Factory Tour of Mimaki Engineering Co. Ltd.

Abstract

Mimaki Engineering Co. Ltd., founded in the city of Tomi, Nagano Prefecture in 1975 and listed on the JASDAQ Stock Exchange in 2007, is an up-and-coming company. At first, the company developed and manufactured the special order item like the electrical equipment unit, the chip mounter, and the automatic transfer line system, etc., which were the “Engineering” still remaining in the name of the company. The Company’s first ever original product was a pen plotter which made the best use of the servo technologies cultivated in earlier experiences in producing custom-made products. This then led to the development of cutting plotters that utilize cutters instead of pens. Knowledge gained on the needs and characteristics of the Company’s mainstay market seems to have opened the door to the later commercial success of the company. The product that has most influenced the direction of the company has been the large-size ink jet printer put on the market in 1996. The company, in order to meet the needs of sign graphics (the company’s mainstay market), has added new inks and technologies for large-sized printing to the fundamental ink jet technologies introduced by Epson, and in so doing has grown into a leading company in the field. Moreover, the Company has steadily prepared to advance into the field of industrial products with printing and cutting technologies applied to plastic plates, etc. and also into the textile and apparel field, in which printing is done on fabric. These technologies all provide main stay products for digital on-demand production, an innovative production method.