

The company was founded in 1912, originally taking its name from one of the founder’s first inventions – the Ever-Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Tokuji Hayakawa in 1915. The Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. See our range of Ricoh photocopiers 2.2 Sharp This will inevitably be a lasting legacy of the Ricoh brand. Different to traditional toner, GelJet toner dries on contact with paper and is water insoluble, meaning that it does not run when in contact with water. As well as laser printers that use traditional toner cartridges, Ricoh has also recently introduced a new range of office printers that use the company’s own Geljet technology. In the late 1990s through to the early 2000s, the company grew to become the largest copier manufacturer in the world, and is regarded as one of the top providers of photocopiers in the UK today. Ricoh produces electronic products, primarily cameras and office equipment such as printers and office software. It was founded by the RIKEN zaibatsu in 1936, initially named Riken Sensitised Paper. The Ricoh Company Ltd is a Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company. This section will aim to look at some of the main manufacturers and some of the contributions they have made to the print industry. Manufacturers have subsequently developed fleets of highly advanced machines themselves, many designed for specific purposes.

Since the Xerox Corporation monopolised the industry for much of the 20th Century, clever marketing and an increasingly consumerist society has led to a vastly competitive print market.
