The Transition of the Copier Industry "According to Art"
My original post of this blog was many years ago, thought it would be fun to revisit! Enjoy
Part One:
I can only start from the early eighties. Six months after graduating a copier tech training school, I sold my first copier. I'm pretty sure I remember the building, but not the name of the company. On a recent drive by that company was no longer in that building, I was kinda bummed because I would have enjoyed to cold call them again.
I can only start from the early eighties. Six months after graduating a copier tech training school, I sold my first copier. I'm pretty sure I remember the building, but not the name of the company. On a recent drive by that company was no longer in that building, I was kinda bummed because I would have enjoyed to cold call them again.
If you bought or leased a copier in 1981, the only function of that copier was to copy. There were no sorters/staplers, no automatic document feeders, and very few of them had multiple paper trays. Most copiers of that time period also had a moving platen (that's where the glass went back and forth for each copy). Placing a cup of coffee on top of the copier was not a good idea.
Sorter/Staplers
As the industry evolved we saw the emergence of companies that developed sorters (remember Gradco). In the day, if you wanted a copy machine to sort you had to buy a third party sorter that came with a special bracket. You could purchase a sorter that either had ten bins or 20 bins. Those sorters had a series of micro switches that would sense the paper entering the sorter and would then slide the paper into the correct bin. Back then, this was state of the art technology! For all of you newbies, do you know what the "group" function is used for? That "group" feature is still a function with today's copiers.
As the industry evolved we saw the emergence of companies that developed sorters (remember Gradco). In the day, if you wanted a copy machine to sort you had to buy a third party sorter that came with a special bracket. You could purchase a sorter that either had ten bins or 20 bins. Those sorters had a series of micro switches that would sense the paper entering the sorter and would then slide the paper into the correct bin. Back then, this was state of the art technology! For all of you newbies, do you know what the "group" function is used for? That "group" feature is still a function with today's copiers.Key Counters
Key counters (remember Hecon), were used to combat abuse and track copies made by individual users or workgroups. The key counter was a mechanical meter that was housed in a plastic cover. In order to use the copier, users would have to insert the key counter into the copier receptacle. Once the copier sensed the key counter, the copier then allowed the user to produce copies. Every copy they made was metered on the key counter. At the end of the month, and administrator would gather up the key counters and bill back the workgroup or the individual users for the amount of copies that were produced. The key counters were also used a deterrent to curb abuse. They were a good after the sale product also, since many were misplaced or lost.Coin Ops
Keep a close eye at some convenience stores and you can still spot a copier every now and then with a coin operating unit. I can remember going on coin op runs to empty the coin cup copiers of there change. In the eighties most coin operating units would not not take paper currency.
Copier Covers
Back in the day every new copier came with a cover and yes when asked "do ya think I should cover the copier at night"?, we stated yes, but please make sure you turned it off! Guess, that may have been one of the reason that copier companies did away with supplying covers for the copy machines.
First Color Copies
I can distinctly remember one company back in the eighties that manufactured a foil overlay for plain paper copiers. It was a novel idea that allowed users to make a copy of a document and then you could slide the copy underneath the foil sheet (which was sealed on one side) and then run both the foil and the copy through the by-pass of the copier in one pass. Presto chango... all of the black image on the page was changed to the color of the foil. The foil would only stick to the black toner once the media passed through the fusing section. These foils came in many different colors and the most dramatic was the GOLD foil, we used to tell potential customers that you could turn your copies into GOLD! (pretty lame) You could even get fancy and with the use of removable tape and scissors cut strips of foil to get different colors on the copy. Thinking back, this was probably one of the first creative ideas to get a color copy.
I can distinctly remember one company back in the eighties that manufactured a foil overlay for plain paper copiers. It was a novel idea that allowed users to make a copy of a document and then you could slide the copy underneath the foil sheet (which was sealed on one side) and then run both the foil and the copy through the by-pass of the copier in one pass. Presto chango... all of the black image on the page was changed to the color of the foil. The foil would only stick to the black toner once the media passed through the fusing section. These foils came in many different colors and the most dramatic was the GOLD foil, we used to tell potential customers that you could turn your copies into GOLD! (pretty lame) You could even get fancy and with the use of removable tape and scissors cut strips of foil to get different colors on the copy. Thinking back, this was probably one of the first creative ideas to get a color copy.The foil media was primarily used for certificates and proposals. It was awesome, walking in with a proposal that had the look of gold print. Check it out, you can still get this stuff, I just may buy a pack just to mess with some of the younger reps in the office.
Someone's novel idea added some sizzle to copiers at a time when the analog copier market had matured. That was also true for companies like Gradco, Hecon, and it's been so long I can't remember more of the third party supplieers. Point is, new products and new services not only helped us with hardware but we provided solutions for our customers.
At a time when the analog copier industry was maturing. These products and solutions allowed copier dealers to sell more machines and capture additional clicks (back then toner was not included in any of the maintenance agreements). The copier manufacturers saw the success of these companies and thus started adding their own sorters, their own counters and additional accessories to expand the market.
Dealers and Manufacturers have always been on the front lines to introduce new technology that will help customers increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. In my 36 years in this business it's more about how we can improve our customers work flow and reduce your costs, whether it's imaging with copiers, printers, duplicators, managed print, or document management.
I'll have part two of this ready in a few days........
-=Good Selling=-
At a time when the analog copier industry was maturing. These products and solutions allowed copier dealers to sell more machines and capture additional clicks (back then toner was not included in any of the maintenance agreements). The copier manufacturers saw the success of these companies and thus started adding their own sorters, their own counters and additional accessories to expand the market.
Dealers and Manufacturers have always been on the front lines to introduce new technology that will help customers increase efficiencies, and reduce costs. In my 36 years in this business it's more about how we can improve our customers work flow and reduce your costs, whether it's imaging with copiers, printers, duplicators, managed print, or document management.
I'll have part two of this ready in a few days........
-=Good Selling=-
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