Punched Card Printers

• Advanced — Advanced Business Forms
• BSC — Business Supplies Corporation of America
• CDC — Control Data Corporation
• Data Card
• Data Card Australia
• DD — Data Documents
• FERRY — Ferry Perfocarte
• Gizeh Werke
• GLOBE — Globe Ticket Co
• Hackett
• Hummel
• IBM — International Business Machines
• ICL — International Computers Limited
• ICT — International Computers and Tabulators
• ISC — Information Supplies Corporation
• JTC — Jersey Tab Card
• LEWIS — Lewis Business Forms
• Lochkarten-Service Essen
• Microseal
• MIDCO — Mid-Continent Tab Card
• МОЭФТНИ (MOEFTNI)
• MWT — Midwest Tab Card
• NEC — National Electronic Card Company
• NECS — National Electronic Computer Supplies
• OEI — Office Electronics Incorporated
• PCS — Punched Card Services
• PDC — Precision Data Company
• Reichenbach
• Remington Rand
• Scanning Systems
• Техноинформ (Technoinform)
• THS — T H Strålfors

Advanced — Advanced Business Forms 5081

Advanced Business Forms seems to have entered the market in 1972 and went out of business in 1979.

BSC — Business Supplies Corporation of America

The Business Supplies Corporation of America had its headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey and was incorporated in 1961. Their Data Processing Supplies Division produced punched cards in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. The company filed a suit against IBM 1962, complaining about antitrust violations in the punched card business; they settled in 1966. The company became inactive in 1988.

CDC — Control Data Corporation

Control Data Corporation was founded in 1957 and delivered its first computer in 1960. In the decade from 1965 to 1975, it built the fastest computers on earth. CDC and its customers were major consumers of punched cards, so the company bought the Electronic Accounting Card Company in 1968 and became a significant producer of punched cards in the United States. CDC was also a significant supplier in the UK; on Nov. 8, 1972, Computerworld reported that IBM, ICL and CDC, between them, controlled 98.5% of the punched card market there.

Data Card

Data Card Corporation of Minneapolis, Minnesota was founded around 1969 around a line of machines to make and process credit cards, but by 1974 it seems to have had a line of punched-card readers and punches for minicomputers.

Data Card Australia

There are records of Data Card Australia Pty. Ltd. doing business as early as 1966. DCA was one of Australia's largest manufacturers of punched cards, continuous forms, paper tape anciliary computer supplies. DCA may have been associated with Computer Resources Pty. Ltd before early 1970, but DCA still showed up in various news reports as late as 1975.

DD — Data Documents

Numerous companies do business as Data Documents; the oldest of them began as the Mid-Continent Tab Card Company in Kansas City. In 1960, they changed their name to Data Documents, and ceased doing business under that name at some point after acquisition by Dictaphone in 1972. On Sept. 3, 1975, Computerworld reported that Data Documents ranked just behind IBM as a punched-card supplier, in terms of user satisfaction.

EAC — Electronic Accounting Card

Edgar Snider founded the Electronic Accounting Card Company in 1957 and sold it to Control Data Corporation in 1968. Curiosly, Snider bought the punched card business back from CDC when that company was in decline, creating the National Electronic Card Company or NEC.

FERRY — Ferry Perfocarte

Ferry Perfocarte (punch card) was a punched-card manufacturer with offices in Belgium and France. The Belgian branch entered the market in 1969 and was formally dissolved in 2019. The French subsidiary appears to have opened in 1972.

Gizeh Werke

Gizeh Werk had its roots in a Black Forest pulp mill that began opration in 1881. It began making Cigarette paper in 1905. In 1920, it was renamed Gizeh, with an Egyptian-themed package. In 1955, they opened a new modern plant in Bergneustadt (outsize Cologne) and began to diversify their product line beyond just cigarette papers. After exploring eyeglass-cleaning paper and facial tissue, the company focused on punched cards and milk cartons.

The company's Egyptian theme continues with their trademark seen in the left of this card, the word GIZEH in a cartouche.

GLOBE — Globe Ticket Co

The Globe Ticket Co. of Philadelphia printed all kinds of tickets, but it diversified into punched cards as well. It was a significant player in the card market between 1967 and 1977, and it was involved with more than one price fixing investigation by the Department of Justice.

Hackett

J. J. Hackett & Co. was a Chicago-based manufacturer of data processing supplies. It entered business in 1967.

Hummel

Hummel KG of Magstadt bei Stuttgart, Germany, was a major supplier of cards to the German market as early as 1963. Hummel Print, as the company is now known, was founded in 1957, as of 2023, it is best known for airline boarding passes, adhesive labels and similar products.

IBM — International Business Machines

IBM was originally founded as the Computing Tabulating-Recording Recording (CTR) company in 1911, and it was renamed International Business Machines in 1924. CTR was the result of a merger; one of the component companies was Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company, incorporated in 1896 to commercialize Hollerith's punched-card system of data processing. As such, IBM can be rightly considered the oldest manufacturer and printer of punched cards. IBM was still selling significant numbers of punched cards in the US bicentennial year, 1976, but by then, cards were in decline. IBM would close its last punched card production facility in 1984.

IBM really was international, with printing plants producing punched cards in Australia, England, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and elsewhere.

ICL — International Computers Limited

International Computers Limited was formed in 1968 when International Computers and Tabulators merged with English Electric Computers and Elliott Automation. It inherited its punched card operation from ICT. On Nov. 8, 1972, Computerworld reported that IBM, ICL and CDC, between them, controlled 98.5% of the punched card market in the UK. The company lasted until 2002, and really was international, with printing plants in several former British colonies.

ICT — International Computers and Tabulators

International Computers and Tabulators was formed in 1959 when the British Tabulating Machine Company merged with Powers-Samas. It inherited punched-card production facilities from both predecessors, and in 1968, its punched-card business was passed on to International Computers Limited.

ISC — Information Supplies Corporation

Information Supplies Corporation was a significant card supplier from 1966 to 1970, when it appear to have been taken over by Midwest Tab. By the time Midewst Tab was involved, the company had printing plants serving Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York.

JTC — Jersey Tab Card

The Jersey Tab Card Corporation was founded in 1971 and renamed JTC Corporation in 1989; the company latsted until 1995. In its heyday, JTC was a major punched card vendor; on Sept. 3, 1975, Computerworld reported that JTC was the highest rated punched card supplier in terms of user satisfaction, beating IBM by a slim margin.

LEWIS — Lewis Business Forms

Lewis Business Forms of Jacksonville, Florida sold office furnishings and supplies as well as a diverse line of business forms, envelopes and tabulating cards starting no later than the mid 1960s. M. G. Lewis was the president. By 1978, it had changed its name to Lewis Business Products.

Lochkarten-Service Essen

LS Lochkarten-Service GMBH operated in Essen, Germany between 1974 and 1990. Lochkarten in German means punch cards.

Microseal

Microseal Corporation of Chicago held U.S. Patents 3,147,561 and 3,220,133 on methods of sealing microfilm images into apertures in punched cards. Unlike 3M aperture cards, Microseal's cards included protective layers over both sides of the microfilm. They began production in 1959 and continued until 1994, when North American operations were sold to Bell & Howell and the Italian operations became Anderson Imaging Group.

MIDCO — Mid-Continent Tab Card 5081

The Mid-Continent Tab Card Company was founded in the late 1950s, and with a big infusion of cash from Warren Buffet in 1950, grew into a major supplier of punched cards. It became Data Documents in 1960.

МОЭФТНИ (MOEFTNI) 6198-75

МОЭФТНИ (MOEFTNI) was the acronym for the Moscow Expereimental Factory for Technical Data Carriers in the 1970s and perhaps earlier. The relationship between МОЭФТНИ and Техноинформ (Technoinform) is unclear. Either МОЭФТНИ was competing with Техноинформ or that there was a name change in the 1975-1976 era.

MWT — Midwest Tab Card

Midwest Tab Card Producers Inc., of Evanston Illinois, was recruiting press operators in late 1963 and advertised itself as a source of cards in 1964 and 1965. Some time around 1970, it appears to have taken over Information Supplies Corp.

NEC — National Electronic Card Company

The National Electronic Card Company was founded by Edgar Snider in High Point, North Carolina in 1972 by buying the punched-card business he'd sold to CDC. For obscure reasons, the company was incorporated in Georgia. It changed its name to NECS in 1979.

NECS — National Electronic Computer Supplies

NEC changed its name to National Electronic Computer Supplies in 1979. The company folded in 1993.

OEI — Office Electronics Incorporated

Office Electronics Inc. was a manufacturer of punched cards and business forms, owned by Robert Houston. It did business between in the Midwest and eastern US, with three manufacturing plants. In 1960, their Chicago Heights plant announced that it had produced one billion tab cards using 5,600,000 pounds of card stock. Workflow Management Inc. bought OEI in 2000 and sold off its printing and manufacturing facilities.

PCS — Punched Card Services 5081

Punched Card Services Inc., founded in 1958, grew into a significant supplier of cards in the early 1960s, surviving until 1993, by which time it had changed its name to PCS Data Processing Inc.

PDC — Precision Data Card

Precision Data Card Ltd. opened a new punched-card manufacturing plant in Toronto in 1963. Precision Data Co. Ltd. headquartered in Toronto, opened a French subsidiary, Precision Data Cle SA in 1968. Precision Data was aquired as a subsidiary of Precision Data Card (Southern) Ltd. of london, in 1966, and Control Data Corporation acquired the company in 1968.

Reichenbach

Druckwerke Reichenbach (Reichenbach Printers) has been in business since 1832. Today, they are best known as a printer of calendars, but during the punched-card era in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), they were a significant producer of punched cards.

Remington Rand

Remington Rand had a product line of punched-card equipment that survived into the 1960s that dodged IBM's patents by using 45 columns of round holes instead of 80 columns of rectangular holes. This was comparable to IBM's punched card format from the early 1920's, except that Remington Rand used a proprietary 6-bit code so that cards could hold 90 columns of text. In addition to selling punched-card machinery, they sold cards such as the above.

Scanning Systems

Scanning Systems Inc. of Santa Rosa, California, entered business in 1978. In 1993, Associated Business Products filed to register Scanning Systems as its trademark. In 2001, Scantron acquired Scanning Systems from ABP.

Техноинформ (Technoinform) 57.28.105-86

Техноинформ (Technoinform) was a Russian producer of punched cards in the 1980s. The relationship between МОЭФТНИ (MOEFTNI) and Техноинформ is unclear. Either МОЭФТНИ was competing with Техноинформ or that there was a name change in the 1975-1976 era.

THS — T H Strålfors

T H Strålfors entered the punched-card business in 1956. Its main printing plant, at the time, was in Ljungby, Sweden. The company eventually had operations in the UK, Germany and all of Scandinavia. The company estimates that it produced 31.5 billion cards during the punched-care era.