Peripheral Equipment:Printers

Brief HistoryExhibits

year/month Timeline
1953 
【World】Remington Rand developed a high-speed printer for the UNIVAC
1954/10 Fujitsu completed the Japan's first practical automatic printer for the FACOM 100 relay computer (printed 60 columns simultaneously).
1958  Shinko MechatroTech commercials Japan’s first SC-4 kanji-character teleprinter
1959/06 Oki Electric exhibited a belt printer utilizing the world’s first flying belt at Automath 59.
1959 
【World】IBM announced the IBM 1403 line printer, which printed 600 lines per minute with 132 columns per line
1960/08 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 521 high-speed printer, the first commercial printer using a type drum (prints 500 lines/min when using 50-character set).
1960  Oki Electric Industry: Commercializes OKITYPER-2000, and electric typewriter with a paper tape reader and perforation function
1961/05 Oki Electric completed the OKITAC-5093 commercial high-speed printer utilizing a flying belt.
1961  Hitachi completed the H-136 line printer for the HITAC103.
1961  Hitachi completed the H-138/139 line printer for the HITAC201.
1963  Hitachi completed the H-333/335 line printer for the HITAC4010/5020.
1964/07 NEC completed the N422 high-speed form printer that prints 900 lines/min.
1965/05 NEC announced the N206A-1, N222-4, and N122A-1 form printers for use with the NEAC Series 2200.
1965  Hitachi announced the 8245/8246 line printers for the HITAC8000 Series.
1966/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 642 line printer, which used a type drum and flag bit control to achieve high-speed printing. (1, 500 lines/min when using 16-character set).
1966  Oki Electric Industry: Commercializes the compact and low-priced belt type 2400B line printer
1968  Oki Electric Industry: Develops Oki’s first dot wire printer using a dot-based printing method
1969 
【World】Gary Starkweather at Xerox PARC developed the world’s first laser printer
1971/11 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 647 high-performance line printer, which used the company’s first “Form Stacker” form post-processing mechanism. (1, 890 lines/min when using 16-character set).
1972/07 Oki Electric completed the OKI ELECTRO PRINTER non-impact ultra high-speed line printer that prints 8, 000 lines/min.
1973  Hitachi completed the A241 line printer for the HITAC 8000 Series.
1974  NTT completed a high-speed line printer that prints 1000 lines/min (with 126-character set)
1975/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 651 line printer, the company’s fastest line printer of type drum type (prints 2, 400 lines/min when using 16-character set).
1975/06 NEC announced the NB-3000 serial printer, which has a badminton feather shaped head.
1975  Hitachi announced the 8276 and 8277 line printers for the HITAC M Series.
1976/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 650 line printer that used Japan’s first horizontally moving train cartridge to achieve high-speed, high-quality printing (prints 2, 000 lines/min when using 48–character set).
1976 
【World】IBM developed the IBM 3800, the world’s first commercial laser printer
1976  Hitachi completed the H-8141 and H-8142 to create the world’s first 4-model series using the same technology.
1977/07 NEC announced the N7370 laser beam exposure kanji printer and the N7380 high-speed page printer that prints 21, 000 lines/min.
1977/09 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 655 low-speed line printer for small size computers that used a newly developed type belt and a printing magnet (prints 340 lines/min when using 62–character set).
1977/09 Oki Electric completed the DP-100, the company’s first dot line printer.
1977  Hitachi began shipping the H-8191, H-8195, and H-8171, the company’s first laser printers.
1978  NTT completed a high-speed line printer with the world’s fastest speed of 1, 500 lines/min.
1978  Hitachi began shipping the H-8192 and H-8196-20, which used a uniquely developed printer mechanism to achieve a printing speed of 7, 000 lines/min.
1979/02 NEC announced the N7344 and N7345 small line printers that used a type band.
1979  Hitachi announced the HT-5347/5344 dot printer and the HT-5641 page printer for the T-560/20.
1979  NTT completed a high-speed kanji printer that produced world-class performance with a printing speed of 15, 000 lines/min.
1980/03 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6715D Japanese language line printer employing the company’s first dry electronic photographic method using laser writing (prints 2, 000 lines/min at 6 LPI).
1980/04 NEC completed the KLP60C, Japan’s first impact kanji line printer for use with small systems.
1980/08 NEC announced the N7384 Japanese language page printer for ACOS midsize computers.
1981/05 Oki Electric completed the DP-1000 kanji dot printer using the company’s first multi-head system.
1981 
【World】Xerox began selling a laser printer for the Star workstation
1981  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6982A wire dot impact printer equipped with multiple heads to achieve a printing speed of 150 lines/min.
1981  Mitsubishi Electric announced the M8310, the company’s first online kanji printer.
1982  Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6657A office printer that uses semiconductor laser writing to achieve high-quality printing.
1983/02 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 6700D ultra high-speed Japanese language line printer employing the dry electronic photographic method using laser writing (prints 10, 600 lines/min at 6 LPI).
1983/07 NEC announced the PC-PR201 small, low-cost printer for personal computers.
1984  Hitachi announced the H-8174 Xerographic paper printer, which includes a uniquely developed mechanism.
1985/09 Mitsubishi Electric announced the M8340 high-speed, multi-function kanji printer that uses an LED array.
1985  Hitachi announced the HT-4373/4374 dot printers for the 2020.
1985  Hitachi announced the HT-4371/4377 dot printers and HT-4555 page printer for the 2050.
1987/01 NEC announced the N7385-21 page printer, the first printer in the world that can simultaneously print two colors.
1987/02 NEC announced the NM-5020 Japanese language dot serial printer, which uses a piezo type printing head.
1987  Hitachi announced the H-6274/6273 kanji printer for the S-820.
1990/03 Fujitsu completed the F6722D Xerographic paper Japanese language line printer employing the dry electronic photographic method using light emitting diode array writing to achieve a high printing speed of a maximum of 125 pages/min.
1990  Hitachi began shipping the H-6286, the world’s fastest double-sided Xerographic paper printer.
1991/04 Oki Electric announced the ET-5320SII compact, 24-pin horizontal kanji printer
1991/05 Fujitsu announced the F6774D cut-sheet page printer with high resolution for the new JEF/AP system and outline fonts
1991/11 NEC announced the PC-PR4000/4 and other Japanese page printers that aimed to improve the print quality of paper publications
1992/01 Hitachi announced the H-6284 cut-sheet page printer that packed high performance (60 ppm) in a compact form
1992/02 NEC announced the PC-PR101/T165 and other thermal-transfer printers that used multiline print heads
1992/02 Fujitsu announced the F6671A and F6677C distributed printers for printing central-office data at branch offices
1992/02 Fujitsu announced the F6765N continuous-form printer (2,500 lpm) that supported JEF/AP
1992/08 Oki Electric announced the ML520 and the ML590 that were the first printers to include a wire motion detector and AutoGap
1992/09 Mitsubishi Electric designed the M8350 kanji printer with outline fonts and network connectivity and featuring fast print speeds, multiple functions, and high print quality
1992/10 Oki Electric announced the multifunctional DOC-IT 3000 and 4000 printers
1993/10 NEC announced the PC-PR101/TN103A and one other model that were lightweight notebook-sized Japanese color thermal-transfer printers
1993/11 Hitachi announced the H-6281 high-performance cut-sheet page printer intended for small volumes with a print speed of 20 ppm
1994/07 Oki Data announced the ML803PSII printer capable of printing A3 crop marks on A3 extended paper
1994  Mitsubishi Electric designed the M8720 online kanji printer that used an LED array and achieved a print speed of 5,200 lpm at 6 lpi
1995/04 Fujitsu announced the F6735D high-speed (800 lpm) dot line printer capable of duplicating forms and delivery slips
1996/03 Hitachi announced the 40 ppm H-6283 cut-sheet page printer with flexible form layouts (preinstalled with B&W types and two-color types)
1996/05 NEC announced a line of network multifunctionals, including the MULTINA i2000, that combined a number of office device functions − fax machine, printer, and copier − and permitted easy transmission and editing of information from a computer
1996/06 Oki Data announced the Windows-compatible ultra-compact OP4w/ML4w printer
1996/07 Oki Data announced the ML320 Turbo that offered faster printing than the ML300 series
1997/04 Fujitsu announced the F6708B high-speed (50 ppm) seven-color cut-sheet printer
1997/07 Hitachi announced the H-6257 continuous-form page printer with a speed of 22,080 lpm
1997/10 Oki Data announced the ML8580S serial impact printer with the worldユs fastest speed in its class of 230 Japanese characters per second
1997/12 NEC announced three printers, including the MultiImpact 201MX, that were the first Japanese dot impact printers with USB support
1998/05 Oki Data announced the ML905PSII printer with a 1,200 dpi LED head for very high resolutions
1998/09 NEC announced the PICTY 700 and other A4 color inkjet printers that could print as many as 5 color pages per minute
1998/10 NEC announced two laser network printers, including the MultiWriter 6050, that achieved very fast printing using a configuration of multiple print controllers
1999/03 Hitachi announced the H-6255 7,680 lpm printer with the flexibility for many different applications
2000/03 Mitsubishi Electric designed the high-speed M8740 multifunctional online kanji printer with a 480 dpi resolution and outline fonts
2000/06 Hitachi announced the space-saving H-6254 printer with a 3,400 lpm speed
2000/10 NEC announced three color inkjet printers, including the PICTY 960, with Bluetooth support