Honoring Industry Product Innovation and Excellence

The Pinnacle Product Awards recognize products that improve or advance the printing industry with exceptional contributions in quality, capability, and productivity.

Okay, but what are these awards about? Should the public even pay attention to these awards? Aren’t the companies that receive awards just buying publicity?

In this blog, I want to show you what these awards are really about. I want to show how they are judged, why companies enter and why the public should indeed take these awards as recognition of “product innovation and excellence”!

“Companies that win awards are just buying publicity!”

Let me start by saying, no one who enters this competition is buying the awards! No one! If that were the case, some of the smaller companies would always lose and in fact many of the awards actually go to smaller companies! In addition, not every product qualifies to enter.

Here is what is required to enter, right off the competition pages:

“Eligibility

In order to be considered for a Pinnacle Product Award, the product* must meet the following criteria. It must:

• Be available for sale in the marketplace.
• Fit into one of the published competition categories.

*Products on the market more than three years will receive a deduction from the judges’ score to bring newer products into focus.”

 So, this is about newer technology although established products can still compete. It’s also about products that are for sale in the market today. That makes it relevant to the public looking for the right product for their shop.

There are numerous categories as well, visit: https://productentry.printing.org/categories/ to see all the categories. In this blog, however, I’ll focus on the wide format printer categories, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check all the category winners because to qualify and then win is guided by some strict rules and measurements as well as judging from industry professionals.

“How is the competition judged?”

Again, from the award site:

“Each entry is reviewed and scored by an independent panel of judges made up of industry experts. All judges have demonstratable expertise in the evaluation of industry technology, products, and output capabilities.

We understand that conflicts of interest are a potential threat, and we take these conflicts very seriously. We do everything in our power to minimize occurrences of conflicts during the judging process.

PRINTING United Alliance does not influence the judges in any way. We select a diverse body of judges who are objective, respected, and knowledgeable in the industry. Decisions are entirely in the hands of the judges, who select and vote on the entries through an independent process.”

How are wide format printers judged?

For printing devices, judging is done by a machine, well kind of. Print manufacturers who enter the competition are required to print a standard IT8 patch of color swatches. The IT8 plus spot colors are read using a X-Rite iPro 2 and Maxwell software and the patches are recorded. Numbers are totaled and the best in each category is the winning recipient, awarding the output device that will produce the closest color to the industry standard.

Sounds simple right? it’s not! The printer manufacturer must create profiles for the media, adjust settings in the RIP software and make numerous other adjustments to produce a print that can be used in the competition. This can take numerous iterations until the manufacturer believes they have the right result to enter. Basically, the print reflects the best that the printer can do.

I might also add that even for those entries that do not receive an award, sometimes the competition can be very close in terms of results.

What does winning in a category mean?

For the winners, being awarded as the competition winner means the wide format printer has met or exceeded the industry standards for color printing output. For the consumer, it means that when choosing the winning printer, you can be assured that an independent test has confirmed that the printer is capable of printing to the highest standards.

MUTOH Wins Five Pinnacle Awards Two Years in a Row!

MUTOH has entered its printers into this contest each year for over a decade and won numerous times, however in the last two years they have won 5 awards each year. In 2022, the MUTOH printers that were awarded the Pinnacle Product Awards are shown in the image here:

ValueJet-2638X 104” Eco Solvent Printer– Roll-to-Roll Solvent/Latex (over 80 in.)

XpertJet-1642WRP 64” Dye Sublimation Printer– RTR Dye Sublimation on Textile (under $50K)

XpertJet-661UF 19”x23” UV-LED Printer– Tabletop Flatbed (Industrial/Small Item Decoration)

PeformanceJet-2508UF 4’x8’ UV-LED Printer– UV/Latex Flatbed (under $100K)

ValueJet-1638UH Mark II 64” UV-LED Hybrid Printer– UV/Latex Hybrid¹ (under $100K)

MUTOH has always taken great pride in the design and manufacturing of its made-in-Japan quality products and top-notch service. MUTOH is committed to constant innovation and leading advancements in technology.

“MUTOH is happy to accept 5 more Pinnacle awards this year for our best-in-class printers” states Brian Phipps, President, and GM of MUTOH America Inc. “We know we have great products but it’s nice to have the industry recognition with these beautiful pinnacle awards supporting us.”

Check out all the MUTOH wide format printer families at www.mutoh.com . Be sure to join us at the upcoming Printing United tradeshow in Las Vegas, NV on October 19-21, 2022 Booth C10124. Some of our color experts will be there and can give you a person demonstration of our products.

About MUTOH America Inc

MUTOH Industries, Ltd. founded in 1952 in Tokyo, Japan, celebrates over 70 years of business beginning as a manufacturer and distributor of mechanical drafting products. MUTOH America, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of wide-format printers and plotting cutters. MUTOH’s line of Eco-Solvent, UV-LED, Textile and Dye-Sublimation printers are known for their speed, quality and smart printing technologies. Whether you’re looking to print vehicle wraps, banners, signage, ADA compliant, custom apparel, fabrics, promotional items and more, MUTOH has a printer to fit your needs.