Roy Champayne developed an air-driven fender hammer, which he patented and manufacturing began at the National Sewing Machine Co. in Belvidere, IL. He then experimented with an air-driven block sander and and was soon flooded with requests for his “air sander," which he manufactured under the name of National Air Sander.
In the mid 50’s, National Air Sander acquired Detroit Surfacing Machine Co., an air and electric tool company in Detroit. At that time, everything was moved to Rockford and National Air Sander was renamed National Detroit.
In the meantime, the revolutionary model DA sander was developed. National Detroit became the largest distributor in the world for 5 & 6-inch disc abrasives.