Konica Minolta

History

Konica Minolta, Inc. is a Japanese technology company headquartered in the Marunouchi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was formed by the 2003 combination of two long-established Japanese imaging firms, Konica Corporation and Minolta Co., Ltd. Both predecessors originated in the camera and photographic-materials industry and later moved into plain-paper copying, giving the merged company a document-imaging heritage that predates digital office equipment.

Konica traces its roots to 1873, when Rokusaburō Sugiura began selling photographic and lithographic materials at a Tokyo pharmacy business. The enterprise was later organized as Konishi Honten (1878) and incorporated as Konishiroku Honten in 1921. It released the Konica I camera in 1948 and formally adopted the name Konica in 1987, having used "Konica" as a brand for decades beforehand.

Minolta was founded in 1928 in Osaka by Kazuo Tashima, initially under the name Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (Japanese-German camera shop) and later reorganized as Chiyoda Kogaku Seikō. It built its reputation in cameras and optics before broadening into office equipment, and it renamed itself Minolta Co., Ltd. in 1994 to reflect that it was no longer primarily a camera company.

Both firms entered plain-paper copying by leveraging their optical and photographic expertise. Minolta completed its first copier, the wet-process diazo Copymaster, in 1960, and launched the U-Bix (U-BIX480) plain-paper electrophotographic copier in 1971. The two companies announced their merger on January 7, 2003, integrating during 2003 as the holding company Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., with the reorganization completing around October of that year. In 2006 the company announced its withdrawal from the camera and photographic-film businesses. In 2013 it reorganized again and renamed itself Konica Minolta, Inc.

Timeline

1. 1873

   Origins of Konica: Rokusaburō Sugiura begins selling photographic materials in Tokyo, an enterprise later organized as Konishi Honten (1878).

2. 1902

   Konishi releases the Cherry Portable Camera, described as the first Japanese-produced consumer-oriented camera.

3. 1921

   The business is incorporated as Konishiroku Honten.

4. 1928

   Minolta is founded in Osaka by Kazuo Tashima.

5. 1948

   Konishiroku releases the Konica I camera.

6. 1960

   Minolta completes its first copier, the wet-process diazo Copymaster.

7. 1971

   Minolta launches the U-Bix (U-BIX480) plain-paper copier.

8. 1985

   Minolta introduces the Maxxum/α-7000 autofocus 35mm SLR.

9. 1987

   Konishiroku formally renames itself Konica.

10. 1994

    Minolta renames itself Minolta Co., Ltd., reflecting diversification beyond cameras.

11. 2003

    Konica and Minolta merge to form Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. (announced January 7; integration completing around October).

12. 2004

    The bizhub office-equipment brand is introduced.

13. 2006

    Konica Minolta announces its withdrawal from the camera and photographic-film businesses.

14. 2010

    The bizhub PRESS C8000 digital production printing system is marketed.

15. 2013

    The group is reorganized and the company is renamed Konica Minolta, Inc.

16. 2016

    The AccurioJet KM-1 B2 digital inkjet press is introduced.

17. 2019

    The AccurioPress C14000/C12000 high-speed toner production presses are introduced (public technology preview at PRINTING United, October 2019).

Printing technologies

Konica Minolta's printing portfolio spans several marking technologies, most inherited or developed from its imaging heritage.

• Electrophotographic (laser/toner) printing — the core technology of the bizhub multifunction line and the toner-based AccurioPress production presses, and the basis of Minolta's early U-Bix plain-paper copiers.
• Diazo (wet-process) copying — the technology of Minolta's earliest copier, the Copymaster of 1960, predating plain-paper methods.
• Digital inkjet — used in the sheet-fed AccurioJet KM-1 B2 inkjet production press.
• Networked multifunction integration — copying, printing, scanning, and faxing consolidated in networked office multifunction peripherals under the bizhub name.

Major printer families

• bizhub — office multifunction peripherals (MFPs); documented models include the bizhub C350, bizhub C451, and bizhub C550, and the more recent bizhub i-Series.
• bizhub PRESS — light-production digital printing systems, such as the bizhub PRESS C8000.
• AccurioPress — production and commercial toner-based digital presses, including the AccurioPress C14000/C12000 and later series.
• AccurioJet — digital inkjet production printing, represented by the sheet-fed AccurioJet KM-1.
• U-Bix — Minolta's historical plain-paper copier brand (U-BIX480, 1971).
• Copymaster — Minolta's first copier, a diazo machine, from 1960.

"Accurio" is Konica Minolta's overarching brand for professional and production printing; AccurioPress and AccurioJet are sub-families within it.

Product areas

Konica Minolta operates across several product areas, of which printing is one part of a broader imaging business.

• Enterprise and office — bizhub multifunction peripherals and printers for networked office environments, combining copying, printing, scanning, and faxing.
• Industrial and commercial print — the AccurioPress (toner) and AccurioJet (inkjet) production presses, alongside the bizhub PRESS light-production systems.
• Consumer imaging (historical) — cameras and photographic film and paper under the Konica and Minolta names, a business the company exited in 2006.
• Healthcare and medical imaging — digital X-ray and related diagnostic imaging systems, adjacent to but distinct from the printing business.

Major innovations

Several developments across the company and its predecessors are notable in the history of imaging and printing.

• Early Japanese plain-paper electrophotographic copying through Minolta's U-Bix line, beginning in 1971, following the earlier diazo Copymaster of 1960.
• The bizhub networked-MFP concept, consolidating multiple office document functions on corporate networks.
• Sheet-fed B2 digital inkjet production printing with the AccurioJet KM-1 in 2016.
• High-speed toner-based digital production printing at commercial scale with the AccurioPress C14000/C12000 from 2019.

In the camera field, the predecessor companies produced milestones that are frequently cited in imaging histories and are noted here for heritage context rather than as printing developments: Konica's C35AF (1977), described in the company's own corporate history as an early autofocus camera, and Minolta's Maxxum/α-7000 (1985), an integrated-motor autofocus 35mm SLR.

Influence on printing history

Konica Minolta represents a case of two camera and photographic-materials companies redeploying optical, chemical, and imaging expertise into the office-document and commercial-printing industries. Minolta's own progression from diazo copying (the Copymaster) to plain-paper electrophotographic copying (the U-Bix) mirrors the broader mid-twentieth-century transition that defined the modern copier industry.

After the merger, Konica Minolta became one of the significant global suppliers of office multifunction peripherals under the bizhub name and, later, of digital production presses under the Accurio brand. In doing so it participated in the ongoing shift away from analog copying and offset printing toward networked digital and on-demand production printing.

Relationships with other manufacturers

• Sony — As Konica Minolta exited the camera market in the mid-2000s, it transferred camera business assets to Sony; Sony subsequently built its Alpha (α) DSLR line on the acquired Minolta/Konica Minolta lens mount and technology.
• MGI Digital Technology (France) — Konica Minolta formed a capital and business alliance with MGI in 2014 to strengthen its industrial-printing capabilities in areas such as embellishment and finishing, later increasing its stake.
• Honeywell (predecessor-era litigation) — Minolta was involved in an autofocus-patent lawsuit with Honeywell in the camera era; Minolta was ordered to pay damages reported at roughly $127.6 million, with the matter concluding around 1992. This is a camera-era matter rather than a printing one.

Legacy technologies

Two of Minolta's early copier technologies are now historical.

• Diazo (wet-process) copying — embodied in the Copymaster of 1960, Minolta's first copier. Diazo methods, which relied on light-sensitive chemistry rather than plain paper, were superseded by electrophotographic copying.
• U-Bix plain-paper copiers — Minolta's U-BIX480 of 1971 marked the company's entry into plain-paper electrophotographic copying, the lineage that led to today's toner-based office and production systems. The U-BIX 480 has since been recognized in Japan as historically significant technology material.

In imaging more broadly, the company also exited the consumer camera and photographic-film markets, technologies central to both predecessors for most of the twentieth century.

Current status

Konica Minolta, Inc. remains an active, publicly traded Japanese company headquartered in Tokyo. It operates in office and enterprise printing (bizhub), professional and production print (the Accurio brand), healthcare and medical imaging, industrial measurement, and related imaging fields. Its printing portfolio continues to be updated, for example with the bizhub i-Series in the office segment and successive AccurioPress generations in production print. The company no longer participates in the consumer camera or photographic-film markets, having exited those businesses in 2006.