How Copy Machines Have Changed, Evolved, and Improved Over Time
Throughout the years, copy machines have undergone significant advancements, improvements, and changes. Keep reading this article to find out what they are!
Throughout the years, copy machines have undergone significant advancements, improvements, and changes. Keep reading this article to find out what they are!
Copy machines are the silent workhorses of the modern business office.
As with many useful tools, though, how often do you think about your copier when it's working properly?
It's okay to say never.
Most business owners only think about copiers when it's time to pick out a new one or get the old one repaired. Even that can be a challenge. Copiers come in such a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, with so many features, it isn't always clear which one will best serve your business.
The almost universal use of copiers for the last few decades obscures the curious evolution that copy machines underwent since their earliest versions.
Let's dig into that history to see how we got from something called a mimeograph to our modern digital copiers.
Mimeograph sounds like a made up word. Something that a science fiction writer in the early 20th century might coin to describe a whimsical piece of made up technology. Yet, for much of the 20th century, it was one of the major duplication technologies.
The mimeograph process is remarkably simple. You either cut shapes or type onto a stencil. Ink is pressed against through the holes in the stencil onto a sheet of paper.
Instant copy!
The original technology was invented by Thomas Edison, but a man named Albert Blake Dick refined the mimeograph and took it to market in 1887.
Later versions of the machine improved the process. The stencil was attached to a drum with an inkwell. You would crank the drum to run the paper through unless you sprang for an electric model.
The mimeograph saw widespread use as a tool for independent presses and student activists throughout the Sixties. Of course, the mimeograph was only one of the copy machines available at the time.
Its main competition in the early years was the spirit duplicator.
The spirit duplication process -- spirit as in alcohol, not ghosts -- came to us from one Wilhelm Ritzerfeld in 1923. The company that made the most popular spirit duplication machines became so synonymous with copies that the word still lingers as an expression of sameness: Ditto.
There are several versions of the spirit duplication process, but the most common version resembles the mimeograph process in some respects.
You start with a two-piece master copy. The bottom sheet has a wax and dye mixture on the front, while the top sheet is blank. Writing, typing or drawing on the top sheet transfers the wax/dye mixture from the bottom sheet on the back of the top sheet, leaving a mirror image.
You mount the top sheet onto a drum with the wax facing out. As you crank the drum, a mostly alcohol solution breaks down the wax/dye mixture and lets it transfer to a clean sheet of paper.
The process had two main flaws: volume and fading. The master copies could only make a relatively small number of copies. The ink used would fade to nothing after any prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light, such as sunlight.
Both the spirit duplicator and mimeograph eventually gave way to the more familiar photocopy process.
Photocopying is the informal term for the xerographic process.
The process was developed in 1939 by a man named Chester Carlson and later developed into a commercial product the company that would later become Xerox. The process takes several steps.
The first step is to charge a photoreceptor. A photoreceptor is essentially a material that reacts to light exposure. A high voltage electrical current ionizes the air and gives the photoreceptor a polarized charge.
The photoceptor is then exposed to carefully managed light. The light eliminates the charge on specific areas of the photoceptor while leaving a charge on the parts not exposed to light. For example, the spots on the photoceptor where text appeared on a page would remain unexposed and charged.
In the next step, the copy machine deposits charged toner particles onto the photoreceptor. The toner particles are attracted to the parts of the photoceptor that still have a polarized charge.
To get the toner off the photoreceptor, the machine charges a piece of paper to the reverse polarity of the photoreceptor. The charged paper attracts the toner off of the photoreceptor.
An easy way to visualize this part of the process is to picture the way magnets attract. The north polarity of a magnet is attracted to the south polarity of another magnet.
For our purposes, the toner has a south polarity and the paper has a stronger north polarity. Bring them together and the toner jumps from the photoreceptor to the paper.
Once the toner is on the paper, the machine uses heat and pressure to melt the toner and make it stick to the paper.
In you ever wondered why fresh copies are warm, now you know.
Although it took some time, photocopiers developed in a reliable way to produce a large volume of copies.
The photocopy process itself was groundbreaking, but incremental improvements over time have made copiers into pretty remarkable machines.
High-end contemporary copy machines often produce near-perfect, 4-color images, do double-duty as networked printers, and even send faxes. Some models have even abandoned the photoreceptor in favor of digital scanning.
In what some see as a game-changing move, one major copier company introduced a new translation feature to some of its copiers. You scan a page filled with text in a foreign language and the machine spits out a translation in one of several dozen languages of your choice. This is a valuable service in our globally-connected business environment, but it's one you'll pay for.
While still in the early phases of development, researchers have developed a graphene "copy machine" that may dramatically reduce the cost of semiconductor wafers. Those wafers are used in the integrated circuits that make most modern technology possible.
Copy machines play a vital, daily role in businesses across the globe. Whether it's printing out a contract to review or generating collateral for a marketing presentation, some things still need to happen on paper.
As innovations like translation and wafer copying continue to advance the field, the role of copy machines in business and industry may become even more important.
Affordable Copy Machines specializes in connecting businesses with copiers that meet their needs and their budgets. If your copier isn't getting the job done, request a quote today.
