The State Records Authority of New South Wales has become one of only three worldwide installations of a MAP MASTER XXL large format document scanner.  

Described as “Simply Humongous!” by German manufacturer SMA, the MAP MASTER XXL is also in use at the Russian Navy Archive in Saint Petersburg and by the Chinese Navy which has several SMA Scanner installations.

The “Extra Large” format Document Scanner has a Scanning Range of Double A0+ which is 2540x915mm.

It is designed for the colour scanning of fragile archival documents, maps and plans as well as engineering and other drawings.

The large format document scanner at NSW State Records

The company says it produces superior results to expensive high resolution cameras as it provides a higher optical resolution over the entire scanning range.

Earlier this year, Australian distributor DME also installed an SMA SCAN MASTER 0A0 PLUS Size Book & Large Format Document Scanner with a Scanning Range of up to 1,270 x 915 mm with the UQ Library at the University of Queensland.