Early days of Clark, Bill Rowe and Bill Towns

Bill Rowe joined Polychrome in 1970 and headed the resin group research.       When the Clark facility was obtained for the film manufacturing, he moved the resin research group to Clark facility which prior to Polychrome's take over was a resin research lab for the Celanese Corporation; he was promoted to Assistant Vice President in charge of the Clark facility.       His major contribution to the company was his knowledge and interest in urethane chemistry and introduced urethane oligomer type composition  in our negative plate formula.        His influence remains long after his 1982  retirement in various offset plate coating formulae.     He has produced a urethane oligomer based flexo plate called Flexomer.    However, we were not geared for the production so the technology was later sold to Rhone Poulanc.         Take a look at a Flexomer brochure HERE.             See
 his  retirement luncheon pictures.   (Thanks AJ for the pictures and thanks Saraya for Bill's work info)

Today he is 93 and lives in New Jersey.

Bill Towns built his photographic solution business, Townley Chemical,  in Long Island focused on liquid toner business.....  copiers using liquid toner was plentiful then.       But as the liquid toner business  started to decline due to the advent of inexpensive dry toner copiers, he saw a writing on the wall for his business and called us to see if we were interested in buying his business.         We evaluated his business but we did not see much future in the liquid tone business in addition  the Clark facility where we contemplated moving his mixing tanks and  the filling station was not explosion proof as required for the liquid toner business.          We offered to buy his hardwares and started liquid photographic chemistry business under his supervision.          This was fortunate for Polychrome as the Clark facility did not have other revenue during the construction of film manufacturing facility and we were able to consolidate high margin solution chemicals from Yonkers plant as well as add new volume product such as  litho developer and litho fixer.        Having established chemistry business for  Polychrome Bill left the  company after the arrival of Marv Lieberman as the general manager of the Clark facility.

Electrostatic paper master and " In God we trust...."

I joined Polychrome as an elctrostatic imaging expert.       There were two types of electrostatic imaging system competing then; one was with selenium drum and copying images on an ordinary paper....Xerox was the only one offering a big desk like copying machine and the other was with the zinc oxide coated paper.    The RCA Corporation licensed anyone who were interested in this latter technology so that there were numerous companies producing smaller copying machines with two different toners.     As an example Addressograph Multigraph used dry toner system and Savin used liquid toner system.        For a while these zinc oxide coated copying machine outnumbered the only one "ordinary paper" copying machine by Xerox.       In graphic arts industry AM copiers were used to make an inexpensive zinc oxide coated  paper master directly from original.     For a short run of up to 1000 copies this method was very useful as there is no need for a usual film making and plate making process costing  time and money.             Only one issue was the cost of the huge AM machine.      On the other side of technology, there were many electrophotographic copying machines with liquid toner.       Since the liquid toner mechanism was much simpler than dry toner system, copiers using liquid toner tended to be much simpler, lower cost and smaller in size.       And some copiers had just enough size margin to produce printing plate.             My project in 1966 was to evaluate resins made in our Cellomer subsidiary to see if any of the resin we produce could be marketed as the binding resin for the zinc oxide coating.           Having determined quickly that producing zinc oxide coated paper master is more attractive than merely offering the resin,  such a master was designed.         Since we did not have a manufacturing equipment for such a product, we had to have it made by an outside contractor.     We found one nearby in Mammaroneck, NY and started to produce zinc oxide coated paper master.
We simply called it an Electrostatic master and sold it as a part of then Polychrome paper products division.       Paul Nemoda was the one pushing this into the market place and I was running around to formulate, toll coat and finish within Polychrome.        Special etching solution was also formulated and probably made more money than the paper master itself.      In contrast to  vertically integrated company such as SD Warren who produced base paper, coated and finished, we had to buy the base paper, toll coat and then finish in small scale.        So I would imagine the profit margin must have been very small, although it may have filled the product gap and survived within Polychrome product lineup till early 80's.          During this period of toll coating I used to go to the Mamaroneck toll coater  and had lunch at a corner deli and there was a sign on the wall saying " In god we trust, all others bring cash!"
This gave me an idea of coming up with my own R&D motto and preached " In god we trust, all others bring samples!"           My approach was not to ask for a detailed report but ask to see a demo of a new product.            While we were at Polychrome R&D, this approach worked and worked well.   Too often large corporations placed too much emphasis on well written report.          We may not have had  lengthy detailed reports on negligibly small progress but we had many great product without lengthy reports.

Polyworld Vol.4 No.4. Winter '84-'85

Polyworld volume number jumped from Vol 2 to Vol. 4 in 1984.     Not sure whether there were any Vol. 3's around.     It appears Vol. 2 was used twice both in 1983 and 1984 so this must have been a catch up.    There are 24 pages full of information and pictures.     You can read the entire content HERE

OPC-D ... little brother of LaserScan OPC-B

As the Laser Scan video suggested the digital era was approaching in mid 1980's.       DIC's focus on the Organic Photo Conductor (OPC) shifted from those sensitive to visible light (for copying machines)   to those sensitive to up and coming laser light (laser printers).       By the end of the decade DIC produced OPC for the  laser diode and applied to printing plate use and called OPC-D (for laser diode sensitivity)       The plate was produced in Japan by a contract coater and was shipped to US together with DIC developed liquid toner for plate use.          We located a Minneapolis based company, Printware,  producing a laser printer with large format (11 x 14) suitable for printing plate application.
The machine was designed for a zinc oxide coated paper base printing plate for short runs.      We have persuaded them to modify the machine to take OPC-D plate as well as the a heat fix module to produce a metal plate.              The system was promoted as dual (short-paper, long-metal) digital platemaker.
In a way this was the digital answer to analog camera platemaker like the one popularized by Itek.
DIC followed up with an announcement of Synardica, a 30 X 40 large format laser platemaker using same principle and was shown at the Drupa 1990.
Our association with Printware was short lived as the plate made in Japan was too costly and the volume was not sufficient to produce in US locally (a typical start up dilemma!)          We managed to supply OPC-D for  a few years but eventually made decision to discontinue the product offering.   So the little brother did not survive long but this was our first tiptoeing into the world of digital platemaking.

Here is the DLPM promo video I salvaged from a trash can.

Recipe on paper napkin and CTX...dawn of the digital era at Polychrome

Polychrome headquarter had a nice cafeteria where everyone from different departments mingled and sat together for lunch and coffee.         Mike Adelman then in charge of marketing sat down with me one day and challenged me and said "why don't you come up with a real camera speed plate!"      To come up with a completely new system would have taken years of research so I replied almost jokingly that I had a ready answer and wrote a scheme on the back of paper napkin to show him the concept.      This was in early 1990's and the background of his asking this question was that we had a system division called Opticopy and Rachwal system both using photographic film and a camera speed plate was thought to expand the market significantly.         The system I proposed was a simple combination of plate and film emulsion.         Just prior to this period I was asked to direct R&D and was quite familiar with what we can do with the photographic emulsion.         Of course the combination of two known system is not an earthshaking innovation but there was no other camera speed system available. (and even to date such system does not exist)         It is like if  there are no other audio entertainment systems around,  we should pursue radio-casett combination!            Mike was immediately supportive of the concept; so a positive plate from Yonkers and a photographic emulsion from Clark was quickly combined to make first samples.      Bob Hallman coined the internal code name CTX to indicate cooperation of Yonkers, Clark and Osterode R&D; it eventually established as the trade name.      Big issue was production of such product.        Clearly a hard aluminum plate and a soft photographic emulsion do not mix well on ordinary production line.       Luckily at that time Dr. Harald Baumann who joined us  from Orwo in East Germany described Orwo's glass plate coating capability.        A special purpose dimensionally stable photographic glass plate was being made there.      Since Dr. Baumann used to be the R&D director, he was able to organize a successful trial coating there and a few initial production.           Again fortunately we also had by then the Quadrimetal production line in France where a large bi and tri metal plates were coated sheet by sheet.          Since this plant had enough idle capacity this new project was welcomed readily.          So we were extremely lucky to find a ready production line for such a demanding coating.         We were able to coat very large (60") plate and were used by customers using large plate printing books and posters.         By this time our attention was drawn to the emerging digital laser plate making system.          Kalle was pushing N-90 and Howson was offering their Silverlith plate.        We were just in time to claim the third and different approach.       Our selling point was that ours was the only camera speed plate with conventional plate performance on press.                
Our big break came with  the Linotype Hell laser platemaker whose internal test showed that ours outperformed others and they made our plate as their preferred plate.       At the 1995 Drupa, we had three major digital platemakers; Linotype Hell, Creo and Gerber.       An industry expert said at that time to go to Polychrome booth to see all the digital systems.          Another break was at the RR Donnelly Portland where the first CTX line with Creo platemaker performed well against N-90.
The CTX received the Intertech award in 1994.       HERE is the link to the CTX news/ CTXtra published internally and distributed to limited number of those involved in the project.       It shows trials and tribulations in detail but also shows the triumph brought by numbers of dedicated Polychromers.    Thanks all for helping Polychrome join the big league with real digital plate just in time.

This is the  only brochure I could find HERE is the rest.

Lunch with Mr. Gold

Mr. Bernard Gold worked for an accounting firm and handled Polychrome account in 1950's.      He was invited to Polychrome and joined the company in 1956 serving as CFO and a member of the executive management committee until his early retirement in 1979.      Those who are receiving old Polychrome pension are indebted to his pushing the pension scheme while Mr. Halpern, who was always focused on business expansion, stayed cool to the idea.       His increasingly independent thinking, sometimes against Mr. Halpern's wish, apparently accelerated his departure.    Many were then very much surprised  hearing the announcement as he appeared to be well qualified as the next president.     After his retirement he traded commodity and now enjoys a bit of day trading stocks.
Today at 89 with his brilliant silver hair, he looks as distinguished as ever.

Ken Shimazu and Mr. Bernard Gold in late 1970.

Polychrome International Today... The Berwick-upon -Tweed Opening '78

The 8 page flyer contains the following European news

Berwick opening
Polychrome "Down under"
Multinational New York Seminar
Netprint'78 Boosts Business in Britain
Imprint exhibition in Dusseldorf 1979
Meetings, Meetings, Everywhere
Big Winners in the Polychrome Family
GmbH show businessman
Simon Says
and more

Read all HERE

Mr. Terry Cummins our dealer from Ireland writes

I joined the Heidelberg Agents in Dublin 
in 1969. At that time there was a keen interest in a switch from Letterpress to Litho. So here was my new job re-training Compositors to make Film Negatives and Howson Algraphy Plates
and the Letterpress Printer how to run his new Heidelberg Offset. 
The problem as I saw it was why be sub agents for UK Suppliers when we should seek direct agencies. Our first opportunity came when Ilford the Irish Film Distributors were closing and offered my Boss the Irish Agency for Polychrome Plates. We gladly took the agency and met the MD Mr. Van Lynden and the Gentleman responsible for accounts Mr. Zimmerman and their export manager Mr. Garritsma. (excuse the name spelling as I work off old memories) Then I had the great pleasure of meeting Lutz Massic the Technician who was to train me at their plant in Osteride Germany. This was to begin an excellent period of my introduction and training in visible images after exposure to subtractive
Plates GAP , GAN and  also DSN double sided Negative Plates.

I wonder if our German friend Lutz is still in good health and enjoying life.


The Company I worked for got into Financial difficulties and that brought more into the Polychrome family as 
I was offered the agency so started my own company in 1974 and started to purchase my plates from Polychrome UK and this brings Tom Heckels, Bill Griffiths, Clive Easteal and Peter Cornfort into the new picture

Interesting to find out how they all are. I know Tom Heckles moved to Australia
many years ago

Regards

Terry Cummins


KS note.      Ilford was Polychrome's early partner and invested in Osterode factory.     So it is not surprising they were organizing sales channel.        Partnership was later dissolved as Ilford moved away from graphic arts business.        Thank you very much Terry for providing us with perspective from sales end.        Ken

Joe Piot was Polychrome's fourth president

Joe Piot was thought to be very close to the DIC's then president Shigekuni Kawamura and was appointed to be the president soon after the takeover in 1979.     His obituary appeared on the Tennesean HERE on April 6, 2012 shows he was 92 years old.

Polychrome on the way to top ....1992 Wolf report

Polychrome wanted to be No. 1 in the industry investing $200 million  within 2 years, more than the combination of all the competitors.... reported 1992 Wolf report.        It  said Polychrome was No. 4 in the world and No. 3 in Europe.          Broad range of products were mentioned, Synardica, Opticopy, Rachwal System, Vistar, PPN-9, etc. and the increase in projection plate making and digital platemaking was projected.         It was fun time to be involved in all these activities.

Read the full text in German HERE.      The google translation is HERE.

Polychrome History revisited

Alan Wilkes found a Polychrome History booklet.      Thanks Alan
(This is the same booklet Maria Sibio found earlier and was used to describe Polychrome history but Alan made PDF scan so that you can actually see the content.     Click Here

Dinner with Dr. Oe

By the time DIC made purchase of Polychrome,  Mr. Katsumi Kawamura was already "retired" and had the title of Advisor.            As the founder of the modern DIC, he flew to NYC one year after the end of WWII to get license from Reichold Chemical and Sun Chemical and changed his old printing ink company to one of the major chemical companies in the world.        He has maintained his interest in the printing industry, his bread and butter business, and expanded the offering to printing press as the distributor of Man Roland press, lithographic film and offset printing plate as the distributor of Fuji Photo Film.            He has tried and failed to become a PS plate producer when the negotiation with Kalle failed earlier.          The purchase of Polychrome, organized by his successor and then president of DIC, Shigeguni Kawamura, gave him one more opportunity to realize his dream of becoming a domestic producer.           But it was Dr. Kouji Oe who made his dream come true in getting things organized and pushing the large DIC organization to get quick approvals and support.           Dr. Oe was teaching Chemistry at the Kyushu University when he was invited to join DIC.         The "Advisor" was eager to support Polychrome to strengthen R&D and a team was assembled quickly.    It was clear that the licensee Fuji would be allowed to go outside of Japan after the long 28 years of licensing agreement ends in early 1980's to become a strong competitor to Polychrome world wide.     DIC's answer to the situation was to build a PS plate manufacturing plant in Japan.         The historic Gunma plant was chosen and under the strong direction of Dr. Oe, the modern manufacturing plant was constructed on time and on budget.              The dedication of Dr. Oe to the project was legendary.     He was always in the center and front of the construction, debugging and production.        Once he was pulled into the still moving decurler rollers which had only wide enough opening for his chest.      He came out under the rollers with his helmet crushed and bruise all over his body.          He came back to the plant within a few hours to show he is ok fearing otherwise could slow down the project.         He has recruited a strong team of chemists and engineers to develop products for Japan and SEA and directed expansion of Gunma plant.

He literally started Polychrome Gunma plant for DIC but he also played an important role for DIC to end relationship with Polychrome's successor; Kodak Polychrome.        By early 2000, he rose to the top of the DIC management and while he was the president of  DIC made the decision to end the joint venture with Kodak, essentially selling DIC's 50% shares to Kodak.      

During the dinner in Tokyo last week Dr. Oe said DIC was not keen to the idea of buying a hardware company  (CREO).            He was aware of the market saturation then and was concerned with the maintenance liability.           He is now fully retired from the chairman position and is enjoying meeting old friends.

Wes Hennessy was Polychrome's second president

Mr. Hennessy was our second president in mid 1970 after he left Columbia University but his influence on Polychrome appears to be negligible.         It was probably because  Mr. Halpern remained in charge as the chairman of the board and had his iron grip on running of the company.       Perhaps Mr. Halpern was seeking an industry recognition through association with well established institution like Columbia University.      This New York Times obituary gives us the background of this fine gentleman who used to stop by us and talk about his hobby, photography.

Wesley Hennessy, 77, Ex-Dean at Columbia

Published: October 18, 1991

Wesley J. Hennessy, a former dean of the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science, died on Oct. 8 at North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 77 years old.

Mr. Hennessy, a resident of Deerfield Beach, Fla., died of heart failure, his family said.

Although not an engineer, he was an administrator at the school for 31 years and its dean from 1969 to 1975. He promoted the integration of engineering with liberal arts in a five-year course of study.

In 1957, he quit Theta Thau, a national engineers' fraternity, to protest its barring of blacks.

For two decades Mr. Hennessy advised South Korea on industry and education. After leaving Columbia, he was president of the Polychrome Corporation in Yonkers for two years and later was a director and acting chairman of the Hazeltine Corporation on Long Island.

He is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Campbell; four daughters, Holly Yellen of Nyack, N.Y., Heather Hoisington of Norwich, Vt., Karen Senko of Pompano Beach and Anne, of Deerfield Beach; three sons, Kevin, of Wellington, Fla., Mark, of Burbank, Calif., and David, of Pompano Beach; a brother, Harry C., of Southhold, L.I., and a sister, Margaret, of Massapequa, L.I.

1973 Annual meeting hightlights

I have not yet located a copy of the 1973 annual report but here is the highlight of the annual meeting, probably the last one held in Yonkers "auditorium".      You can read the entire content of the report HERE

Polychrome Expansion 1973 and 1975

Doug Chu found news paper articles announcing expansion of Polychrome in Canada (Nov. 1973) and in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England (Aug, 1975)          (Thanks Doug!)

Polychrome Canada

from the Montreal Gazette Nov. 2, 1973)    Click HERE for details.

Berwick-upon-Tweed factory 

from the Glasgow Herald Aug.12, 1975)    Click HERE for details

Early days of Polychrome R&D

When I joined Polychrome R&D in Oct. 1965, the lab was headed by Mr. Ibert Mellan, a kindly white haired gentle person who authored books on solvents and corrosion resistant inorganic materials.     His background enabled him to patent a zirconium based interlayer system as contrast to 3M's silicate system.       Polychrome used this "C" coating extensively not to infringe 3M patent.    Nevertheless 3M sued Polychrome for an infringement and Polychrome counter sued.      I remember in 1988-67 period, couple of 3M research chemists along with lawyers descended on Ashburton ave. lab for preliminary fact finding mission with court appointed intermediary,  then Columbia University professor Dr. Linford.    (who later joined Polychrome as the research director)      When we argued we did not use silicate but used zirconium compounds, they countered saying they could still detect silicate as silicate is naturally contained in the tap/well water.        The suite lasted more than half a year but ended up in settling out of court.     Our standing joke then was, we received $900.000 from 3M but we paid our lawyer $1M and he promptly retired with his secretary in Florida!.
The first member of the lab I met was Sidney Augarten as he was the one who picked me up in the morning to go to the lab. but he passed away within a year or so before I was able to get to know him well.           Al Taudien came from Argentina and formulated numbers of processing chemicals.      #303 and #305 were developing lacquer for the wipon plate.      When I asked him why he had so many  seemingly nonfunctional ingredients in the formula, he replied "so that we could confuse competition."       Gene Golda was a plate coating formulator and often brought Simon Chu's idea to practice.             Dr. Delos Bown joined Polychrome in 1966.    He came with an impressive credentials such as PhD from MIT and work history at Exxon Research but turned out to be a very hand-on practical person.          When we learned the new positive diazo possibility from Fuji, it was Dr. Bown who worked over time, Saturdays and Sundays to synthesize suitable compounds and then to make enough for production trials.         Working along with him I developed severe lash on my body so I asked Dr. Bown what I should do.      He replied " go home and have a drink, it will go away in the morning."      I dutifully went home and had a glass of beer and the lash was gone the next day.   Later, however, I learned that Dr. Bown was a devoted Mormon and when he said "drink" he meant milk not beer!          Within a year he made me his assistant so that in my late twenties, I had an impressive title of Assistant Director of Research.        Little I knew that this title would not change for a long time.    

Annual Report 1972

So many young faces !!! .........     Click HERE to view the entire contents.

Grand Opening of Columbus WCM in 1991

After evaluating various locations such as Yardsville, NJ and others, the company finally settled on the Columbus, GA as the future location for the Plate production.      
The plant still stands as the only production line in US for the succeeding Kodak Co.    
See the grand opening ceremony.

Polyworld Vol 2 no 2 Summer '84

See " Computer -to- Plate Speeds News to Business" article on page 2 and 3.      Peggy Otis from R&D  won the naming contest for the new negative plate...Quantum.      News from Germany and England (Berwick).      168 names listed o the service awards.       Click HERE to view all the contents.

Dr. Seiichi Ooba, former Fuji Photo executive

Perhaps Dr. Seiichi Ooba is not well known to many Polychromers, but he has played an important role in Polychrome's history.        In mid 1950 when he was in charge of Fuji Photo Film's new business development department, he has determined that they should license the presensitized printing plate technology and came to Polychrome.           Fuji was aware that 3M was the dominant player in US but they refused to license Fuji.        They found key patents by Polychrome, one on interlayer treatment by Ibert Mellan and the other a stabilizing overcoat reaction by Simon Chu and these patents were the reason they became aware of Polychrome as the potential source of the plate technology.         It was reported that the R&D group within Fuji told Dr. Ooba that they would be ready to come out with their own technology within a few years.       Dr. Ooba made a decision that the head start in Japan in plate production would be the key to lead the Japanese market and that they should not wait for the internal development and persuaded everyone to come to Polychrome.      He was proven to be right; within a few years of licensing arrangement, Fuji became the dominant supplier in Japan and helped the growing printing industry in Japan.        He passed away peacefully this winter at the age of 99 a few short days away from reaching 100.

Those who joined Polychrome later questioned the wisdom of licensing Fuji to create a strong competition, but we all should know that the arrangement gave a tremendous boost to Polychrome in recognition, financial rewards (towards the end of second term of licensing, licensing income was over a million dollars per year) and the engineering know how we received from Fuji.        

Polychrome luncheon on Sept 2012 Audio

We forgot to take a group picture on our get together on Sept. 29th 2012, but here is the audio record of everyone making a few minutes of updating.

(while listening you can multitask to read Polyworld and other documents)

As Bob Hallman said at the beginning, we all joined Polychrome but we never left.   Our memory of a good company during our youth lives on.

Annual Report 1971

Mr. Halpern's photo posted in the first page of this blog was taken from this report (page 3)
Click HERE to view the entire contents.

Annual Report 1970

Very upbeat 1970 Annual Report, click HERE to read all the contents.

Herald Statesman, April 17, 1968

Herald Statesman (remember!?) article courtesy of Doug Chu

Polychrome Announces Plans 

For New Central Laboratory 

.
Mr. Halpern said his company is "in Yonkers to stay and help build a more prosperous  city." 
He proposed a community project to maintain and improve the quality of industry, improve present and create future educational and vocational institutions, attract competent teachers, provide means and tools for teaching, trades, plan a program of on-the-job training and establish facilities geared to young men returning from military service.     He said Polychrome is ready to be part of such a project.


Mr. Halpern said Polychrome has six locations in the United States and two overseas and its executives  " are located within a 20  mile  radius of Yonkers." 
Mr. Graves said Polychrome's growth in the 1950s was spearheaded by expansion of the Gestetner Corp. here. 
"Yonkers has become the center of the mimeograph stencil duplicating industry in the U.S.since we believe we produce more stencils than  anyone  else in the country and hopefully Gestetner (KS note; Polychrome's biggest customer, Gestetner sold mimeographic stencil masters under their own label ) sells more stencil duplicating machines than anyone  else ," he said.  
He said the 34 -year-old firm has 12.000  active customers, many of whom operate entire printing plants exclusively with Polychrome products. He said Polychrome is one of the country's leading inventor and producers of presensitized plates designed for the lithographic printing industry and the plates were developed by the technological staff here.
The plant  here  has 300 employees, including 17 chemists, while Polychrome  has 500 other employees in  subsidiaries and its direct  sales organization of 32 offices and warehouses.




Actual newspaper page can be found here.    Click HERE.

Polyworld Vol 2 No 1 Spring 84

In this issue, Simon Chu celebrates his 25th year service with his memorable " Change " keynote address at the service award luncheon.       Click  HERE  to view all the articles and photos in this issue.

Polychrome OPC plate; Rhone Poulenc and DIC

In mid 1970 French chemical giant Rhone Poulenc owned  large graphic arts product distributor which was one of Polychrome GmbH dealers in Europe.         Mr. Halpern made an arrangement for them to invest in Polychrome as Polychrome was expanding into film production.     Their investment eventually rose to own substantial (40%) part of outstanding Polychrome shares.         One of the strength Polychrome GmbH had was the strong offering of negative plates useful in newspaper printing.       The major competitor Kalle introduced in 1960's a new product called OPC (organic photoconductor) plate and by 1970 a direct camera platemaking system called Elfasol was on the market and it started making inroad to newspaper market.    Since it bypasses the film making step, the closing time for newspaper could be pushed back and that was a tremendous advantage over the conventional film-plate system.       Rhone Poulenc management was concerned about the threat of this emerging product and brought us their analysis of Kalle patents and components.          The Yonkers lab made successful initial trial coating to demonstrate competitive performance.      The formula was then transferred to Osterode for scale up.       The OPC plate was successfully scaled up and was soon on the market as OPC-A to be sold into the Elfasol equipment as the alternative to Kalle offering.     Although the customers were reluctant initially to take in competitor's plate they gradually accepted the role of the second source and OPC-A enjoyed reasonable acceptance.          The GmbH management, however,  realized soon that unless we have a dedicated equipment of our own further penetration was not possible.           The Yonkers lab. was by then working on a new OPC we named OPC-B.      Soon after the DIC purchase of Polychrome,  technology team exchange was organized.      During one of the visit to DIC, we realized that one of the DIC division, Imagaing Material Division, had a project for an OPC drum coating for copying machines and printers.           The major components used for the drum coating was different from the one used in OPC-A plate and promised to have a higher light sensitivity.            We brought back the information and the components and soon a new OPC plate, OPC-B, was born.             This is the plate tested successfully on the Chemco Newsplater, a Elfasol like camera direct platemaking system with one major difference.     Kalle used dry toner while Chemco used liquid toner.        Chemco was then using an inorganic (zinc oxide) photoconductor as their plate and since we knew the shortcoming of zinc oxide plate on the press we had approached them earlier with OPC-A and determined that it did not have high enough sensitivity.      Armed with the knowledge we went back to Chemco with OPC_B and successfully demonstrated that it matched the needed sensitivity and that also once made into a plate it performed just as an ordinary printing plate.        The successful demonstration led us to cooperate with them to start beta testing at the Wall Street Journal Sharon PA plant in their new laser to plate platemaking attempt which then led their adoption of laser platemaking system in over half of their operating plants.           The GmbH management sent an engineer to study the Chemco system and embarked on our own platemaking system.        Like Elfasol, the OPC 2000 system was a "direct to plate" camera system with one major difference.       Elfasol used a dry toner sytem and OPC 2000 a liquid toner system offering better resolution.          Over 100 units of  OPC 2000 were eventually installed throughout Europe.            

So the famous Polychrome OPC plates were not Polychrome invention.       Our contribution was just like Microsoft and Apple in good execution of someone's idea into  customer friendly new products of our own.      

Click  HERE  to view OPC 2000 brochure.      In addition to the use of liquid toner, it had rotating  copy holder to speed up production.

Polyworld Vol 1 no 2 Spring '83 revisited

You can now read all the content of this Polyworld by clicking HERE   You can read all about Mr. Kawamura, find out who won the contest to rename the Chrome-guide to Polyworld, new distribution system POLO, see who marked 54th year of service, who joined Polychrome in 82, and what prints WRN made, who won the sales contest, etc.

Old business card design

Found old business cards

1970's

note there is no fax number nor email address!
(This is the most classy card design with embossed logo in the middle you may not be able to see.)

1980's

It now carries telex number and telefax (not a simple fax!) number!

1990's

It now says simply "fax" and my own email address as the company did not have official address yet then.

Polyworld vol 11 no 1 revisited

Hope those of you who are in east coast weathered the Hurricane Sandy ok.           Here is the Polyworld Vol 11 posted earlier.     Now that a link is made to the PDF file, the content can be clearly seen.     Please click HERE  to view the entire content.       There are a lot of familiar (and young) faces in the article

Polyworld revisited vol 1 no 1 Fall '82

It turns out the Polyworld started as "The Chrome -guide" in the fall of 1982.       After the naming contest it was renamed to Polyworld in the subsequent issues.         I now have made PDF document so that the entire content can be easily read.     So here is the first Polyworld or rather  "The Chrome - guide"    Vol. 1, Number 1 Fall '82 issue.    

To read the content click HERE.

Mr. Halpern comments on Fantastic Growth! (1968)

Another digging by Doug Chu produced 1968 news paper article in which Mr. Halpern describes rosy outlook for the graphic arts supply business.     (Thanks Doug)

This appeared on the Milwaukee Journal Jan 16, 1968      Click HERE for details

(you can read the whole article by simply moving the cursor around and move the page up and down.)

Mr. Halpern gives a bit of history here.      Started manufacturing stencil in 1937,    Started offset supply in 1948, and started presensitized offset plate manufacturing in 1952.     Sales increased from $2.5 mil in 1957 to $20 in 1967.

The Art of Excellence (early 1990?)

This beautiful brochure has many world class master paintings and has the following introduction         (Thank you Marge McG for the brochure)

Dedicated to a Tradition of Excellence

Over the centuries, the great masters of art have demonstrated one common characteristic - a fervent dedication to their work. Quality, craftsmanship, attention to detail. These are qualities which make one excel. But above all, an undying desire to go beyond the limits of one's capabilities. To be the best. To strive for perfection. This is the art of excellence.

In its most fundamental form, printing is an art - an art to which Polychrome has remained dedicated for over 55 years. And just as each of the great masters excelled in his or her own specialty, Polychrome has excelled - like no other company in the graphic arts industry.

A record of pioneering technology; uncompromising standards of quality; World-Class Manufacturing facilities; and responsive customer service. These qualities have made Polychrome a leader around the world, and are fueled by a desire to develop the most efficient, state-of-the-art consumables, equipment and prepress supplies for our customers. Our commitment to the graphic arts industry. A commitment to excellence.

Laser-Scan OPC-B video

When we vacated Carlstadt lab sometime ago, a few video tapes were rescued from a garbage pile.      I am happy to have saved historic Laser-Scan video.        As you may recall Polychrome received InterTech '85 award for the Laser-Scan technology.        This was based on the OPC-B plate (will explain in detail later) and was used at several Wall Street Journal plan.        They composed newspaper in their South Brunswick office, beamed up the information to satellite around 5pm and their printing plants strategically placed throughout the nation received the latest electronic page feed and then imaged on our OPC-B printing plate.       This eliminated (according to the engineers we spoke then) about 20 film and platemaking workers replaced by a few electrical engineers who manned the sophisticated satellite-to-printing plate making equipment.          As the video indicates towards the end this was the time when Apple Computer announced the laser printer which revolutionized the PC world.       Today, majority of printing plates are made using laser direct platemaking system.       We could say we were there showing the way in early 1980 where the industry was going.   Three names come to my mind who helped get this award, Jay Patel who literally lived in the Wall Street Journal plant to make this work, Simon Chu who was behind the making of this video and application for the award and Bill Palafox who prepared all the documentation to gain support.

Polychrome History 1935-1988

 A booklet distribued in May 1988 covers a short history of Polychrome (Thank you Maria S.)

1935 Polychrome founded by Gregory Halpern in New York City to manufacture mimeograph inks. His wife, Freda, named the company "Polychrome." 1936 Company incorporated in the state of New York. 1944 Relocated to Yonkers, N.Y 1950 Began production of direct image paper offset masters. 1959 Introduced the first successful presensitized, mechanically grained metal offset plate- "Granekote." 1961 Entered industrial chemicals field with the acquisition of Cellofilm Corp., Wood-Ridge, NJ., as a wholly-owned subsidiary to produce nitrocellulose solutions. 1962 Introduced the first two-sided presensitized, mechanically grained offset plate -"Dualgrane." Participated in establishment of Aufa-Polychrome Offsetplatten GmbH in West Berlin to manufacture offset plates and chemistry for distribution to Western Europe, the Near East and Africa. Formed Cellomer Corp., in Newark, NJ., as a wholly-owned subsidiary to manufacture and market alkyd, epoxy, polyester and urethane resins. 1963 Polychrome common stock listed on the American Stock Exchange. Licensed Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., to manufacture and distribute Polychrome's presensitized aluminum plates and other offset products in Japan and the Far East. 1964 Introduced the first presensitized, electrolytically-grained and anodized offset plate -"Litho-Surface IOO,OQO." Severed relations with Aufa GmbH and relocated the German company to West Germany, under the name Polychrome GmbH. 1965 Introduced the first presensitized bi-metal offset plate - "Copperkote Positive." Established Cellofilm manufacturing facilities in Chicago to serve the Mid-West market with nitrocellulose solutions. 1967 Introduced the first presensitized, mechanically-grained and anodized offset plates-"GA" and "GAP." 1968 Established marketing subsidiary, now known as Polychrome Ltd., in Watford, England. 1969 Introduced the first presensitized, mechanically-grained, anodized and aqueous-developable subtractive plate system "FGB." 1971 Entered the prepress equipment field with the company's first automatic plate processing machine. 1972 Polychrome Ltd. began manufacturing inks and photographic and lithographic chemicals in England. Introduced the first two-sided presensitized, anodized, subtrac­ tive offset plate- "DSN." 1980     Dr. Gregory Halpern, Founder of the company, retired as Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. 1981     Introduced the first aqueous-developable, projection-speed offset plate system -"PPN." 1982     Introduced the first laser-exposable electrostatic plate system­"OPC."   Purchased Yardville, NJ. facility. 1983     Introduced the first ultra-high-printout positive plate system - "Posimatte°."             Introduced the first high-resolution, long-run, aqueous developable photopolymer plate system -"Quantum"."  Added automated vertical cameras to     product line. Formed Polychrome Chemicals Corp. as wholly-owned subsidiary (comprised of Cellofilm and Cellomer operating divisions). 1984     Introduced new film systems, including daylight duplicating and daylight contact,rapid access and diffusion transfer. Formed Systems Division. Introduced second-generation, fully-automated, in-line camera direct electrostatic platemaker- "OPC-2000." Relocated National Distribution Center to Yardville, NJ., facility. Added vacuum frames and light tables to product line. 1985     Polychrome awarded InterTech '85 Technology Award by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation for it's Laser-Scan TI plate utilizing digitized imaging by laser. 1986     Entered into a long-term technology transfer contract with the China National Chemical Construction Corp. and the Second Film Factory of Nanyang, both in the People's Republic of China, providing for transfer of Polychrome's proprietary tech­nology for the installation in China of the first major facility for the manufacture of presensitized lithographic printing plates. Acquired Rachwal Systems Inc., Ashland, Mass., manufacturers of projection platemaking systems, as wholly-owned subsidiary. Relocated Offset Finishing and National Distribution Center from Yardville to Robbinsville, NJ. 1987    Polychrome Chemicals Corp. acquired as an operating divi­sion, RBH Dispersions, Bound Brook, NJ., which disperses pigments into a variety of binder systems. Aquired Opti-Copy, Inc., Lenexa, Kans. , manufacturers of prepress imaging systems. K-2 Dedication -Katzenstein, Germany. 1988    Eliminated ink and blankets form the product line. Introduced the VISTART" line of aqueous-developable plates. Transferred Polychrome Chemicals Corp. to Reichhold Chemicals Inc. Polychrome France S.A.R.L. acquired CROMSYS, a manufacturer of bi-metallic plates. 1987        Polychrome Chemicals Corp. acquired as an operating divi­sion, RBH Dispersions, Bound Brook, NJ., which disperses pigments into a variety of binder systems. Aquired Opti-Copy, Inc., Lenexa, Kans., manufacturers of prepress imaging systems. K-2 Dedication -Katzenstein, Germany. 1988        Eliminated ink and blankets form the product line. Introduced the VISTART" line of aqueous-developable plates. Transferred Polychrome Chemicals Corp. to Reichhold Chemicals Inc. Polychrome France S.A.R.L. acquired CROMSYS, a manufacturer of bi-metallic plates.