IBM manufactured and sold copier equipment and supplies from 1970 till it withdrew from the market in 1988. IBM's decision to compete in this market resulted in the first commercial use of an organic photoconductor now widely used in most photocopiers. It is often held up as an example of a corporate u-turn, where a company rejects a technology and then adopts it.. It showed that despite the size of IBM's sales and engineering organisations, this did not guarantee success in every market it chose to compete in. The development effort that resulted in the IBM Copier helped in the development of IBMs first laser printer, the IBM 3800.. 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.
Organic photoconductor
In 1965 George Castro, authored a doctrinal 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 let 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 lead development into 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. George Castro has been referred to as the inventor of the IBM Copier.
IBM Copier
In April, 1970, IBM announced their first copier simply called the IBM Copier. It's IBM Machine type/Model was 6800-001. It was also referred to as the IBM Copier I. The IBM Copier is significant in Electrophotography as it was the first commercial product to use an organic photoconductor.. The IBM Copier had the following features:
It could create 600 copies per hour
Had a user replaceable toner cartridge that was designed to provide enough toner for one month
Used a roll of paper rather than cut sheets. Each roll could provide approximately 625 letter-size copies.
The first copy would be produced in 15 seconds with subsequent copies every 6 seconds.
When announced the copier was sold for $19,200 USD or could be leased from IBM for $200 USD a month plus a charge of 2.3 cents for each copy made.
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. It's IBM Machine type/Model was 6801-001. By 1977 IBM had sold 70,000 to 80,000 units, claiming 10% of the world wide market. The IBM Copier II had the following features:
The first copy would be produced in 6 seconds with subsequent copies every 2.4 seconds.
Used a roll of paper rather than cut sheets. Each roll could provide approximately 625 letter-size copies.
Was rated to produce 35,000 impressions per month.
The list price for a Copier II was $15,000.
The Collator for a Copier II was an IBM 6864
IBM withdrew the Copier II from marketing on May 6, 1985.
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 was 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.
IBM Series III Copier/Duplicator
The IBM Series III was introduced in March 1976. Due to reliability problems it was withdrawn and re-released in early 1978, which meant the momentum gained by the success of the Copier II was lost. 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. Features included:
This was the first IBM copier to use plain cut sheet paper..
An advanced document feed
Automatic duplexing
A rated speed of 4,500 copies per hour.
The Model 20 also offered two reduction modes: 26 or 35 percent. Later models offered more options.
Optional with most models were one or two collator modules, each with 20 bins.
The list price for a Series III was $25,000 to $40,000 depending on features.
Eight models were offered over the life of the product across four major releases.
Models 10 and 20
The first two models, Models 10 and 20, were announced in 1976 and withdrawn from Marketing on March 11, 1986
Machine type/Model 6802-001 Series III Copier Model 10. This used collator 6852-001.
Machine type/Model 6803-001 Series III Copier Model 20. This used collator 6852-001.
There was also an option for a second collator that would be inserted between the copier and the first collator for a total of 40 bins. The first collator provided bins 21-40 and the second collator provided bins 1-20. A flap controlled by a solenoid would determine which collator unit a copy would be directed into.
Models 30 and 40
The next two models were Models 30 and 40, were announced in 1980 and withdrawn from Marketing on June 16, 1986
Machine type/Model 6805-001 Series III Copier Model 30.
Machine type/Model 6806-001 Series III Copier Model 40.
Models 30 and 40 could produce 60 copies per minute.
The next model was the Model 60, announced in 1982 and withdrawn from Marketing on February 3, 1988
Machine type/Model 6808-001 Series III Copier Model 60.
The Model 60 offered a more modular way to add or remove features and had a newly designed Semi-Automatic Document Feed.. It also offered a two-up feature which could copy two images onto one page. The model 60 could produce 70 copies per minute.
Models 50, 70 and 85
The final release were the Models 50, 70 and 85 announced in 1986. This was a major refresh of the Series III. They included a redesigned developer unit with two magnetic brush rolls instead of one, which IBM claimed provided enhanced character fill, increased optical density and excellent copy quality in comparison to previous models. You will note the model 50 was announced four years after the model 60, this is not a mistake.
Machine type/Model 6809-001 Series III Copier/Duplicator Model 50. This used collators 6852-004 and 6852-003.
Machine type/Model 8880-001 Series III Copier/Duplicator Model 70. This used collators 8881-001 and 8881-002.
Machine type/Model 8885-001 Series III Copier/Duplicator Model 85. Collators were standard with the Model 85, so there were no separate machine types.
The models 70 and 85 also offered higher rated copies per month as per the table below :
Copies per minute
Copies per hour
Copies per month
Series III Model 20
75
35,000
Series III Model 50
55
3300
30,000
Series III Model 60
100,000
Series III Model 70
70
4200
175,000
Series III Model 85
70
4200
175,000
The model 85 also introduced three new features not seen before on an IBM Copier:
Fully automated duplex copies. The operator no longer needed to turn over the page to copy the second side
An optional stapler unit
An interactive display screen with 140 different message screens that could display in 13 languages
In 1987 IBM moved manufacture of the Copier III from Boulder, Colorado to Charlotte, North Carolina.. IBM then withdrew the Series III models 50, 70 and 85 from marketing on June 28, 1988, when they transferred the product line to Kodak.
The Series III was used as part of the IBM 6670. The IBM 6670 and its Collator unit 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 was 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. The IBM Executive Copier 102 was withdrawn from marketing on December 30, 1982.
Manufacturing plants
IBM initially manufactured their copier products in Lexington, Kentucky. However in April 1973 copier manufacturing moved to the IBM Boulder plant, when Boulder became part of the Office Products Division. In 1987 copier manufacturing was moved from Boulder, Colorado to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Xerox vs IBM
, the inventor of the photocopier and founder of Xerox had approached IBM in the 1950s when he was initially looking for investors, but IBM rejected his proposal because they felt that carbon paper was a cheaper alternative. By 1970, Xerox held 70% of what was then a one Billion Dollar Global copier market When IBM announced its first Copier product, Xerox immediately sued IBM for breaching 22 patents despite IBM having licensed many of these patents for use in computer printers. IBM counter-sued Xerox and their various court cases were finally settled in 1978 by an exchange of patents and a payment by IBM to Xerox of $25 million USD.
TNF based photoconductor
The original photoconductor used by the IBM Copier I and Copier II was a high-sensitivity organic photoconductor for electrophotography developed by IBM. IBM developed this to avoid patent infringement wth Xerox. The IBM developed organic photoreceptor 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 carcinogen. 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. Despite this, in 1980 IBM changed its advice and required it's employees to always handle the photoconductor with gloves. 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. This material was already being used in the IBM Series III and IBM 6670 and was manufactured by IBM in Boulder Colorado.
Withdrawal from the market
The IBM line of Copier/Duplicators, and their associated service contracts, were sold to Eastman Kodak in 1988. At the time of sale it was reported there were approximately 61,500 IBM copiers still in service. IBM indicated at that time that the models 50, 70 and 85 of the Series III would be manufactured by IBM with the Kodak logo.
