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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: dw_junon on Tue, 07 June 2011, 16:51:10

Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: dw_junon on Tue, 07 June 2011, 16:51:10
Hi folks,

Long time no post.

Thanks to a number of strokes of luck, I was able to get hold of a trade test/promotional video from '83/'84 ish that allows us to see inside the IBM Greenock plant when it was making Model Fs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEN6Rry4ekk

As well as the keyboards, you get to see type 7535 and 7565 robots, a Series/1 minicomputer and a PC running AML/E.

Try not to stare too hard :)

- dw
Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: dw_junon on Tue, 07 June 2011, 16:52:56
inb4youknowwho

If I hadn't bid for this model robot I would never have known about the video...
Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: kps on Wed, 08 June 2011, 11:43:24
The narration says they're making PC keyboards, but I think they're for 3178 terminals.
Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: Grimey on Wed, 08 June 2011, 12:35:43
Cool video, thanks for sharing.  Would be neat if they had an informational video about the technology behind the keyboard itself, but people were probably more interested in the robots at the time.
Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: ch_123 on Sun, 19 June 2011, 10:51:11
Yeah, those are definitely the 3178-style Model F keyboards, not PC ones.

It's interesting to note that the notorious old-style Model F spacebar stabilizer was not handled by the robot :p
Title: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 20 June 2011, 06:17:56
Quote from: Grimey;357374
Cool video, thanks for sharing.  Would be neat if they had an informational video about the technology behind the keyboard itself, but people were probably more interested in the robots at the time.

 
And the video was promoting IBM's manufacturing capabilities, using keyboards as the example case.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: SpAmRaY on Wed, 20 November 2013, 15:20:58
This deserves a resurrection.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: mapple on Thu, 21 November 2013, 15:49:08
best movie ever since godfather
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: 0100010 on Thu, 21 November 2013, 20:01:18
Makes Model F plate mating seem so easy.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: aicrono on Fri, 22 November 2013, 13:39:32
So this is where baby model f's come from.  :))

Side note, this gave me a nice surge of nostalgia from when I use to work in an electronic manufacturing plant a couple years ago that had a decent bit of automated equipment from roughly the same era.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: BucklingSpring on Fri, 22 November 2013, 18:36:42
Ok thank you so much for sharing.

Now I know where the M's inherited their strength. IBM had to make them strong enough to support lousy robot handling.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: terran5992 on Fri, 22 November 2013, 21:34:10
I still cant get over the fact that these keyboards are still reliable and working to this day
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: rowdy on Sat, 23 November 2013, 01:04:42
If that's what they were doing 30 years ago, I wonder what keyboard manufacturing looks like today.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: mapple on Sat, 23 November 2013, 06:25:49
I still cant get over the fact that these keyboards are still reliable and working to this day

buy one then;)
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: BucklingSpring on Sat, 23 November 2013, 10:21:58
If that's what they were doing 30 years ago, I wonder what keyboard manufacturing looks like today.

Bigger, faster, weaker with very careful calculated/programmed obsolescence.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: rowdy on Sat, 23 November 2013, 20:07:04
If that's what they were doing 30 years ago, I wonder what keyboard manufacturing looks like today.

Bigger, faster, weaker with very careful calculated/programmed obsolescence.

Sadly, yes.

You'd think with material and manufacturing advances that keyboards would last even longer.

Difficult to imagine someone regularly using a Dell or HP rubber dome keyboard in 20 or 30 years.
Title: Re: Robotic keyboard production at IBM Greenock
Post by: SpAmRaY on Sat, 23 November 2013, 20:55:41
If that's what they were doing 30 years ago, I wonder what keyboard manufacturing looks like today.

Bigger, faster, weaker with very careful calculated/programmed obsolescence.

Sadly, yes.

You'd think with material and manufacturing advances that keyboards would last even longer.

Difficult to imagine someone regularly using a Dell or HP rubber dome keyboard in 20 or 30 years.

Garbage in garbage out :P