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Background information:

The de Wijs Company was established in 1962 by Hugo de Wijs.
In those days, 3-D as a presentation system was relatively rare and not often encountered.

The company started by staging evening 3-D projection sessions with stereophonic sound and experimental 5-way sound effects (close to what we now call 'surround sound'). In addition, Hugo started building outdoor rotary viewers containing information for the public. These had coin inserts, and were placed along roads.
 
In the 1970s there started to be a demand for 3-D viewing apparatus increased beyond that for use outdoors and for projection to include equipment to show 3-D images in museums. This led Hugo to design and build indoor rotary viewers. Also in the seventies, stereophonic sound and television became more common, so it was time to extend the focus beyond evening 3-D shows, and to proceed with production and distribution of 3-D viewers and images. That's how the de Wijs Company came to amass an enormous collection of 3-D images of nature, plants and insects in the Netherlands.
In the 1980s the 3-D viewers became increasingly popular with commercial companies, and were used for professional fairs and exhibitions. The civil engineering (building) sector and the national traffic department were regular customers, and provided very interesting assignments. In the late 1980s the Dutch bureau for tourism ordered 16 rotary viewers for the national promotion of our country. (right picture)

In those days production techniques were not very sophisticated. Research and design were recorded in a paper notebook, and the production quality of parts was not always what it should have been. The consequence was that replacement parts often needed to be custom-made because only a few parts of a rotary viewer were exchangeable with another. The de Wijs Company was therefore reluctant to manufacture a new series of viewers using the 'old' production methods with the same time consuming problems.
In the early 1990s, Hugo's son Jeroen, started to participate in the design process. Whilst in technical school, using a drawing-board, he designed the rotary viewer model 1991 (left-most picture). New agreements were made with the factory. This 'learning' series solved a lot of problems, but it was not perfect. Studying the problems and talking to factories brought us to the conclusion that the factory with which the de Wijs Company had always worked, would never be able to meet our standards for quality, so we looked for another. In 1996, the drawing-board was exchanged for an AutoCad computer system, and a new factory with CNC punch and bending machines increased the accuracy enormously. Another factory did the CNC milling in Eindhoven. (left image).

 
The de Wijs Company also designed the electronics. Jeroen was enrolled in a bachelor's degree program in electronic engineering at the higher technical school. The regular light timers on the market did not have the endurance we required, so we designed them ourselves. Over dimensioned components and better parts guaranteed a long lifespan. Another company produced the circuit boards. Because of the fact that de Wijs products began to be exported for worldwide distribution, defects were not acceptable on any level, given the logistics of maintenance or service within a guarantee period. (right image of a circuit in research).

 
Simultaneously, the production of the hand-held viewers improved as well. The viewers are used in the private as well as the medical/ professional area. A part of the production has been moved externally, certain variations are made in by the Wijs.

 
At the turn of the century the world asks for more interactivity between 3-D viewers and the spectator. A new rotary viewer was designed with a motor-advance mechanism, sound support and external computer control. Model 2001 comes close to perfection in terms of production techniques.

Marketing and operating expenses had always been relatively low for the de Wijs Company. However, at the start of 2000, the Internet became an important means for reaching customers. Foreign customers were playing a dominant role in the market. Production costs started to increase. Other small companies began to offer 3-D viewers, but their level of quality did not match that of the de Wijs Company.
Because the design of new products became better and the production quality improved, de Wijs large companies hired de Wijs to create custom-made machines in low quantities. Many companies contracted for the design and production of special viewers for presentation displays at trade fairs of 3 to 4 weeks. The de Wijs Company met the challenge of creating professional 3-D displays with disposable viewers that would last for up to a month. Reliability became our trademark.

The future:

Since the early 1990s, Jeroen owned his own company for the production of 3-D viewers and the electronics for them. In 2000 he took over the total production for the de Wijs Company. Hugo is still occupied with the photography and the rental of viewers to museums. Together with Jeroen he designs the new equipment. So there are now actually 2 companies, which are financially independent of each other.

 

Products designed by Jeroen de Wijs:

41x101 mm. aluminum viewer model 1994.
Combi viewers models; all.
de Wijs viewmaster viewer models: all.
Table-drum viewer models 1991, 1996, 2001 en 2004.
6-slide viewer.
10- slide rotary viewer models: all.
Outdoor rotary viewer model 2003.
Wall and panel viewers: all.
3-D macro lenses models 2002 and 2003

Besides that, he builds this website, does 50% the administration, handles the PR, the production, and the logistics. He also manages the digital photo archive, which is also online, and the online store: 3-Dstore.nl 		Products Developed by Hugo de Wijs:

Outdoor rotary viewers from 1960 up to 1995.
Indoor rotary viewers from 1976 up to 1991.
Stainless steel hand-held viewers up to 1994.
3-D hand operated projectors from 1973 up to 1984.
3-D projection lenses for Kodak and Rollei.
3-D macro lenses up to 1994.

Hugo currently oversees:
Maintenance of 3-D slides at museums and visitor centers.
Rental and use of viewers at several institutes.
Mounting and adjustments to macro lenses and rotary viewers.
Advises about and ponders new development in 3-D areas.
In addition, he is well versed in the subject of old 3-D equipment and systems from the 1950s to the 1970s. He is a master 3-D photographer and an expert at mounting. He leaves the digital area to Jeroen.


 

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