Polychrome
acquires by Mr. Bob Gumbinner
Speidel
About
1965 we bought a company, Speidel, in Fernwood, PA, which made diazo
papers. It was also one of the few companies still making blueprint
and brown print paper. Andy Keene was the vice president and sales
manager. We elected to the Polychrome Board two of the directors of
Spiedel -- General La Brum and Bruce Baldwin. We
put a number of people in charge of Speidel among them were Nick
Karabotz, who was in charge of our Philadelphia sales office, Ray
Townley and Pat Heany who came from Ilford. When we moved the offset
paper coating operation to Speidel, we put Ray Lauzon in charge.
With the increasing popularity of he Xerox electrostatic process the
market for diazo paper was decreasing. Therefore, when the plant
workers asked for a large wage increase and went on strike, we sold
the Fernwood plant in 1976.
KS note; Speidel played a significant role in 1967. We needed a solvent coater to coat newly developed subtractive positive plate, Speidel was the only place to have a solvent coater; it was designed for a diazo film coating and the local engineers were quite worried whether it could handle much heavier aluminum roll. I believe Mr. Gumbinner prevailed and we were able to coat enough plates for our 1968 Drupa exhibit, which from all accounts was a great success.
See more on positive plate introduction HERE.
KS note; Speidel played a significant role in 1967. We needed a solvent coater to coat newly developed subtractive positive plate, Speidel was the only place to have a solvent coater; it was designed for a diazo film coating and the local engineers were quite worried whether it could handle much heavier aluminum roll. I believe Mr. Gumbinner prevailed and we were able to coat enough plates for our 1968 Drupa exhibit, which from all accounts was a great success.
See more on positive plate introduction HERE.