ZOPPAS (ZANUSSI) Z26 COLOR ELECTRONIC YEAR 1973.

The ZOPPAS (ZANUSSI) Z26 COLOR ELECTRONIC is the first ZANUSSI color television completely based on semiconductors (CHASSIS BS222 BS223) and is an export model produced ONLY for GERMAN market.

They are 26inches . sets of Italian origin (Defunct ZANUSSI A. Pordenone), and have quite a pleasant appearance, with a push on -off switch, five slider controls and six square tuner push buttons. The tuning potentiometers and channel indicators - which can be rotated to bring a different scale into use when used on v.h.f. (with a different tuner fitted of course) - are behind the Perspex window. The usual model number is BR 1026 (British Relay) for the Italian market or German market it was Z marked. The chassis is entirely solid-state, with a thyristor line output stage of first generation. Most of the circuitry is arranged on two solid printed boards in vertical metal frames, with two fasteners at the top and bottom which can double as hinges or catches. The right-hand board contains both timebases and the raster correction circuits, the one on the left the signal circuitry and power supplies. The decoder panel plugs edgewise on to the latter panel. The convergence panel is hinged to the cabinet top, and has remarkably few controls for a 110° set. Despite this, it's possible to achieve very good convergence. Picture quality is fairly good, although earlier models suffered from faulty tubes with leakages from the grids to first anodes, and the tubes soon lost emission. Replacement tubes seem to be o.k. in these respects.

The set has a pushbutton program change for 7 programs preselection with potentiometric tuning search system.

No remote control is featured but only manual controls.

- Horizontal Beam Deflection  and high voltage generating circuits realized with Thyristors circuits.

The massive demand for colour television receivers in Europe/Germany in the 70's  brought about an influx of sets from the continent. Many of these use the thin -neck (29mm) type of 110° shadowmask tube LIKE HERE ABOVE THE ZOPPAS and the Philips 20AX CRT Tube, plus the already Delta Gun CRT . 

Scanning of these tubes is accomplished by means of a toroidally wound deflection yoke (conventional 90° and thick -neck 110° tubes operate with saddle -wound deflection coils). The inductance of a toroidal yoke is very much less than that of a saddle -wound yoke, thus higher scan currents are required. The deflection current necessary for the line scan is about 12A peak -to -peak. This could be provided by a transistor line output stage but a current step-up transformer, which is bulky and both difficult and costly to manufacture, would be required. 

An entirely different approach, pioneered by RCA in America and developed by them and by ITT (SEL) in Germany, is the thyristor line output stage. In this system the scanning current is provided via two thyristors and two switching diodes which due to their characteristics can supply the deflection yoke without a step-up transformer (a small transformer is still required to obtain the input voltage pulse for the e.h.t. tripler). The purpose of this article is to explain the basic operation of such circuits. The thyristor line output circuit offers high reliability since all switching occurs at zero current level. C.R.T. flashovers, which can produce high current surges (up to 60A), have no detrimental effects on the switching diodes or thyristors since the forward voltage drop across these devices is small and the duration of the current pulses short. If a surge limiting resistor is pro- vided in the tube's final anode circuit the peak voltages produced by flashovers seldom exceed the normal repetitive circuit voltages by more than 50-100V. This is well within the device ratings.  It's a very good system to use where the line scan coils require large peak currents with only a moderate flyback voltage  an intrinsic characteristic of toroidally wound deflection coils. The basic thyristor line output stage arrangement used in all these chassis is shown in Fig. 1
it was originally devised by RCA. Many sets fitted with 110°, narrow -neck delta -gun tubes used a thyristor line output stage - for example those in the Grundig and Saba ranges and the Finlux Peacock , Indesit, Siemens, Salora, Metz, Nordmende, Blaupunkt, ITT, Seleco, REX, Mivar, Emerson, Brionvega, Loewe, Galaxi, Stern, Zanussi, Wega, Philco. The circuit continued to find favour in earlier chassis designed for use with in -line gun tubes, examples being found in the Grundig and Korting ranges - also,  Indesit, Siemens, Salora, Metz, Nordmende, Blaupunkt, ITT, Seleco, REX, Mivar, Emerson, Brionvega, Loewe, Galaxi, Stern, Zanussi, Wega, Philco the Rediffusion Mk. III chassis. Deflection currents of up to 13A peak -to -peak are commonly encountered with 110° tubes, with a flyback voltage of only some 600V peak  to peak. The total energy requirement is of the order of 6mJ, which is 50 per cent higher than modern 110° tubes of the 30AX and S4 variety with their saddle -wound line scan coils.   The only problem with this type of circuit is the large amount of energy that shuttles back and forth at line frequency. This places a heavy stress on certain components. Circuit losses produce quite high temperatures, which are concentrated at certain points, in particular the commutating combi coil. This leads to deterioration of the soldered joints around the coil, a common cause of failure. This can have a cumulative effect, a high resistance joint increasing the local heating until the joint becomes well and truly dry -a classic symptom with some Grundig / Emerson sets. The wound components themselves can be a source of trouble, due to losses - particularly the combi coil and the regulating transductor. Later chassis are less prone to this sort of thing, partly because of the use of later generation, higher efficiency yokes but mainly due to more generous and better design of the wound components. The ideal dielectric for use in the tuning capacitors is polypropylene (either metalised or film). It's a truly won- derful dielectric - very stable, with very small losses, and capable of operation at high frequencies and elevated temperatures. It's also nowadays reasonably inexpensive. Unfortunately many earlier chassis of this type used polyester capacitors, and it's no surprise that they were inclined to give up. When replacing the tuning capacitors in a thyristor line output stage it's essential to use polypropylene types -a good range of axial components with values ranging from 0.001µF to 047µF is available from RS Components, enabling even non-standard values to be made up from an appropriate combination. Using polypropylene capacitors in place of polyester ones will not only ensure capacitor reliability but will also lower the stress on other components by reducing the circuit losses (and hence power consumption).
       Numerous circuit designs for completely transistorized television receivers either have been incorporated in commercially available receivers or have been described in detail in various technical publications. One of the most troublesome areas in such transistor receivers, from the point of View of reliability and economy, lies in the horizontal deflection circuits.
       As an attempt to avoid the voltage and current limitations of transistor deflection circuits, a number of circuits have been proposed utilizing the silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), a semiconductor device capable of handling substantially higher currents and voltages than transistors.
       The circuit utilizes two bi-directionally conductive switching means which serve respectively as trace and commutating switches. Particularly, each of the switching means comprises the parallel combination of a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) and a diode. The commutating switch is triggered on shortly before the desired beginning of retrace and, in conjunction with a resonant commutating circuit having an inductor and two capacitors, serves to turn off the trace switch to initiate retrace. The commutating circuit is also arranged to turn oft the commutating SCR before the end of retrace. 

Was even the first ZANUSSI Color  tellye using the ITT A67-150X delta gun tube from ITT with Narrow nech technology which was used for a very few times. It has a  picture tube apparatus employing the so-called delta gun  shadow mask  The present invention relates to a color television picture tube  type color cathode-ray tube which is provided with three electron guns positioned respectively at the vertices of an equilateral triangle, " the so-called delta gun  shadow mask ".

To obtain a fine color picture on the screen of the cathode-ray tube of this type, the following requirements should be satisfied that the electron beam is emitted from each electron gun onto the center of each corresponding phosphor dot on the screen of the cathode-ray tube, the purity of colors is high and the electron beams are converged onto a group of phosphor dots.

These requirements can be comparatively easily satisfied in the case of the cathode-ray tube with a spherically formed screen, whereas it is difficult to satisfy the requirements in the case of a narrow-necked, wide-angle deflection cathode-ray tube. The wide angle deflection cathode-ray tube is advantageous in practical use because the distance between the electron guns and the screen is small and the screen is almost flat with a curvature approximate to that of a flat surface; however, it is necessary to control the electron beams so that the electron beams may be emitted exactly onto the 3-color phosphor dots on the screen because the incident angle and distance of the electron beams which reach the phosphor dots on the screen have the values proper to respective phospher dots.

ALL colour television receivers in yr 1971's  production in the European continent  were employing a shadowmask tube with a deflection angle of 90°. The manufacturers of colour tubes have however in their wisdom decided to develop 110 tubes, on the grounds that the increase in complexity of the scanning requirements for such tubes is more than justified by the resultant saving in cabinet depth even though this saving is only of the order of a few inches. It is of increase in the deflection angle will make the precise control of the three electron beams more difficult, thus increasing the scanning, convergence, purity and focusing errors.
To add to the general confusion in this field at present there are two different 110' systems, backed by Philips and ITT respectively, which are contending for the grand prize of acceptance by the receiver manufacturers.
The loser in this contest will be in a sorry state indeed. Philips are advocating the use of a wide neck 110' tube ("wide neck" in this connection means that the tube neck and the electron gun dimensions are the same as in a 90° tube) with saddle yoke scan coils and a single transistor line output stage. This system suffers from several disadvantages. The saddle yoke scan coils are of the type used in monochrome receivers. with the windings "flared" up the bowl of the tube and therefore not likely to give very precise scanning. Due to the design of the tube and the scan coils highly complex dynamic convergence circuitry was required : while a few potentiometers and variable inductors are sufficient to achieve convergence on a 90' tube, on this thick -neck
type of 110 ° tube it is necessary to incorporate transistors in the convergence circuitry and extra controls for corner convergence. Furthermore the potential required to focus the tube varies considerably over the scanning range so that dynamic focus circuitry is necessary imagine the problems involved in varying the 5kV focus potential at line rate! The desirable feature of the Philips 110° time base circuitry was  the simplicity of the line output stage which employs a single transistor and is said to be more reliable than earlier two -transistor circuits. ITT's approach to the problem was altogether different and was shown in earlier apparates. A narrow neck 110° tube is used (type A67 -150X), the neck of this being little larger than that of a conventional 100° monochrome tube. Miniature, closely spaced electron guns are incorporated in this and thus the three electron beams are closer together from the very start and require less convergence in fact a relatively simple passive convergence circuit can be used. To ensure that the scanning is precisely controlled a new type of deflection yoke is employed. The construction of this is toroidal (see Fig. 1) and both the line and field coils are similarly wound on it. At first sight the ITT circuit appears to be the more attractive proposition but it must be pointed out that the narrow neck tube was not entirely proven and due to the miniaturisation of the electron -gun assembly there may be cause to suspect its reliability (indeed).
Nonetheless it seems likely that thyristors will be widely used in both colour and monochrome timebases in the further 70's years so it is worthwhile understanding how they work under the obsolete technology aspect ; see above.

It's Sligtly rare because of the export model and quickly replaced by further models with BS250 MODULAR CHASSIS.

ZOPPAS was founded in 1926 by Zoppas Ferdinando & figli s.n.c. ans sold to ZANUSSI IN 1970.

The history of Zoppas starts in Conegliano in 1926 when Ferdinand and his three sons Zoppas give life to the machine shop Zoppas Ferdinand & Sons snc specializes in the repair of cookers wood burning of foreign production.

In 1948 Zoppas come from the first wood-burning stoves and coal that mark the beginning of the company's growth in terms of employment, production and sales that will characterize the fifties.

In 1954, Zoppas began producing refrigerators. The employees in the workforce now exceeds 1,500. In the early sixties it expands the range of production with the washing machine.

In 1961 the former machine shop in Conegliano is transformed from a general partnership to limited company calling itself Ferdinand Zoppas SpA In 1964 Zoppas made the first dishwasher in Italian production / market (called the "Stovella"), expanding its production capacity with the creation of a new and technologically advanced plant in Susegana (Treviso Italy), in an area of over 100,000 square meters of the railway line Udine - Venice and the Pontebbana.

The economic boom years were the period of greatest expansion of Zoppas, also starting to export their products abroad, so that in 1967 the establishment of Susegana could count more than four thousand employees.

They open new branches in Padua, Florence, Milan, Turin, Naples, Bologna, Parma, Genoa, Udine, Rome, Catanzaro, Verona, Montesilvano.

The range of products Zoppas at the end of the sixties, ranging from cookers for domestic use, to large installations for kitchens of canteens and restaurants, from wood stoves, coal and electricity, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, bathtubs, Bathroom with polishing. Its products were advertised on television was through the Carousel, which had the merit of spreading the slogan that still characterizes the products of the brand, "Zoppas makes them and no one destroys."

But it is precisely at this stage, in conjunction with the warm autumn, which opens the irreversible crisis of this giant of the appliance. The company is invested by financial difficulties, market, and rising of production costs.

 One false step is the purchase of a prestigious brand, the Triplex Solaro, in Lombardy, which specializes in cooking and heating, an operation with which the management hoped to call in the race group of Conegliano. Indeed, the Triplex reveals the facts a "bottomless pit" that contributes decisively to exacerbate the financial difficulties of Zoppas.

In that period also Zanussi Pordenone, the main competitor of the Italian Zoppas, is hit by financial difficulties. Faced with the very real risk that the Italian appliance industry jumped in one fell swoop, the government decided to intervene by promoting a process of integration of the industry, through the provision of a series of loans between 50 and 100 billion Lires by the IMI (Institute Mobilare Italian), which then depended on the Ministry of the Treasury, Zanussi, the leader of this aggregation process.

Still remain unclear, the phases of the cartel that led to the absorption of Zoppas by Zanussi, but it seems that the group of Pordenone had Zoppas compared to those directories favorable to be the leader of this integration process.
Zanussi Zoppas, it follows the fortunes, so in the mid-eighties the whole group was absorbed by the Italian Swedish multinational Electrolux.

ZOPPAS / Stern / REX / Zanussi / Seleco (WAS) is an electronics company based in Pordenone, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. It is part of Super//Fluo, who bought the rights in August, 2006, along with Brionvega and Imperial.

Zanussi was an Italian producer of home appliances that in 1984 was bought by Electrolux . Zanussi is a leading brand for domestic kitchen appliances in Europe. Products have been exported from Italy since 1946.

The Zanussi Company began as the small workshop of Antonio Zanussi in 1916. The enterprising 26-year-old son of a blacksmith in Pordenone in Northeastern Italy began the business by making home stoves and wood-burning ovens.

After his father death in 1946 “Lino Zanussi” became the President of the company.

In the early 1970s Zanussi sold a lot in the UK and for some time after under the “Zoppas” brand, name which had been acquired, making Zanussi the first largest Italian appliance maker. They also produced washing machines Hotpoint for Hotpoint at this time which were very reliable and highly rated by users and engineers.

In the late 1970s and into the early 1980s the company had a range of washing machines which used an induction motor with a clutch pulley system. Again this range proved extremely popular and very reliable.

During this period Zanussi Professional, the catering range of appliances for commercial use, became a separate division in its own right.

In the early 1980s Zanussi launched the Jetsystem washing machine range to great acclaim whilst at the same time running the “Appliance Of Science” advertising campaign which is acknowledged as one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time, in fact still remembered by many today. This gave the brand the impression of being forward thinking and innovative.

Zanussi has recently been rebranded as Zanussi-Electrolux in line with many other Electrolux brand names. Since that time many Zanussi appliances share common components and parts with the rest of the Electrolux range, primarily Electrolux, Tricity Bendix and AEG although it is worth noting that the “John Lewis” branded machines sold by the John Lewis Partnership in the UK are effectively rebranded Zanussi appliances.

In the late 1980s Zanussi launched the split tank design known as the “Nexus Tub” design which endures to this day with little change. The tub, base and certain other parts are made from a plastic material known as “Carboran” which can be re-used several times if recycled. To this day neither Zanussi or Electrolux has provided any way to return this material for recycling purposes.

Up until the end of the 1980s Zanussi service was run from Slough and was a network of independent repairers who gave an unparalleled service level. It is generally acknowledged within the industry that this service network was the best that there has ever been in the UK.

In the early 1990s Electrolux instigated amalgamating all its UK brands under one service entity. This entity was split, dependent on region, between the Zanussi service agents and the local Electrolux Service Centre. In general those in a high population density area where given to the Electrolux employed centres. Tricity Bendix, Electrolux and AEG as well as Zanussi were all to be serviced by the one network.

This was changed in the late 1990s and early 2000s as Electrolux sold or gave away the regional service centres, generally to the existing management or to area managers to run as independent businesses.

This service network was rebranded and became Service Force which still exists today but is, once again, all operated by independent service companies who repair and supply spare parts for all of the brands.................

 ..........................when the president Lino Zanussi died in a plane crash in June 1968 - Zanussi

Industries was the first Italian manufacturer of white goods and employs approximately 13000 employees.

When the Zanussi group of Pordenone lives a first phase of  financial stress then Lamberto Mazza, who succeeded Lino Zanussi, decides to liquidate some social funds with share capital held by Guido Zanussi  causing an outlay of 16 billion lire of that era.

Despite the Huge outlay to cope with such a withdrawal, the group aquired, in the course of 1970, competitor like Zoppas the other big Italian manufacturer of household appliances, which was,

significantly in debt due of an acquisition of Triplex in Solarolo and a construction of the new plant in Susegana.

The Zoppas, whose factories were located in Conegliano Veneto (TV), has a history quite similar to Zanussi: it is in fact founded by Ferdinand Zoppas in 1926 as an artisan company repair of wood-burning stoves and then spread widely and rapidly under the leadership of his sons Augusto and Gino.

Zanussi president, Lamberto Mazza, alleged a plan to achieve an optimal size to compete at the European level if not the world, strengthening the shares held by Zanussi on the Italian market to avoid  the entry of foreign competitors (in particular the U.S. Westinghouse).

The Financial stress imposed on Zanussi by acquisition of Zoppas and, simultaneously, the increase in the incidence both of labor costs and reasons of rise up of activity intensity (In the space of a short pass from 13,000 employees to 24,000 units?)  is faced with:

a. the sale to the German AEG-Telefunken

an amount equal to 25.01% of the Zanussi S.p.A.

(The operational holding company of the group)

(The share of ownership AEG-Telefunken is subsequently recognized in 1978 by Voet-Alpine.)

b. to loans from Italian Istituto Mobiliare

(IMI);

c. about a loan of about two hundred million marks

disbursed in 1974 from Dresden Bank.

The union conflicts, the impact of labor costs (in 1974 Zanussi occupies nearly 31,000 employees), the Debt contract with institutions credit and the first oil shock induce Lamberto Mazza to start a rapid process of diversification The core of this strategy is, however, the belief that the market of appliance White has come to its stage of maturity, with a saturation level  and the consequent reduction of typical viability.

Therefore, in this back of years Zanussi invests substantial financial resources to acquiring control of businesses;

(The process of growth of Zanussi,  nevertheless sees the creation of new realities companys as a result of corporate spin-offs.

Considering, for example,

Zanussi Grandi Cucine SpA, Zanussi Grandi Impianti

SpA, Air Zanussi SpA, Zanussi Components for Construction SpA, the Industrialised Building ZanussiFarsura SpA to subsidiaries Iberian Zinsa-Zanussi Industrial SA Compania SA and Industrias Electrodomesticas,

and Lastly Anglo-Saxon Iaz International Ltd., was established in 1979

well as the company insurance and financial intermediation

group, called Infinas S.p.A.) with few exceptions   activities not related with the core business.

In particular, remembering the concentrations of corporate sectors relating to paper (Paper Mill Galvani SpA, Cartopiave SpA and subsidiaries Cartosud and Silica), electronic (Ducati Electrical, Electronics-Inelco), construction (Seicom-Building for Integrated Components SpA), metallurgical (Smalteria and Metallurgical Veneta SpA), hotel (Borsa SpA) of furniture (Galvani Porcelain SpA, Sambuceto SA, Meson's Spring SpA SpA and its subsidiaries and Pagnucco SpA), components (Ilpea Gomma SpA), photographic equipment ( Fotomec San Marco SpA) of entertainment

(Udinese Calcio SpA) and solar photovoltaics.

(The investments of Zanussi happenned sometimes even in the indirect form

 which is made through the CISVE (Industrial Consortium

Economic Development), founded by Lamberto Mazza in quality of

President of the association of Industrialists of Pordenone, as well, since 1978, through the Industrial Finance SpA, a company financial system constituted specifically for that.)

the Organization Company is  formed in a matrix in which the divisional activities and  are then grouped into the following sections:

1.apparatus for heating;

2.components for Building;

3.solar panels;

4.apparatus Idronet (for potability of the water);

5.components;

6.apparatus different from electronic television sets.

But when the financial situation Worsened in 1983,

Zanussi family the shareholder majority, distrusted Lamberto Mazza replacing him

initially with Umberto Cuttica, former manager of FIAT,

then later with Gianfranco Zoppas, husband of Antonia Zanussi and son Lino.

The corporate reorganization plan was then prepared by the new management and was designed to focus the now scarce financial resources in the core business of group, to continue or to divest a number of activities not closely related ( Air Zanussi, Zanussi Construction Industrialized, Zanussi Electronics, Paper Mill Galvani,Pagnucco, Fotomec, New Cartopiave) , thus preparing the field for the sale of the Entire group to Electrolux, the Swedish multinational leader in field of white goods.

Stern / REX / Zanussi / Seleco (WAS) is an electronics company based in Pordenone, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. It is part of Super//Fluo, who bought the rights in August, 2006, along with Brionvega and Imperial.

Sèleco was born as in 1965 as a spin-off from the home appliances maker Zanussi. In the first years of his life, Seleco produced almost black and white televisions with the Zanussi or Rex brand. The company was being sold in 1984, and was first acquired by Gian Mario Rossignolo. He first became president and then main stockholder.

During the 1980s, the company launched worldwide marketing campaigns and began sponsoring some of the most famous Italian soccer team, such as Lazio A.S..

During the '90s, the company was mainly concentrated on the production of pay-tv decoders, but in 1993 suffered from a loss of competitivity. With the intent to reshape its position and to get gave new life to the company, Gian Mario Rossignolo bought Brionvega from the Brion family, the founder. This attempt get to nowhere, so the company was forced to declare failure in 1997. During the years, Sèleco has passed through ups and downs, at the end being overcome by the continuous changes in the electronics world.

After the crack-down, the company and all its interests were bought by the Formenti family. That gave life to the Seleco-Formenti Group, owner of the rights for the brands Sèleco, Rex, Phonola, Imperial, Stern, Phoenix, Televideon, Kerion and Webrik.

The Formenti family re-launched the company with the production of CRT-TVs. In 2000, the company suffered of a strong crisis, following the price dumping made by Turkish manufacturers. That seems to led to end of the Sèleco and Brionvega story, as the Sèleco-Formenti Group was forced to liquidation.

In 2004, the rights for the radio branch were bought by Sim2 Multimedia, and all the television interests (for the brands Sèleco, Brionvega and Imperial) were acquired by Super//Fluo in August 2006.

THIS INDUSTRY IS TODAY DEAD !!!!

R.I.P. ITALY  ! !!