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The company began as a division of Wang Laboratories. Founded and initially operated by Robert Howard and Samuel Lang (owner of the well known K & L Color Photo Service Lab in New York City), the group produced remote terminals and systems for the casino industry. Printers were developed to print receipts and transaction reports. Wang spun off the business in 1971 and Centronics was formed as a corporation in Hudson, New Hampshire with Howard as president and chairman. The Centronics Model 101 was introduced at the 1970 National Computer Conference. The print head used an innovative seven-wire solenoid impact system. Based on this design, Centronics later made the claim to have developed the first dot matrix impact printer. Howard developed a personal relationship with his neighbor, Max Hugel, the founder and president of Brother International, the US arm of Brother Industries, a manufacturer of sewing machines and typewriters. A business relationship developed when Centronics needed reliable manufacturing of the printer mechanisms--a relationship that would help propel Brother into the printer industry. Hugel would later become executive vice president of Centronics. Print heads and electronics were built in Centronics plants in New Hampshire and Ireland, mechanisms were built in Japan by Brother and the printers were assembled in New Hampshire. In the 1970s, Centronics formed a relationship with Canon to develop non-impact printers. No products were ever produced, but Canon continued to work on laser printers, eventually developing a highly successful series of engines. In 1977, Centronics sued competitor Mannesmann AG in a patent dispute regarding the return spring used in the print actuator. In 1975, Centronics formed an OEM agreement with Tandy and produced DMP and LP series printers for several years. The 6000 series band printers were introduced in 1978. By 1979 company revenues were over $100 million. In 1980, the Mini-Printer Model 770 was introduced--a small, low-cost desktop serial matrix printer. This was the first printer built completely in-house, and there were problems. Flaws in the microprocessor led to a recall and a stoppage of manufacturing for a year. During this period, Epson, Brother and others began to gain market share and Centronics never recovered. 1980 also saw the introduction of the E Series 900 and 1200 LPM band printers. In 1982, Control Data Corporation merged their current printer business unit, CPI, into Centronics and at the same time invested $25 million in the company, effectively taking control from Howard. Control Data controlled the company until 1986 when CDC's interest was acquired by a group of investors affiliated with Drexel Burnham Lambert. The Drexel interest was acquired by Centronics in 1987.
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