction, foot pedal operation and industrial grade punching pins.
This machine is limited in its ability to punch custom length documents and legal sized sheets. Users who need to bind document sizes other than half letter size, letter size or A4 size should really consider a machine with fully disengageable punching pins.
Although the storage tray on the Galaxy-E seems like it should be incredibly useful, it is actually too small to be useful. Most users will find that the storage tray is only large enough to hold a handful of combs. Considering the capacity of this machine, it would probably have been better for Fellowes to simply leave this feature off when they designed this machine.

Recommendation:

The Fellowes Galaxy E electric comb binding machine is an excellent choice for organizations that are looking for a high quality electric comb binding machine for their office.
This machine has a selling price of around $500 and includes a competitive set of features that make it an appealing choice in its class.
Extremely large offices, print shops, mail rooms and schools who do a lot of binding will probably find that this machine is too small for their needs. Instead, they should really consider a heavy duty, all metal, commercial grade comb binding machine. However, these machines come with a pricetag starting at about $1400 and are obviously a big step up in terms of cost.
Still, this is one of our favorite electric desktop comb binding machines for the money and is definitely a good choice for many users.