3100Copiers

Xerox 3100

April 1973: Xerox launches their model 3100 - a compact copier on a wheel stand.

Xerox 3100 copier copies on ordinary, unsensitized, cut-sheet paper directly from original document. First copies ready in eight seconds and succeeding copies produced at the rate of twenty per minute. The machine was excellent book copier with a maximum image area of 8 ½" x 14".

The copier has a cassette paper-loading capability that permits quick and easy changes in paper sizes, weights and colors.

Xerox 3100 Diplomat

Xerox also produced another version of the 3100 model, and the copier was named Xerox 3100 Diplomat. See image of the copier to the right.

This was a refurbished 3100 with the cupboard removed from the device and replaced with a single, sturdy pole supporting the machine but retaining the same wheels. Also the orange was sprayed brown so that the device had a 1970s brown and beige colour scheme.

Xerox 3100 Diplomat

Xerox 3100 operating panel

Xerox 3100 operating panel

IMAGES


SPECIFICATIONS
Copy speed (per minute)20. First copy after 8 second.
Paper tray250 sheets
Output tray capacityn/a
Finisher/sorter
Staple function
Reduction/zoom
Document handler
Dimension and weight
Depth72 (cm) / 28 (inches)
Width87 (cm) / 32 (inches)
Height94 (cm) / 37 (inches)
Weight136 (K grams) / 300 (Lbs)
Floor space requirementsStationary: 1.4 x 1.7 (meters) / 4.6 x 5.6 (feet)

Do you have any more information about this model, or have brochures / pictures, please leave a reply in the form below, or send an email to xeroxnostalgia@outlook.com

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Chris Oneil
Chris Oneil
September 16, 2023 2:59 am

I started as a PSR in 1986 (19 years old) in Springfield Va. My first machine I was trained on was the 2600-3109 series. Then 1025/38 3400(pig) 1045/48 1012 and 2700 laser printers. I worked in many crazy locations DC department of corrections had hundreds of machines High security areas of Fort Belvor Army Base and CIA headquarters.

Rainer
Rainer
August 17, 2022 5:47 pm

Hello, my name is Rainer and I come from Germany.
I started as a technician at Rank Xerox in 1981. My first product was the X3100/3107.
After that followed so many more like: 2830, 1035,1020, 3400/3450, 3300, 1045/1048, 2080, 7080, 2510, 990, 3080, 5080, 5090, DocuTech, DP6135, 6180.
From 1999 I was District Service Manager until I left Xerox in 2002.
It was a great time and I am still involved with Xerox today.

Xerox Lehrgang003.JPG
Jeff
Jeff
June 19, 2021 4:48 pm

I had the good fortune of being both the product development manager and marketing launch manager for the Xerox 3100 Copier, from concept to launch. At that time it was recognized “as the barometer against which future programs will be measured”. Fond memories.

Last edited 2 years ago by Jeff
Brian
Brian
Reply to  Jeff
July 5, 2021 11:10 am

As a consultant Production Engineer I was assigned to Xerox in Venray, The Netherlands in March 1973. I was shown a large empty building and a rusting pile of roller conveyor that had been shipped from Micheldean in the UK where the 3100 was originally destined to be built. The UK plan had been to assemble the 3100 in short time interval steps pushing the subassemblies down the conveyor. A soul destroying method of production but in line with the way things were done in manufacturing at that time. However, our small team had been turned on by the new… Read more »

Dana Milller
Dana Milller
Reply to  Jeff
February 5, 2023 11:01 pm

Any background on why the code name was “Decoy”?

Jack Vormittag
May 5, 2021 12:46 am

I was promoted to a trainer position at Crystal City, Va. on June 1 1973. The 3100 was the newest machine which Xerox had just introduce and I became a trainer on this produce. On June 1, 1974 we opened the Leesburg training center (XICTMD) and I was still teaching 3100 for a month or more. It was a great time in my life. I left the training center on April 1, 1979 to move to Lynchburg, Va. as a field manager. Nothing but great memories. God bless Sandy Banker – always in my heart.

Rob Will
Rob Will
Reply to  Jack Vormittag
August 28, 2022 5:03 am

Yes! A 7000 specialist introduced Sandy to me at dupe school in ’78 and he always remembered me and sought me out the many times that I went there. His warm welcome when he came into my classroom always impressed the instructors!

Tom Green
Tom Green
March 22, 2021 9:24 pm

I joined Xerox in 1973. I know some info. says that is when the 3100 was introduced but I don’t remember seeing it until 74, when the “First Edition” a popular rock music group released a commercial for the 3100, It’s the “Topper” promo for Xerox. Originally it was touted as a “desktop copier” but the stand came about when we learned that the platen shifts would walk the copier off the desk.

Warren Rainforth
Warren Rainforth
Reply to  Tom Green
September 22, 2022 8:25 pm

I was Financial Controller in Rank Xerox New Zealand 1981-84 and we had many complaints from The British/New Zealand Antarctic Survey teams to whom RXNZ supplied and serviced products: could we fix the platen and stop it moving because it knocks our coffee off!

Gilbert Gonzalez
Gilbert Gonzalez
January 15, 2020 7:22 am

We had a lot of these machines. What people forget about these machines is when competitive toner and developer was used. Most did not work very good, and we as service reps were under the “No Comment” policy about competitive toner. There was this retrofit kit to pull out the fixed developer housing and replace it with a floating developer housing that had drum shoes on each end that road on the sides of the drums. The copies came out really nice and made more of a solid image. This machine had the problems with the scan rail. later a… Read more »

Ed Jones-Mack
Ed Jones-Mack
February 19, 2016 6:30 am

As I recall, the 3100 was also the first low-end.Xerox copier that made use of magnetic-brush (also called “mag roll”) technology for a near offset-press printing quality. Over 90% of the electronics fit on a single circuit board which made troubleshooting a much simpler matter than with the 4000 products which spread the digital electronics across five or six different circuit boards. Operators loved it as unlike the 660s that were replaced by 3100s , the 3100 did not have a tendency to set fire to every 10th sheet that came out of the paper tray! An annoying tendency of… Read more »

Robert Schloder
Robert Schloder
Reply to  Ed Jones-Mack
February 8, 2020 2:02 am

Hey, ED. Bob Schloder here. I worked in lab building control boards for copier.

Rob Will
Rob Will
Reply to  Ed Jones-Mack
August 28, 2022 5:11 am

The box required an hour’s worth of vacuum cleaner time every 15K. My hearing is shot because of all the time spent riding a ‘Super-Sucker’! Once one got ahead of the curve with them They ran really well as long as the customer ran our supplies. Competitive supplies really Forked them up. ‘Guaranteed by Good Housekeeping’ my ass!

Jim
Jim
September 22, 2015 3:24 am

god there were a gazillion of these – and the related 3107 and 3109 – in offices everywhere. The 3100 product line was the first reliable, relatively high-speed , affordable copier for the small office. Larger companies had these sprinkled around everywhere for departmental use. From the mid-70’s until the Japanese market penetration, in the early 80’s, these were the universal office copier.

Kai
Kai
Reply to  Jim
October 31, 2021 3:59 pm

3100 was the first Xerox product for me. I still remember the orange and beige covers which were a misery to put back. My work mate once said “They should fire Erno Rubik. He must have designed these covers.” In my van kit there was an electolytic capacitor, a transistor (2N3055?) and a feed roller, perhaps a glass fuser rod too. The vacuum fan of the paper transport sometimes failed and caused trail edge of the paper scorching a little bit. Waste toner was collected into a black casing. To empty it we had to tear sealing tape off, release… Read more »

Rob Will
Rob Will
Reply to  Kai
August 28, 2022 5:19 am

The original paper trays had a decal that said, “NOT TO BE USED FOR TWO-SIDED COPYING’. I was in one of the first classes in Crystal City and one of the fuser engineers was in my class who told me that no-one ever told that team that paper would be coming through with toner on the backside! The early models had that bare gray zinc alloy lower fuser that molecularly bonded with the ink and was IMPOSSIBLE to clean.

Patrick Forbes
Patrick Forbes
Reply to  Rob Will
December 14, 2022 9:08 pm

That was DIY powder coating. (ha! ha!)

Markku Maunu
Markku Maunu
Reply to  Kai
December 3, 2022 2:00 pm

Hello!
I worked years 1980-1985 in Rank Xerox Oy here in Finland.
As a Chimney sweeper :):)! I can see the black dust ja 3100 waste toner… Nilfisk vacuum cleaner helped! I have still some good and “old” workfriends from that time. BR Ht.445

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