IBM manufactured and sold microfilm products from 1963 till 1969. It is an example of IBM attempting to enter an established market on the basis of a significant technical breakthrough.
Background In the mid 1960s IBM Supply Division was producing billions of punched cards annually across six plants. However they relied on other divisions within IBM to manufacture the equipment that consumed those punched cards. An aperture card is a special type of punched card with a cut out window into which a chip of microfilm is mounted. The card is punched with machine readable metadata associated with what is on the microfilm image. A common use for these cards was engineering drawings. Because no division within IBM was selling equipment that developed or copied microfilm aperture cards, IBM Supply Division chose to make this equipment themselves. This was the first time they manufactured equipment to promote the sale of supplies.
Announcements On April 29, 1963, IBM Supplies Division began offering what they called their Micro-Processing System, with two desktop microfilm copiers called the IBM Micro-Copier I and IBM Micro-Copier II and a microfilm viewer called the IBM Micro-Viewer. On December 4, 1964, they then announced an additional set of microfilm products, aimed at combining the space saving capability of microfilm with punched cards developed using a new style of diazo process. The diazo process is a photographic process that produces images by exposing diazonium salts to ultraviolet light, then developing the image using ammonia fumes. Diazo films were considered ideal for duplicating things like master files of engineering drawings and other records. IBM claimed that in the microfilm industry that their diazo copiers were unique.
Product innovations
In the early 1960s IBM San Jose was experimenting with photo image conversion, when they identified the need for a fast method of developing Diazo photo-materials. Existing commercial film solutions did not cater for direct development of film chips and aperture cards, while existing aperture card developers were too slow and suffered from ammonia leakage and/or required careful temperature and humidity controls to obtain uniform results.
They developed a high speed development process that they claimed significantly increased the speed of developing diazo photo-materials using pressurised anhydrous (dry) ammonia gas rather than an aqueous (wet) ammonia solution. It could operate at room temperature and thus did not need to use the high temperatures to release the ammonia fumes that conventional solutions used. They claimed it was 100 times faster than the conventional process and created more uniform output. A major innovation was the development of a platen and wash type developer that was designed to prevent the escape of ammonia gas (which had both an unpleasant odour as well as being corrosive). A residual ammonia absorber containing citric acid powder, bromothymole blue indicator and water was invented by IBM to absorb the vented ammonia. In 1964 they filed a patent for their diazo development process and in 1965 they filed for their wash ammonia development device, both granted in 1968.
Development and manufacturing locations IBM Vestal initiated product development based on prototyping work done by IBM San Jose. This effort led to the IBM 9950 and IBM 9954. IBM Endicott Development Laboratory developed the IBM 9955. IBM Supplies Division (which was renamed the IBM Information Records Division in March 1966) initially manufactured the equipment in Vestal NY and then in Dayton NJ. They began shipping the new diazo copiers in January 1966.
Microfilm products The line of products included the following:
Aperture Cards IBM Aperture Cards with thermal or diazo film cost $35 for 1,000 cards (in 1963).
Thermal Copiers These developed using a dry thermal process (heat and ultraviolet-light) eliminating the need for chemicals that produced fumes that needed to be vented.
IBM Micro-Copier I $825 list price Announced April 29, 1963 Compact desktop console Unit Could copy aperture card to aperture card Average 15 seconds per copy IBM Micro-Copier II $925 list price Announced April 29, 1963. Planned availability Q1, 1964 Could copy 16mm or 35mm silver halide roll film to aperture card. Could copy aperture card to aperture card 9948: Thermal Copier
Diazo Copiers. The diazo film copiers could in one step create copies from rolled microfilm to aperture cards or as well as from aperture card to aperture card. IBM claimed they were unique in their price range.
IBM 9950: Diazo Copier IBM 9954: Diazo Copier IBM 9955: Micro-Copier Reproducer $65000 USD list price. $1000 monthly rental. Based on its speed and development process, IBM claimed this product was: "unique in the microfilm industry" Announced December 4, 1964 Accepts Aperture Cards Could produce up to 2100 developed aperture cards per hour Combined imaging, punching and punch verification Could accept images produced on silver, diazo or kalvar film Produced diazo copies. Could produce up to 99 copies in a single pass, the quantity controlled by a dial, or from punches on the master card IBM 9965: Diazo Copier IBM claimed this was: The only diazo film copier in its price range that in one step copied images from roll microfilm to punched cards as well as from card to card. Announced December 4, 1964 Console desktop unit Could copy 16mm or 35mm roll film to aperture card Could copy aperture card to aperture card Could output on average eight cards per minute Had an 8 in × 10 in (20 cm × 25 cm) viewing screen to align and verify roll film The viewer could magnify 12x
Cameras IBM 9951: Camera IBM 9956: Camera. 35mm Camera that used Kodak silver halide Type I Class I film Announced December 4, 1964
Microfilm Viewers Microfilm viewers allowed operators to view microfilm and depending on model, print from microfilm.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
