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.