The first known photocopier was the ’10-22 Astoria. The process for which was invented by a Chester Carlson the year before. It was a further ten years before ‘Xerography’ was developed by The Haloid Company. This company were a photo paper manufacturer in New York. Haloid went on to become Xerox and in 1958 the first commercial ‘push-button’ machine was introduced – the 914. This enabled the duplication of documents without the need for special chemicals.
For a while Xerox dominated the scene, however as early as 1955 Ricoh started emerging as a major competitor. Their own offering was the RiCopy 101. By 1975 such was their success over the years and with the launching of the DT1200, they were challenging for top spot in the market.
In more recent years the market has evolved with a number of companies know for photography entering the market. With this the first signs of local dealers began to emerge which at that time Xerox were not anticipating. As as such Xerox’s base began to be eroded.
Over the years the ‘dry toner’ process was developed which superseded the old wet ink systems.
The machines now offered superior quality and without the need of special paper. In the late 80’s we saw the commercial availability of digital photocopiers beginning to emerge. Initially these were not able to communicate with IT networks for additional functionality such as printing.
The next big step was the introduction of what we now term as MFPs i.e Multi-Functional Products. MFPs provide copy, print, scan and fax functionality for both mono and colour requirements. It was a major turning point in the way document handling was undertaken by businesses.
In today’s market place there are a few key players manufacturing equipment. TVC are an independent supplier. We are free to examine the marketplace and select the ones that we feel have the ideal products for our customers. Our own experiences bourne from over thirty years trading have lead us to supply both Ricoh and Konica Minolta/Develop systems. Between them they have and will continue to win many awards for performance, reliability and leading edge technology. With full functionality and a multitude of related software solutions the ‘photocopier’ has come of age!