The Evolution of Colour Photocopiers - 35 Years of Canon in Colour

Monday, 27 June 2011 03:00

Photocopier News - Colour Photocopier News

Canon has produced well over one million colour photocopiers and this year marks 35 years since the manufacturer's first forays into colour. But the face of Canon's colour photocopiers has changed dramatically since those early days, with some major technological milestones along the way. Here we chart Canon's achievements down the years and remind readers just how much the capabilities of modern-day colour photocopiers have evolved.

Canon's Commitment to Research and Development

Before charting Canon's progress in colour photocopiers, starting with the first Japanese market photcopiers in the late 1970's, it's important to consider how one manufacturer has been able to stay on the cusp of technological developments and often actually define market expectations over several decades since colour photocopiers first became a reality. Afterall, in many other fast-paced technology businesses it is often more common to see new competitors eclipse established rivals, whose devices fail to keep apace with the competition. While Alan Sugar made a fortune on one deal with BSkyB for cheaply produced satellites, the Amstrad computers which he was actually known for, were a spectacular failure and fell behind technological developments in the industry, finally being withdrawn from the shelves in the mid-ninetees. Looking at Canon photocopiers, however, the company has been responsible for more technological milestones than most other rivals put together. To think that the company typically registers between two and three thousand patents each year, gives some impression of the extent of Canon's innovational rigour, even today. It is the company behind the first all-in-one recyclable cartridges, the first automatic duplexing function and the first devices to incorporate bio-plastic in their construction. At the heart of Canon's R&D success has been consistenly high levels of investment in innovation - typically 8% of Canon's annual sales value is re-directed into research and development. And it's a policy that has not only resulted in technolical firsts but staggering market success. For the last 15 years, Canon has ranked fairly consistenty as the top-selling MFP/photocopier manufacturer in the world.

The Milestones

Canon's first colour photocopier, the 'NP' model was targetted at the Japanese market. While an enormous technological achievement of its day, as can be imagined, devices then could not produce the range of colour possible today nor at the same output quality. It took a further ten years to bring more reliable colour photocopying to the European market, when in 1987, Canon released the CLC1 full digital colour copying machine. Colour range was improved from the 'NP' models and cartridge design and quality predicatbly came along as well, but in 1987, colour was still quite slow compared with modern devices. Canon's next major step was in 1995, with the release of the landmark device, the Canon CLC1000 - the first "high speed, full colour, copying machine". Still not achieving the speeds possible in colour today, the 31 pages per minute was impressive for its day and certainly merited the "high speed" description. But outside of the world of photocopiers the technological landscape of computing was witnessing very dramatic changes. The worldwide web was for the first time linking people and organisations together through a computer-based platform and this development would mark the shape of photocopiers to come. As companies worldwide rapidly came to embrace the internet and network technology, as they already had the PC, photocopiers needed to make themselves relevant to the changing dynamics of the workplace. And Canon responded with aplomb. In 2000, the company released the imageRUNNER 3850 - the first of a new generation of networked MFP's - capable of document collation but also able to scan and distribute documents for the first time. The photocopier had become more than just a photocopier! Further devices ensued, providing gradual improvements and in 2006, the IRC series was able to show that some pretty impressive colour results were possible on office colour photocopiers. The release of the new multi award-winning imageRUNNER Advance series which began late 2008 provided really the holy trinity which Canon had been driving towards - full, high qulaity colour, high productivity for any context and cost-aware/environment-aware reliable running. As for where colour photocopiers are heading today, Trevor Dodsworth, Head of Product Marketing at Canon recently highlighted it is increasingly less speed which is determining the success of colour photocopiers but more how well devices respond to business processes and business priorities. Colour is increasingly expected both on smaller devices and not just colour printing. In efficient, networked environments, organisations seek high quality colour scanning. Security is of more importance than ever in these networked, now often, web-connected environments. And it's not just more - it's more for less. Businesses are increasingly looking for savings where they can find them and are also trying to minimise environmental impact where possible. The Canon imageRUNNER Advance series for instance, offers some of the lowest TEC energy ratings in its class, is Energy Star approved and is constructed from a part plant-derived organic composite.

Canon have brought colour photocopiers a very long way indeed. From its introduction of the first devices in the Japanese market in the late 70's, the company's almost obsessive focus on research and development has continued to define colour photocopiers in the form we inherit them today. Increasingly, Canon photocopiers provide high quality and high speed colour printing and scanning but can now offer those capabilities, relatively speaking, at a fraction of previous cost.

For further information on Canon colour photocopiers, please contact Canon Copiers.