Mimaki : bridging wide format and inkjet printing

 According to Masaaki Fujita, managing director & chief general manager, sales and marketing division, Mimaki, “The industrial printing segment has high growth potential due to the increasing number of applications being carried out by inkjet printing. Similarly, textile printing applications are also increasing, especially in countries like China, France and Italy. As developments and applications increase, these will be nurturing further growth and demand for our digital textile printers.”

As a part of their major expansion plan, Mimaki has shifted to a new site called “Head Office and Bokuya Plant”. The old head office now specializes as the manufacturing division of the Mimaki devices and is called the “Kazawa Plant,” where spare parts and inks are also stored. The R&D division, Management division, Nagano Sales office and a part of the Manufacture division have also moved to the new location. In addition, Mimaki Precision and Graphics Creation, which are subsidiary companies, have also moved their head offices to the new location. The showroom is also expanded at the new location in order to exhibit all the products from the start of printer/plotter business and have a pilot plant for textile printing including pre/post treatments of fabrics that is taken care of by Graphic Creation.

It is estimated that almost 75% of the total sales of Mimaki belong to their sign and graphics business, while the rest is from other businesses – textile and garment (8%), industrial production (11%) and other activities (6%). Charting out the success factors of Mimaki, Fujita said, “Innovation is the key and we have been the first to launch wide format printing with pigment inks. We are also recognised as the first supplier of eco-solvent ink applications within wide format. Our high quality printers and other devices are quite popular with our ever-increasing customer base. The main reasons for our success include reliability of our printers, minimum downtime of machines and our ability to address the problems of customers in minimum time. Besides, we respond quickly to market requirements and changes.”

The Mimaki printers are also well-supported by softwares from the company. As a part of their growth strategy, they have an Inkjet Lab for the development of inks and coating as well as searching for new applications of inkjet technology in collaboration with different industries. “Even though, the company is new in the chemistry and consumables section, but Mimaki believes that the reliability and performance of the printers depend upon right inks and printheads. Thus, Mimaki offers seven different kinds of inks for use with its printers,” told Fujita. On asking about their future plans, Fujita replied, “Mimaki has always come up with something new and this is the theme for future as well.”