IBM copiers

In the 1930s, Chester Carlson, the inventor of the photocopier, began his research into what came to be called Xerography. Having made good progress by the early 1940s, he began looking for investors, approaching many office supplies companies including IBM. IBM reportedly rejected his proposal because they felt that carbon paper was a cheaper alternative. IBM hired consulting firm Arthur D. Little to assess the technology, but that assessment was negative, so IBM did not invest in the product. Haloid invested heavily and launched the Xerox 914 in 1959. By 1961 Haloid (now renamed to Xerox) was making $66m USD in revenue and in 1965 their revenues were over $500m USD. In 1970 Xerox held 70% of what was then a one billion dollar (USD) Global copier market. Meanwhile, in 1965 George Castro (PhD), authored a doctoral thesis at Dartmouth College that demonstrated that organic materials could conduct electricity when exposed to light. At that time this was a significant scientific achievement and led to an opportunity to conduct more research in this area at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1967. IBM hired him as a Research Staff Member in 1968 to help in the development of Organic PhotoConductors, a project he came to manage and which was key to IBM's development of both the Copier I and the IBM 3800.) and to let them use plain paper in their Copiers. An IBM Think Magazine article written in May 1975 described the development of the organic photoconductor as one of the Research Divisions "prime achievement in the noncomputer field". While George Castro has been referred to as the inventor of the IBM Copier, it was Shattuck and Vahtra who were specifically mentioned in IBMs legal battles with Xerox around patents. Another difference that IBM achieved was developing a dry hot roll that did not require silicone oil to fuse the toner onto paper without the toner sticking to the roll. The two lawsuits were consolidated, but remained in pre-trial stage. In November 1975 IBM counter-sued Xerox for infringing an IBM Patent. Their various lawsuits were finally settled in 1978 by an exchange of patents and a payment by IBM to Xerox of US$25 million. IBMs market share of the worldwide copier market in 1975 was 5%. By 1977 it was reportedly as high as 10%. By 1980 it was 4% and by 1985 it was only 3%. There were three significant product releases in the IBM Copier family: The IBM Copier, the IBM Copier II and the IBM Series III Copier. == IBM Copier ==

On April 21, 1970, IBM announced their first copier simply called the IBM Copier. In terms of competition, while the Copier I was faster than the Xerox 914 (which ran at 7 copies per minute) it was reported as competing with the desktop Xerox 660 that could make 11 copies per minute. Xerox reportedly purchased a Copier I shortly after it was released and ran it for two shifts per day for three months. It performed so well that they concluded it was a very reliable machine, reliable enough to make 50,000 copies per month. The Copier I has the following features: • It can create 10 copies per minute, 600 copies per hour • Has a user replaceable 1.5 pound toner cartridge that is designed to provide enough toner for one month • An Emergency off button to stop the copier if needed. • When making copies, the cover has to be lowered onto the object to be copied, which cannot be more than thick. When the start bar is depressed, the cover latches into place, preventing the cover from being raised while the copy is being made. It unlatches and lifts to the open position once the copy had been created. The copy selector then returns to one (to prevent the next user from accidentally making multiple copies). The Copier I also played a role in the development of the IBM 3800, which was IBMs first Laser Printer. IBM withdrew the Copier I from marketing on June 30, 1981 == IBM Copier II ==

The IBM Copier II was introduced in 1972. • Its IBM Machine type/Model is 6801–001. By 1977 IBM had sold 70,000 to 80,000 units, claiming 10% of the worldwide market. The IBM Copier II has the following features: • It uses a drum based photoconductor rather than a moving platen. IBM claimed it was the first copier to use a stationary document glass and mirror-scanning optics system. IBM claimed this was also an industry first • The list price for a Copier II was $15,000. IBM announced an optional Collator (the IBM 6864) for the Copier II in 1977. It had 10 bins that could each hold 20 sheets of paper. Copier Art The American artist and writer named Pati Hill used the IBM Copier II to create artwork sometimes referred to as Xerox Art. In 1977 IBM loaned her a Copier II free of charge for two and a half years which she used to generate artwork for her books and exhibitions. IBM 3896 The Copier II was also sold as the IBM 3896, tape/document converter. The IBM 3896 is used to copy adding machine tapes that were used for bank deposits. The top of the Copier was redesigned to handle these tapes and stack them in the correct order. Note the use of the term tape in the product name has nothing to do with magnetic tape, it refers to paper tapes. The 3896 was announced on April 5, 1977, and was withdrawn on July 25, 1980. == IBM Series III Copier/Duplicator ==

The IBM Series III was announced March 5, 1976. Unlike the Copier I and Copier II where a whole new design was released within 2–4 years, the Series III was not replaced with a new product, although it did have four major model releases. Development was started in Lexington but moved to Boulder during the summer of 1974. • An advanced semi-automatic document feed • Automatic duplexing At announcement, manufacturing of the copier was in IBM Boulder and IBM Berlin, West Germany. • Machine type/Model 6802-001 Series III Copier Model 10. • Machine type/Model 6803-001 Series III Copier Model 20. • Machine type/Model 6805-001 Series III Copier Model 30. The Model 60 was effectively a follow-on product to the Model 40 (in that it offered copy reduction as a standard feature). It uses the same chassis as the model 40 and in fact ex-lease Model 40s were factory rebuilt into Model 60s. • Machine type/Model 6808-001 Series III Copier Model 60. Features include: Think Magazine articles IBM dedicated at least two articles of their Think Magazine to the Copier III: This uses collators 6852-004 (primary 20 bins) and 6852-003 (secondary 20 bins). • Machine type/Model 8880-001 Series III Copier/Duplicator Model 70. IBM 6670 The Series III was used as part of the IBM 6670. The IBM 6670 and its Collator unit (the IBM 6671) were introduced in 1979 and withdrawn from marketing on November 19, 1986. == IBM Executive Copier 102 ==

In February 1981, IBM announced it would resell the Minolta compact desktop EP-310 as the IBM Executive Copier 102, machine type model 6820–001. It is capable of making 12 copies a minute, and sold for $2,990 to $3,450 depending on the quantity purchased. IBM had never offered a desktop Copier before, but found they could not compete with Minolta's own dealers and sales people who were able to undercut IBMs pricing with the Minolta branded version of the same copier. This was because IBMs agreement with Minolta was not exclusive. The IBM Executive Copier 102 was withdrawn from marketing on December 30, 1982, after less than two years in the market. == IBM 6821 Copier Management Information System (CMIS) ==

On July 17, 1984, IBM announced the 6821 Copier Management Information System (CMIS). The solution consists of software that ran on an IBM 5150 Personal Computer with 128MB of RAM and two double sided floppy disk drives, running DOS 1.1. It uses special cable adapters to connect to up to 20 IBM Copiers and later, selected Kodak and Xerox copiers. The system is used to centrally collect usage statistics, since copier billing (for rental or maintenance charges) was usually on a per-copy usage basis. It was withdrawn on April 20, 1987. == Manufacturing plants ==

IBM initially developed and manufactured their copier products in Lexington, Kentucky. This changed in April 1973 when IBM Office Product Division assumed responsibility for the IBM Boulder site. Given the space required in Lexington to handle the demand for the Lexington manufactured self-correcting Selectric II typewriter, OPD announced that copier development and manufacturing would move to the IBM Boulder plant. Thus in 1987 copier manufacturing (which by then only consisted of the Series III) was moved from Boulder, Colorado to Charlotte, North Carolina, although development remained in Boulder. == Organic photoconductor and TNF ==

The original photoconductor used by the IBM Copier I and Copier II (and later by the IBM 3800) used a chemical known as 2, 4, 7-trinitro-9-fluorenone, commonly referred to as TNF. The photoconductor was mainly composed of a TNF and polyvinyl carbazole resin coating on an aluminized mylar sheet and was manufactured by IBM in Lexington, Kentucky. Over the course of the 1970s, health and safety concerns were raised about TNF being a cancer-causing chemical. The US Federal Department of Health and Human Services contracted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to investigate these concerns but their report did not identify any issues. IBM then withdrew TNF based photoconductors in late 1981 for the Copier II and IBM 3800, replacing it with a photoconductor based on chlorotiane blue and diethylaminobenzal- denyde-dithenylhydrazone (sometimes called blue coral). This material was already being used in the IBM Series III and IBM 6670 and was manufactured by IBM in Boulder Colorado. == The end of OPD and withdrawal from the copier market ==

The IBM Office Products Division was formed from the IBM Electric Typewriter Division in August 1964. It marketed products such as the Selectric Typewriter, the MagCard Selectric Typewriter, the Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer, Dictation Equipment and the IBM Copier Family until 1981, when it was merged with the data processing and general systems divisions into two new divisions: National Accounts and National Marketing. This was reportedly done to prevent the client from needing to deal with multiple sales representatives. The Boulder and Lexington plant/lab sites became part of the new Information Products Division. It is unclear how many IBM manufactured copiers Kodak sold, however by 1996 Kodak also announced they were also withdrawing from copier marketing, selling their copier sales and service division to Danka for $684m USD, while still manufacturing them. Danka was then eventually bought by Konica Minolta in 2008. == External Links ==