Quick printing, spy planes and Harry Brelsford – magazine article
We recently ordered a new 50 impression per minute colour copier/printer. Just two weeks later we went to see the new Canon ImagePRESS in action. There is nothing worse than acquiring some new technology when a new model comes out soon after, but I was not too upset. The new device will not replace the conventional colour copier/printer or the printing press, but I do believe it will open up new opportunities in meeting existing customer expectations for higher quality short runs.
The need for faster shorter runs is always there and when a new technology is developed to meet the need then new markets are created while existing markets may decline. It has always been the same; it is the reason why the quick printing industry came into being.
Quick printing using offset technology burned fiercely for a while until the advent of digital printing. During it’s heyday, the high speed Itek 985 small offset press reigned supreme but its lifecycle was cut short by often slower digital devices, the ImagePRESS being the latest incarnation.
Surprisingly, this new device costs around the same as we would pay today for a small single colour offset press which additionally requires a separate plate maker in order to function.
The U2 connection
The Itek electrostatic paper platemaker introduced in 1963 was another short-lived innovation yet it started a revolution. Many credit it with facilitating the quick printing industry and it was also the forerunner of today’s direct to metal plate technology.
Digital printing is really a fusion of the platemaker and the press and whilst we may credit Xerox, Canon, Apple, Hewlett Packard and others with the digital revolution, Itek was one of the major but almost forgotten pioneers. Its name alone is an abbreviation of ‘Information Technology’ (IT), ahead of its time when the company was formed in the 1950s.
In fact, Itek has a history shrouded in secrecy starting with the U2. No, not Bono and the Irish super group but the U2 spy plane piloted by Gary Powers and shot down over Russia at the height of the Cold War on 1st May 1960.
The Itek Corporation of Lexington, (Boston) Massachusetts was founded by Richard Leghorn, an ex-Air Force Colonel involved in air reconnaissance. The company was well funded and listed on the US stock exchange in 1957 with its share price destined to soar to unprecedented heights.
According to a Time magazine article dated 3rd November, 1963, Itek shares were issued at $2 and rocketed to an astonishing $255 within just 15 months. This was unheard of for the era, and I did not even realise that the world obviously experienced a technology boom back then, but it shows that history repeats and there is no reason why it could not happen again soon.
Make mine a Corona
The U2 was one of the first stealth planes but was shot down at the height of the Cold War on the eve of a crucial meeting between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and American President Eisenhower who, up to that point, had strongly denied the planes existence. The U2’s stealth capability obviously needed some more work and the incident became a turning point in history. At the time, we feared somebody might set off the atom bomb and also feared for the safety of pilot Gary Powers who was later released back to the US.
Spying over Russia had to continue while the remaining U2’s were sent to spy elsewhere - and some are apparently still in service today. The U2’s replacement over Russia was the world’s first spy satellite equipped with a camera code-named CORONA developed by the Itek Corporation.
This camera printed onto a newly-developed large format Kodak polyester film which was dropped from the satellite in a small bucket-shaped canister by parachute and plucked out of the sky by a catcher aircraft. Even with this hit and miss recovery method and a string of failures, CORONA obtained more information on its first successful mission than all previous spy flights combined. The photographs provided evidence that the Soviet Union was far less dangerous than many had presumed, ultimately leading to the end of the Cold War.
The CORONA episode is cloaked in CIA secrecy but it is believed that Itek built around 120 of the cameras. While the company clearly played a critical role in bringing about the end of the Cold War, it soon realised that it would need to use the technology for commercial purposes.
Born on a plate
The small offset press, such as those built by AB Dick, had been introduced back in 1939 and used metal plates which were expensive and laborious to produce. Itek worked closely with Kodak on the CORONA project with one of Kodak’s directors actually joining the company. Itek had also made acquisitions such as Dictaphone and Photostat using an investment from the Rockefellers.
In 1961 Kodak developed a material called Verilith which was a silver-emulsion coated paper plate material making run lengths of over 5,000 impressions possible. Kodak called on Itek to develop a platemaker for the new material and, in 1963, they introduced the model 10.15 Platemaster, the first fully automatic, daylight photodirect platemaker using the Verilith plates. The quick printing industry was born.
Spreading their wings, in 1962 Itek also developed a device called the Electronic Drafting Machine (EDM) using a computer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) to power it. At the time, Itek engineers claimed that it could be hooked up to permit long distance design conferences between sites such as a missile launch pad and the home office. The internet was obviously available to a select group back then.
Other companies like Boeing, Ford and General Motors were also developing their own digital drafting machines and, at US $500,000 a pop, Itek did not sell many units but they are credited with playing a significant role in CAD (Computer Aided Design) development upon which much of today’s large format technology is based.
The Mac attack
In 1977 Itek introduced the Quadritek 1200 phototypesetting machine sold as an ‘affordable’ solution for around US $17,000. The 1200 found a niche market against the more expensive Compugraphic equipment available at the time.
Primitive by today’s standards but a vast step-up from existing equipment such as the IBM Composer which was a glorified golf ball typewriter, the display on the Quadritek consisted of a 300mm wide screen displaying only four lines of unformatted text. The unit was difficult to operate, with code and key combinations having to be memorised in order to set type at the right size and style.
From 1977 to the mid 1980s, Itek built and sold several models to a point where the last, the Digitek, featured a WYSIWYG display on a second monitor. The Apple Macintosh, however, would soon offer a more user-friendly package even if the toner-based image was at lower resolution.
At the time, we needed to bring typesetting in-house in our printing business in order to meet delivery promises. I recall weighing the merits of the Digitek against the first Macintosh and Apple LaserWriter offering. The Mac won out even with the low resolution printer simply because it was easier to operate. We would, however, output artwork at double the size and reduce it on the platemaker in order to improve resolution. In fact we would present the customer with the quality, time and cost options against phototypesetting and were soon doing most of our work on the Mac.
Itek soldiered on but the company was taken over by AB Dick in 1988 which, in turn, was taken over by Presstek, a direct-to-plate company, in 2004. Itek’s competitor, Compugraphic, also from Boston, was taken over by Agfa, another major player in direct-to-plate technology.
I just wanted a GTO
Comparing a small, high-speed, single-colour press to a slower full-colour digital device such as the ImagePRESS may seem unfair. The old workhorse press of the quick printing industry could print anything from carbonless paper to business cards, even envelopes, one spot colour at a time. For some extra cash, you could buy a roll-up online numbering and perforating device. Large solids were a problem though, even with the skip feature that allowed an extra inking revolution between impressions.
In spite of all the advances, we still await a digital device that can print high resolution, single-colour long runs, envelopes, NCR and more at a viable cost rate. There are times when I miss those Iteks but even when we had a good one on the floor, deep down we still really wanted a Heidelberg GTO.
Perhaps the new device is the GTO we desired. Large solids are no problem but it only prints at just over 800 impressions per hour. To be fair, that is four colours in one pass and it can number the sheets as it prints or print a different image on each sheet. The next model up, however, will run at 4,200 full colour impressions per hour.
The bottom line though is that today’s customer simply has an expectation for short run, fast turnaround colour printing and they expect the same quality as all their other printing - offset quality. They are not concerned about how it gets done; they just want it and in order to stay in the game we have to meet their needs or go the way of Itek, a once major player in the technology league which rapidly slipped into oblivion.
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