Autumn 2016 | P2P Magazine |
27
Quality is at the heart of the Pentel
operation. All of the company’s factories
are accredited to the ISO 9001 quality
management standard, and most
also to the ISO 14001 environmental
management standard.
In addition, Pentel has a strong
social and environmental policy, playing
an active role as a corporate and
community partner. In the UK, Pentel
has raised over £1.1 million for Breast
Cancer Now, through sales of special
edition pink pens, and in the US it has
donated part of the proceeds from
sales of EnerGel pens to PanCAN, the
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. All
three Japanese Pentel factories engage
in community cleaning initiatives
several times a year, collecting litter
and improving the local environment,
and every August two of them host
a summer festival for their local
communities. In France, Euro Pentel
hosts a similar event.
Today, Pentel is a global business with
over 2,000 employees and a network of
21 sales offices covering more than 120
countries. Looking to the future Pentel
continues to focus on its mission, which
has remained constant throughout its
70 years of operation: to develop and
deliver user-friendly writing instruments
that enable people all over the world to
experience the joy of creative expression.
person to inspect the working practices
of the company.
Over the next 12 years, innovation
followed innovation, as Pentel created one
ground-breaking writing instrument after
another, including the synthetic fibre-
tipped brush pen, the valve-controlled
plastic-tipped correction pen and the
pigment ink Hybrid gel roller.
It is estimated that around
two-thirds of the world’s writing
technology in use today is
inspired by Pentel innovation, and
the mission to produce products
offering superior performance
attributes continues to motivate
the company to this day.
No smudging
A major introduction of the
last 10 years is EnerGel, the
name given to a range of pens
and special ink that offers an
exceptional writing experience
at an affordable price. Unlike
conventional gel pen ink,
which provides strong, vivid
colours but can be slow
to dry, EnerGel ink dries
extremely quickly, making
it suitable for left-handed
writers as well as right. Those
who are left-handed often
comment that regular gel
ink smudges as their hand
moves across the page,
leaving messy splodges on
hands and paper. Thanks
to EnerGel’s quick drying formula, this
problem is virtually eradicated with
most types of everyday writing paper.
The Maxiflo DryWipe Marker is
another Pentel innovation designed
to improve the everyday writing
experience. Its vivid liquid ink writes
sharp, vibrant lines, but its key feature
is the push-button ink replenishment
system. It’s not unusual to find that if a
cap has been left off a dry wipe marker
for a few hours the tip has dried out.
With Maxiflo, the tip can be recharged
with fresh ink by putting the cap on
the end of the barrel and pushing the
end button. This extends the life of the
marker and makes every last drop of ink
usable.
The ‘one-click’ pencil
The most recent example of Pentel
innovation, from 2015, is the Orenz
mechanical pencil featuring unique lead
protection technology.With Orenz,
unlike other mechanical pencils, you
only need to press the end button
once to advance the lead, making it a
truly ‘one-click’ pencil. The lead does
not protrude below the sleeve and, as
the pencil is used, the sleeve gradually
retracts into the barrel until all the
lead is used. The family also includes
a 0.2mm lead size, the world’s finest
diameter mechanical pencil.
Pentel’s
headquarters
today, Tokyo
