IBM copiers

's Office Products Division manufactured and sold copier equipment and supplies from 1970 till IBM withdrew from the copier market in 1988. IBM's decision to compete in this market resulted in the first commercial use of an organic photoconductor that was later widely used in many 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 also 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.`

IBM, Xerox and Xerography

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. He eventually found an investor in the Haloid Corporation, however they struggled to finish the product and approached IBM to offer them what became the Xerox 914. 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 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 Global copier market. At that time there were more than 40 companies competing with Xerox, but they all had to use coated paper, due to Xerox refusing to license their patent on the selenium drum technology, which was key to using plain paper.
In 1966 two IBM Scientists working at the IBM Research Lab in San Jose, Meredith David Shattuck and Ulo Vahtra, developed and patented an organic photoconductor with sufficient light sensitivity to be used in a copier, earning them $110,000 in IBM Inventors Awards. Meanwhile, in 1965 George Castro, 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. IBM needed this both to avoid patent infringement with Xerox and to let them use plain paper in their Copiers. George Castro has been referred to as the inventor of the IBM Copier, although 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.
When IBM announced its first Copier product in April 1970, Xerox immediately sued IBM for breaching 22 patents despite IBM having licensed many of these patents for use in computer printers. In August 1973 Xerox filed a supplemental lawsuit after the launch of the Copier II. 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.

Its IBM Machine type/Model is 6800–001.

When the IBM Copier II was released, IBM renamed the IBM Copier to the IBM Copier I. In terms of competition, while the Copier I was faster than the Xerox 914 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 is significant in Electrophotography as it is the first commercial product to use an organic photoconductor.
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 IBM claimed it was as easy to change as a tape cassette and because it was transparent, the operator could easily see how much toner was left. One carton, estimated for 33,000 copies, contained two cartridges.
Developer mix is rated to last 160,000 copies and comes in a box that is supplied and installed by an IBM Service Representative.
Uses a roll of paper rather than cut sheets. Each roll provides approximately 625 letter-size copies. The user can use a selector button to choose between letter or legal size and a copy selector to choose from one to ten copies. Both paper sizes are cut from the same roll, meaning there is no need to load different paper sizes.
A delivery pocket which can hold approximately 75 copies
The first copy is produced in 15 seconds with subsequent copies every 6 seconds.
A six digit copy counter. The client is expected to mail a copier usage card to IBM every month since rental charges include a usage fee.
A curved sheet photoconductor that has a life expectancy of 4000 copies. The copier holds 40 photoconductors, meaning the photoconductor unit needs to be replaced by an IBM Service Representative after 160,000 copies. There is a two digit display to track how many copies a photoconductor has done and an internal end-photoconductor indicator light to inform the service representative that the copier is on its last image area.
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. The inability to copy thicker documents was a common sales objection which is only remediated by the IBM Copier II.
It has three visual signals:
*Not Ready - which indicates the photoconductor is automatically cycling
*Call Key Operator - which indicates the photoconductor needs replacement or the emergency off button had been depressed.
*Add Paper - which indicates the paper roll has run out. The copy cover automatically unlatches when the last copy is printed so the operator can insert a new roll of paper.
When announced the Copier I was sold for US$19,200 or could be leased from IBM for US$200 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.

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 it was one of the first copiers to employ a magnetic brush, which required a new family of developer mix to be developed.
The first copy is produced in 6 seconds with subsequent copies every 2.4 seconds. This works out to 25 copies per minute significantly faster than the Copier I.
It uses a semi automatic document feed, which means the user does not need to lift the lid or align the original document, they can just feed the document into the slot. IBM claimed this was also an industry first.
Because the platen cover does not need to lock into place, larger original books can be copied. This removes a common sales objection to the Copier I.
Uses the same paper roll as the Copier I. Each roll can provide approximately 625 letter-size copies. IBM also offered a paper roll that could create 750 letter sized copies. Because it is roll fed it could not do duplex copies.
The copy selector was changed from 1–10 on the Copier I to 1-20, although unlike the Copier I it does not reset after each job.
The maximum copy size is. The minimum copy size is
Is rated to produce 35,000 impressions per month.
The list price for a Copier II was $15,000.
In January 1976 a company called Norfin began selling a Collator unit called the DASH-20 that could be easily attached to the Copier II. IBM announced an optional Collator for the Copier II in 1977. It had 10 bins that could each hold 20 sheets of paper.

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 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.