Mimaki has opened a number of new testing and laboratory facilities in Japan as part of a move to address a growing global demand for digital print technology.
A Textile/Apparel Lab Centre and Industrial Product Lab Centre have opened at the company’s headquarters in Nagano in the last few weeks, while the company has also established a new JP Demonstration Centre in the country’s capital of Tokyo.
The Tokyo facility will run alongside the firm’s existing branch showroom in the city and show Mimaki technology for the sign and graphics, industrial product, and textile and apparel markets.
The facility will also work with the new lab sites in Nagano to respond to customers’ needs and problems by taking a more specific approach, which will include various testing procedures and verification tasks.
“Specialists who are knowledgeable about the individual markets will provide customers with practical explanations of the functions and applications of these machines, and will also be capable of providing more detailed demonstrations and proposals to suit the customers’ environments, media, and so on,” Mimaki said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Textile/Apparel Lab Centre in Nagano is one of a network of sites that will open this year. Mimaki has confirmed similar facilities will also open in Italy and Turkey in September, as well as Shanghai, China, in October and India in November.
“Our goal is for these centres to reduce the time that has been required for colour matching and the optimisation of the pre/post treatment, supporting customers in increasing their operational efficiency through the speedy production that is inherent to digital printers,” the manufacturer said.
“We also plan to conduct weatherability, colour-fastness, and other evaluations and measurements in collaboration with educational institutions.”
The Industrial Product Lab Centre will also operate in a similar way, working to produce technology that satisfies market demand. Mimaki plans to open other sites in Shanghai, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Germany, the Netherlands, North America and Brazil in due course.
“At the IP Lab Centres, the compatibility verification and evaluation between inks and materials can be conducted, as well as the verification of the optimum printing conditions when using genuine inks and genuine primers on customer-supplied substrates, together with the verification of printing processes to suit the individual special needs that customers may have, such that proposals can be made,” Mimaki said.
“Furthermore, we will undertake the verification of technologies for printing on new materials, as well as the development of new applications based on the voice of customers, thereby continuing to propose new values in the markets as an innovator.”
