Features · From the 72-page private printing
The Decade, Year by Year
1988–2000 in milestones
1990–2000
The decade in milestones — the whole era, year by year, on two pages.
Eleven years of photocopying in one ledger — and yes, the run-up years 1988–89 are included, because the decade arrived early: the DocuTech’s engine, the CLC-500 and the 50 Series were all on the loading dock before the nineties officially clocked on.
1988
- Xerox 5090 — 135 cpm, touch screen, in-line binding; the engine the DocuTech will ride.
- Xerox 50 Series office line rolls out — the 1990s office fleet.
- Canon PC-series personal copiers pass 2 million units.
1989
- Canon CLC-500 — digital full colour reaches the repro room.
- Sharp SF-8300 — first copier with auto-rotating paper drawers.
- Toshiba BD-2810 (28 cpm) — workhorse of its 1990 fleet.
- Mita’s “One Thing On Our Mind” US campaign — peak specialist confidence.
- Lanier Worldwide formed under Harris Corporation.
1990
- 2 Oct: Xerox DocuTech — 135 ppm, 600 dpi; print-on-demand is born.
- Minolta CF70 “LIMOS 70” — its first digital full colour, 400 dpi.
- Canon NP-9800 — world’s first fuzzy-logic copier, 83 cpm.
- Canon opens the industry’s first toner-cartridge recycling scheme.
- Ricoh ARTAGE 8000 — four tandem drums, 15 colour ppm, world’s fastest.
- October: Xerox 5100 launches in Japan.
1991
- Feb: Xerox 5100 US launch — a US-made copier aimed at Japan.
- Sharp SD-2075 — recirculating handler, first air-feed transport.
1992
- Canon CLC 550/350 — world-first anti-forgery tech; colour is now forgery-grade.
- Canon NP-6030 “green” launch; the 100 millionth toner cartridge.
- Sharp SF-2022/2027 anniversary models — quiet, compact, green.
- DocuTech Model 90 and 135 Network Publisher — jobs over the wire.
- Shares: Canon 29.1%, Sharp 20.6%, Xerox 13.4%, Mita 10.3%.
1993
- Canon passes 10 million copiers produced.
- Mita’s decade of Aston Villa shirts ends.
1994
- Xerox becomes “The Document Company” — the X dissolves into pixels.
- Canon CLC 800 — first auto-duplex colour; the 700 prices it for offices.
- Sharp AR-5040 — its first digital copier with electronic sorting.
1995
- Ricoh buys its channel: Savin (March), Gestetner (September).
- Konica 7050 — billed world’s fastest digital at 50 ppm; prints too.
- Canon CLC 1000 — colour goes high-speed production.
- Sharp AR-5030F — its first digital copier with fax.
- Océ ships its first digital high-volume printer/copiers.
1996
- Ricoh imagio MF200 tips Japan to digital; July: Aficio is born.
- 10 Sept: Kodak sells Office Imaging to Danka — $684M, 10,400 people.
- Océ buys Siemens Nixdorf printing, becomes Océ N.V.
- Kodak’s digital ImageSource 70cp appears.
- Minolta CF900 — colour copy, scan and print in one box.
- Sharp AR-5132 — its first digital MFP with network printing.
- Panasonic’s Medallion Series analog flagships current.
- Océ 9400 — first-wave digital wide-format plan printer.
1997
- Xerox ships 80 products — its biggest year; Document Centre lands.
- Océ 3165 (62 cpm, Image Logic) and 9700/9800 wide-format flagships.
- Konica pushes the 7050 worldwide — toward US high-speed leadership.
1998
- August: Mita files for rehabilitation — earnings window-dressed since ~1986.
- Danka’s shares collapse under the Kodak deal.
- Océ 3100 — a 100 cpm analog launched after its digital 3165.
1999
- 1 Jan: Toshiba copiers pass to Toshiba TEC; e-STUDIO follows.
- Kodak sells its last B&W digital manufacturing to Heidelberg.
- Late 1999: Konica quits analog entirely — among the first majors out.
- Sharp AR-C150 — tandem digital colour closes its decade.
- October: Kyocera’s trusteeship at Mita concludes.
2000
- January: Kyocera Mita Corporation — reborn on a ~¥12bn infusion.
- Heidelberg relaunches the ex-Kodak engine as the Digimaster 9110 (110 ppm).
- November: Yoshihiro Mita receives a suspended sentence in Osaka.
- Copiers are ~75% of Minolta’s sales — carrying it toward Konica.
“All twenty-eight DocuTech beta customers bought their test machines — the most unanimous product verdict this magazine has ever had the pleasure of printing.”