Didde

A lot has been said about Didde presses over the years. People have praised and berated them. One thing that is certainly true is that printers Worldwide have bought a lot of Diddes. I am sure at 7500+ Didde has the largest installed web press base on the Planet. The Tandemer was their first model introduced around 1961. After that Didde collaborated with IBM and made the Apollo. Both of these presses were a huge success and Carl Didde and Don Glaser were able to build a large factory in Emporia Kansas to mass produce them. In the early 1970's the DG 175 was brought out as a larger format machine 17 1/2" wide. Then in 1979 the hugely popular Didde 860 was introduced. This machine was used widely for business forms, direct mail, and commercial web printing. The Comperfector was introduced for high quality commercial perfecting printing, and had 4 form rollers. Then came the WebCom, MiniCom, ColorTech, MVP, VIP, Didde ML, Viper, MCM, Colorform, XL900, BIC, D900, Excalibur, and the ML2000. Under the covers though these many models are basically 3. You have the chain driven Apollos and Conservers, the shaft driven in lines fixed and variable size like the 860 and VIP, and finally come the perfectors like the Comperfector and Excalibur. The basic components vary little. What Orville Dutro started with his original design in 1961 still carries on today, Diddes are simple, good performing, web presses that are low cost to buy and maintain. Sure they need a few more parts and repairs than some heavier machines, but in the end the printers that buy these machine has a very good shot at making money. And that is what it is all about, isn't it.