1967 Japan trip

Fuji Photo Film  licensed Plate technology from Polychrome Corporation and started to manufacture and sell products in Japan but faced difficulties from Japanese market accustomed to handmade deep etch process.        In 1967 they have decided to make a marketing effort with lecture series inviting Mr. Halpern as the speaker to let customers know how the PS plates were used in US.        Dr. Ooba was then in charge of new product development section of Fuji and planned and hosted the event.

The lectures were given in three major cities, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.       Major printers sent their executives and managers to hear what Mr. Halpern as the founder and the expert in US graphic arts industry.        Presentations were shared by Mr. Halpern and Simon Chu while I was charged to translate the presentations into Japanese as well as give my understanding of prepress color proofing system in US.        (Prepress color proofing never took hold in Japan relying strictly on press-proof for a long time.)         These pictures came from Simon Chu's file and came to me thanks to his son Doug.        

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 23 Polychrome Clark

Mr. Halpern met Henry Levy and Gene Wilkerson who worked for the Dupont silver halide photograph division.  They had left Dupont but kept the process manuals. Mr. Halpern hired them to start to make graphic arts photographic films.  We bought a building in Clark, New Jersey from a chemical company.  It had several labs with hoods. Next to it was L’oreal. In order to install the spiral coater which they said was needed we had toad a three story annex.  Mr. Halpern thought we would be able to install some of the aluminum plate lines; but when made the plans for the silver halide films there was not enough room. We did install the solution making equipment in one corner. I believe we acquired a small company that made solutions for the graphic arts.  After we started to coat the film, the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the market for silver and the price of silver went from 5.00 dollars an ounce to 50.00.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 22 Berwick personnel

A supervisor of the plant told me about a bar in Berwick where I could get Poached salmon .  By poached he meant caught on the property of an estate.  Usually we would take the train to Edinburgh from London to get there.  Several times we hired a private plane. As the pilot started to land he pulled up suddenly.  Somebody had erected a fence.  The only hotel in Berwick was a musty old one.  Mr. Halpern, when he visited Berwick either stayed in a motel several miles or in Edinburgh.  Our Yonkers employee,  who was a lead stencil coater resigned saying he had inherited a bar in Peebles, Scotland from his uncle.  About three years later he returned.  Once when Mr. Halpern was in Edinburgh instead of taking the shortest way from Berwick along the coast, I took the road along the Tweed.  It was an attractive drive.  At a point I made a right turn to drive north to Edinburgh through Peebles.  When I reached Peebles I stopped at a gas station and said I am from Polychrome one of our employees inherited a bar.  A man in the station immediately said you mean Archie Anderson.  When I said yes.  He told me it wasn’t a bar it was fish and chips restaurant and now it sold old bottles and he told me where it was.  I stopped there briefly and went on to Edinburgh.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 21 Polychrome Berwick

At that time the European common market did not exist.  It was decided to erect a plant in England to make the presensitized plates.  Tom Heckles  (who may have come from Ilford) was the manager of our England office.  He rented the lower floor of a building in Watford, a northern  suburb of London.  Watford is served by both the Underground and regular trains from Euston station.  We sent rolls of the paper plates and Polychrome Gmbh sent the aluminum plates.  Heckles sheeted the rolls and made the various solutions.  Mr, Halpern decided to open a lithographic plate making facility under the auspices of the Osterode plant.  Tom Heckles was asked to find a place to make the presensitized plates.  He choose Berwick.  A city on the south side of the Tweed River.  Across the river was Scotland.  We acquired a site and installed a 30 inch wide line.  I went there a number of times. 

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 20 Rhone Poulanc

  At some point Ilford was not interested in being involved with the aluminum plates.  Mr. Halpern arranged for Rhone Polunec, the leading French chemical company to purchase the Ilford shares.  To represent Rhone Poulanc they chose Mr. Piani who was the president of their cellophane division.  Mr. Halpern appointed Mr. Piani  and another man to  be Polychrome directors.  As the sales of the plates acceded the capacity of the former furniture factory plant, Polychromre Gmbh acquired a  former mushroom producing buildings in a suburb of Osterode, Katzenstein.  Because my wife Kay had brain surgery,  I could not stay in Osterode for enough time, therefore Simon Chu was put in charge of the  European operations.  

Additional memo from Mr. Gumbinner 19 Polychrome GmbH

When we started to make the aluminum plates, we found there was not a sufficient flow of water.  Apparently the pipes were corroded.  We installed two 500 gallon tanks which were filled at night to have enough water to run the tanks line rinses.  Mr. Halpern hired a man in America from Germany to be the president of Poychrome Gmbh .  After a number of months we found the sales manager which Polychrome Gmbh  had hired was keeping some of the money the dealers paid and he was discharged.  A Mr, Richter was hired as the plant manager and Mr. Mintel as the company chemist.  

Polychrome Gmbh acquired an empty building In downtown Osterode which had been a furniture factory.  The  company then made the offset plates there and left Freiheiit.  I do not know if the tank line was moved there but they  built a copy of our C line.  Most of the line was built by Deprieux  which had experience building metal plate lines.  The anodizing section was obtained from Langbein.  We bought  from Deprieux two position unwind stands and heat seal units which enabled us to connect a finished roll of aluminum to a new one using a special two sided tape made by 3M.                 

Dr. Ken Kuhn

Dr. Ken Kuhn appeared to Polychrome suddenly in 1979 soon after the DIC takeover  as the head of research laboratory but without any background in graphic arts industry.          His effort was centered around organizing thick reports on every projects we had.          Since Polychrome laboratory had been more focused on results rather than writing reports, I must admit our record keeping was less than ideal.      So we reluctantly (perhaps) started to prepare thick reports which he brought to the management meetings to show the "progress".           But the combination of his lack of understanding of our business and his interest in following rigid structure made him not the most liked R&D director in our history.        Since I was still the Assistant Research Director I had an opportunity to hear his view of our staff and his interest in getting rid of one particular senior person who made considerable contribution to Polychrome but simply showed his dislike of Dr. K.           Possibly as the result of my complaint to Mr. Iwata of DIC, Dr. K was abruptly dismissed right in the middle of DRUPA in Dusseldorf when Mr. Kawamura came to meet us on the boat hotel we rented for the duration of the show.
Clearly Dr. K was a successful businessman judging from his bio    HERE  but we were simply not ready for the "big company" operation he (and Joe Piot) tried to bring in.