Technical Review - Fall 1959. - Librascope Memories

MARKET RESEARCH
to keep pace with
A necessity
customer needs
A potential buyer of graphic recording
equipment stood up in his office at a
West Coast rocket engine facility, looked
the visiting vendor in the eye and remarked,
"Show me some equipment
that's brand new from the bottom up.
All you have here is a re-arrangement
of circuitry encased in a two-tone
painted frame. It won't do our job."
This is the reception greeting some of
the nation's electronic sales engineers
who try to "sell an old dog in new
sheep's clothing."
Company policy which calls for modernization
of existing equipment by
merely modifying circuit design and
mechanical structure leaves the firm's
sales force literally "carrying the ball—
to the competition's goal."
Naturally this approach isn't working.
Sales are diminishing, with the orders
going to those firms who specialize in
seeking out and answering customer requirements.
Positive information must
be obtained about improving the capabilities
of a product.
Aiding the engineering, sales and production
force of any electronics company
are marketing specialists who
maintain constant surveillance on cus-
tomer needs for a particular item. Time
and expense must be invested in this
procedure before a prototype unit can
be designed. The competition dictates
this principle.
Librascope, a leader in the early development
of plotters and graphic recording
instruments, keeps up a continual
evaluation of the company's entire product
line. A new X-Y Plotter is being
introduced after marketing research determined
that former units would be
outmoded by customer requirements in
the near future.
Particular procedures were adhered
to before the new X-Y Plotter, Model
210, could be developed. An engineering
team from Librascope explored the
present state-of-the-art and these evaluations
were studied and projected into
the future plotter design. The team investigated
all instruments in the plottergraphic
recorder market, noting advantages
and disadvantages of each.
Resulting information was considered
by an outside market research group
composed of sales engineers familiar
with X-Y Plotter user requirements. A
special questionnaire, to gain information
directly from operators of plotters,
was distributed for determination of
user requirements.
It was decided that a major operational
feature would be a quick, accurate scale
changing technique with scale expansion
possible between each step. Push button
scale switching with vernier control accomplished
this.
This technique enables the operator to
fill the entire trace area with between
scale voltage inputs. The servo control
loop gain was designed to be independent
of the scale changes, insuring no "jump"
when scales are changed.
High plotting output accuracy was
stressed with a static accuracy of ±.1%
of full scale, and a dynamic accuracy of
±.2% of full scale at 10 inches per second
tracing speed. Frequency response
was designed to be flat to 0 — 1 cps
±.2% of full scale at 6 inches displacement
amplitude.
A major complaint in the questionnaires
regarding earlier plotters was the
difficulty in inserting paper under the plotting
arm. Librascope engineers solved
this problem by supplying a push-button
control which automatically retracts the
arm from the paper and moves it completely
off the plot area. Simultaneously,
input signals are locked.
A vacuum platen answers the problem
of keeping the graph paper in place
with positive hold down characteristics.
The exterior configuration and accessibility
of plotter operation was a main
point of consideration and Librascope
engineers sought outside counsel from a
top industrial designer. The result was
a frame which met user requirements
from such standpoints as human engineering
and operational convenience.
Latest state-of-the-art advances are
incorporated in the Librascope X-Y
Plotter, Model 210 — new from the
ground up.
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