Fuji Xerox Manufactures – The World’s Best Photocopiers

The World’s Best Photocopiers
Success doesn’t happen by accident. So when the hugely successful Japanese photographic Fujifilm company and multi-billion US Rank Xerox corporation formed a partnership in 1962, it was a given that they would do well together. It was just that nobody envisaged just how great the new business would become. Neither did they anticipate that this joint venture would result in the ongoing manufacturer of some of the world’s greatest ever photocopier machines.

Launched in 1934, Fuji started out making photographic film for the domestic market. Xerox, founded just after the turn of the 20th century as The Haloid Photographic Company, made photographic equipment and paper. When they combined forces as Fuji Xerox, the idea was that the new company would simply distribute Rank Xerox products.
Success doesn’t stand still, and distribution wasn’t enough for the new company that has subsequently taken the innovative history of Fuji and Xerox to ever-evolving new heights.

Photocopier Machines and Photostats

When you realize how many people call vacuum cleaners Hoovers, you’ll realize that the same generic use of terminology has been applied to photocopiers and photocopy machines. An early 20th-century cleaning device, the Hoover vacuum cleaner was so successful that people still call other brands that fulfill a similar function by the name Hoover.
Similarly, many people who use some sort of photocopier machine to duplicate written or printed pages call them photostat machines (generically), and the resultant duplicated pieces of paper or images, photostats.

In reality, the Photostat machine is totally different to the high technology photocopiers we use today. While the original Photostat machine (which was a popular brand in the 1910s) essentially used camera technology to reproduce written and printed material, the original Xerox machine used a different process later called xerography. Regarded as “an extraordinary milestone in the development of the information age,” it combined photographic processes with electrostatic printing. It was a laborious manual process that didn’t use liquid chemicals weren’t used. But it was cheaper than Photostats and ultimately much better.

Today xerography – or electrophotography – is used widely for office printing, particularly for multifunctional digital machines.
Fuji Xerox Photocopiers 

For more than half a century Fuji Xerox has been producing the best photocopiers in the world. The company also has a history of innovation, leading the industry from the start.

Soon after the establishment of the Fuji Xerox joint venture, in 1962 the company launched the world’s first photocopying machine, the Fuji Xerox 914. A plain paper copier, it was revolutionary and changed the way people in offices were able to work. Not only was the copy machine compact enough to fit into an office environment, but it also allowed for multiple high-quality copies to be printed out on ordinary typing paper.

However, the Fuji Xerox 914 has been developed by Haloid (which later became Xerox Corporation), and not by Fuji Xerox. The first copy machine Fuji Xerox developed in-house was the Fuji Xerox 2200, and that was in 1973. Two years later they launched a copy machine that was able to print in full color. Another three years later saw two more cutting edge photocopiers hit the market:

• Fuji Xerox 3500, a high-speed, high-performance compact copy machine
• Fuji Xerox 2080, that was able to print A1 size copies
• And they just kept going – getting better and better. For instance:
• 1980 saw the launch of Fuji Xerox 4800, another high-speed machine, this time with an automatic duplex function
• 1982 heralded the Fuji Xerox 8000INS, a machine that incorporated a highly advanced information processing system that used the Ethernet – invented by Xerox!
• 1983 was the year that saw artificial intelligence (AI) making a debut with the Fuji Xerox 1100SIP super PC
• 1985 had two new releases, the Fuji Xerox 6800 full-color plain paper copier, and the very first A1 workstation, the Fuji Xerox 1121, though the latter was only launched in Japan
• Between 1986 and 2016 (which marked three amazing decades of technology), the company launched more than 70 new workstations, printers, copy machines, and a plethora of new systems.

Highlights included the:

• Brain Tech 8180 alpha that was the very first digital copier that was able to print red and black simultaneously for engineering documents and drawings.
• DocuStation IM200 that merged digital documents onto paper using barcode Glyph Codes.
• Color Laser Wind 3310, launched in 1998, yet another industry first, this time offering A3 capability for full-color laser printing from a desktop.
• First ever NetPrint service that offered the convenience of secure retrieval of documents from copy machines in stores.
• Launch of the ApeosPort-III Series in 2007 that used totally new print technology alongside cutting edge environmental technology – another industry first.
• ApeosPort-IV Series that was identified as “key” to Fuji Xerox’s Green Office Program.
• Color 1000 Press that answered the growing need for color on-demand publishing.
• World’s first ever optical system designed to transmit audio, 4K video, and LAN communications data at the same time.

Many of the new inventions from the late 1990s onwards were geared for “greening”. Continually striving to be the best in the industry, in 1996 Fuji Xerox began incorporating recycled parts to its production line, aiming to eventually achieve zero waste. Twelve years later, in 2008, they launched a recycling system in China that would enable them to recycle printers, ink cartridges, and used copier. Another industry first, it has enabled them to disassemble and separate parts from these items, including aluminum, copper and iron, and glass, and to then return the raw material for future use – eliminating illegal disposal of these items in China, and also reducing pollution and landfill.

And as mentioned above, new machines were released that were environmentally friendly.

The Newest Fuji Xerox Photocopier

They really do just keep coming. The company’s ApeosPort machines have been a huge success, and the newest Fuji Xerox ApeosPort VI C4471 is a winner!  If you’re in business and you need a really smart, flexible solution, this is it. It’s not just another top photocopier either, it’s a new machine that can handle so much, you will be amazed.

The best part of the story is that just when you thought it couldn’t get better, when you’re thinking Fuji Xerox, chances are it will. We’ll keep you posted.