What are your core strengths?
Mutoh Industry was established upon the development of the Drafter®, which is a platform used for designing. This Drafter is used to design architectural structures. Our company evolved from this point into MUTOH Holding Company.
Mutoh Industry, founded in 1970, has grown tremendously over the last 70 years. Actually, this Drafter has been named by Mutoh as our registered trademark．Commonly it is known by its generic name; a drafter. Paper-based designing is no longer relevant. In the past, we held 50% of global market share in drafting board and draft station sales. Drafters, and drafting boards in general, have not changed despite the changes to the market.
We have created a new product to follow the digitalization trend. It prints out CAD design. Inkjet technology has also been introduced in Japan. We have integrated this technology into our printers and developed our own line of unique inkjet printers. These inkjet printers started out as 2D but have evolved to 3D.
What is the software part of your business? And what synergies can you create between the printer manufacturing and software development businesses?
We are a software and hardware manufacturer. Our primary product is an integrated large-format printer. We can accommodate any ink type, whether it is water-based, eco-solvent, or UV. We also have a technology based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) in printer heads. A head can also contain between 1600-3200 spray nozzles. This nozzle is used to dispense the desired chemical. A thin membrane covers each individual nozzle. The head vibrates at about 25,000 vibrations a second. Our products are unique because we developed a special algorithm to match the waveform of vibrations. This allows the thin membranes to move efficiently, allowing for an efficient application of the ink.
When printing, the head is usually positioned on the carriage and moves both left and right. The media and head are separated by a gap of 0.5-1mm as the head moves. The gap between the media and the head must be the same as the head moves, or the ink won’t be applied accurately. Precision technology becomes more important as the gap between head and media increases. Our technology is able make very fine adjustments to this 1.0mm difference as the head moves right or left. It is important to always land at the same point in order to print consistently high quality prints. Our ability to combine the strengths and expertise of Japanese electronic and mechanical manufacturing with Japanese chemical manufacturing allows us to produce high-quality printing. It is important to fine-tune these elements to achieve the best results from a large-format, large-scale printer.
You must have spoken to many companies about the essence of Japanese business. monozukuriThis ability to fine-tune has, in my opinion, become a core competency for Japanese monozukuri. When you had a Japanese television, it was probably a tube-style TV. This tube TV was equipped with a complex wiring system which allowed for electronic magnetic waves. In the automotive industry, while anyone can build a car’s body, it takes advanced technology, such as that of Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda, to create complex engines. This allowed Japanese carmakers to excel. However, with the introduction of EVs, this is changing.
What I have just explained is the amalgamation of Japanese “fine-tuning technology”, and for products such as printers the technology needs to be precise without leeway. Japan’s ability to fine-tune will allow it to remain a leader in the world. Let’s take a product like our large format printer, and let’s say that it takes 10 hours to manufacture in the factory. You might wonder what we do with those 5 hours that are left over. This time is spent fine-tuning, checking and adjusting things such as the cartridge, head and gap difference. We spend considerable time on this process of fine tuning. Our factories are located in Japan. We could have outsourced assembly, but our production needs the engineering expertise only found in Japan.
What are the advantages of your printers over conventional eco-solvent printers in terms both of their environmental friendliness as well as their performance?
Solvent inks are generally not eco-friendly. They contain volatile organic compound (VOCs), and they emit a chemical vapour when they dry. Inks containing solvents are preferred, particularly when printing large displays and signs. It’s because of its high resistance to sunlight. If you have an outdoor advertisement and it only lasts a week or two, quite frankly that isn’t good enough. This is why solvent inks are preferred, but there are also eco-friendly inks that offer the same performance.
A new ink we are looking at is UV ink. This ink dries immediately and is stabilized by UV light after printing, making it eco-friendly. However, it doesn’t have a strong resistance against sunlight so we have yet to utilize it for printing signage. It is possible to print on a limited number of media with water-based eco-friendly ink. Normal paper will work, but magazine papers with a shine won’t absorb the ink. Each ink is unique. Sakata Inks Corporation and DIC Corporation are just two of our many ink partners. This isn’t limited to just Japanese companies, and we have partnerships with overseas ink manufacturers. We change the waveform of our printheads to better spread the ink. For the next 2 to 3 years, it is planned to use mostly eco-friendly printing inks.
Could you please tell us about the importance of collaboration with other countries for your company? Are you looking for ways to partner with companies overseas?
We are open and always interested in working with new businesses. I am unable to go into specifics about the partnerships that we have, but I can say that we work with an American firm in Florida, STS, where we provide OEM products. STS produces direct-to film (DTF), which was formerly known as direct-to garments or DTG. We have OEM agreements in Europe with our partners and we also have an agent in Europe who handles sales on behalf of STS.
3D printers have been creating a lot buzz in the industry due to their high potential for growth and the fact that they could be powerful tools in the hands. monozukuri Manufacturers that are interested in a production model with a higher mix and lower volume. What role will your 3D printers play in your company?
In the present, 3D printing is a huge boom. However, it has not yet proven to be profitable. In fact, our company is an agent of a large American 3D-printing company. Unfortunately, right now we don’t see much utilization of 3D printing in Japanese manufacturing sites, and I think there is little incorporation because the quality and precision are not quite there yet. It isn’t high enough to cater to the demands of Japanese monozukuri. We are a 3D-printer dealer and we do use 3D printing, but only to produce parts with a lower level of sophistication. Our focus on 3D printers isn’t large-scale, but rather mid-to small-scale printers.
The ML and MF Series are our 3D Printer Series. Each unit will cost you between JPY 1-2 Million. It uses solidifying technologies to cure ink using light. The price of our small-scale printers varies from JPY 500,001 to JPY 1,00,000. These units are based on filament technology, which melts resin and compiles up. This spring, we will be launching a low-scale version of the model that uses cutting-edge technology.
What can you tell us about your UV dimming technology. What are some key applications that your technology allows you to unlock for your customers?
With this UV LED lamp dimming technique, the UV lights on the printer’s head can be controlled. The resin curing time can be adjusted by changing the amount of lamps lit. By adjusting the curing period, we can either spread out the resin or cure it more quickly. Our printers can now print braille. There is a law in the US that requires braille to be on all hotel doors. We can extrude this substrate by changing the curing of the ink. We are now trying to add value to our products through the integration of VerteLith software, which helps our customers in their workflow.
VerteLith is used to produce braille-dotted characters. In the US, car wrappings are also popularly done using our VerteLith program. You first print the design on polycarbonate with eco-friendly solvents, and then laminate it to hide the print. It is customary to wait for the eco-solvents to dry completely before laminating. If you hurry, the solvent will emit gas during the drying and you will have small bubbles or gaps on the surface. Our UV printer and our software allows us to reduce the time required for drying. In essence, we can speed up the process of wrapping a car.
What is the current direction of international strategy?
At the moment, we are focusing on North America as well as Europe and Australia. Each location has a Mutoh representative. These are Mutoh America; Mutoh Europe; and Mutoh Australia. We are focused on the developed world because we do not just sell printers but also ink. When we sell to Asia, they will tend to purchase only the printer and not ink. In order to reduce costs, they use inferior ink that is cheaper. We do not like this business style.
Imagine we return in four years and repeat this interview. What are your goals and dreams for the next four years?
Firstly, I can’t assure you that I will still be the president in 4 years’ time. Mutoh, the Japanese manufacturer, is currently the 6th largest printer manufacturer worldwide, while Hewlett Packard is the 1st. Our business strategy is to create unique, niche technologies which can help us solidify our place amongst our loyal customers. We know our position on the market and we are not able to compete in all aspects with these big players. We believe we can meet our customers’ needs by integrating cutting edge technology and using our expertise in fine tuning.