is a privately held Japanese manufacturing company of stationery products. The company name was derived from the trademark used for one of their first widely known products, a portmanteau of the English words painting and pastel,「ぺんてる」の社名の由来とは? Pentel Co., Ltd. history. Retrieved October 9, 2015. but has since been interpreted as a combination of the words pen and tell (as in telling a story). Pentel is also the inventor of non-permanent marker technology. Most Pentel products are manufactured in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and France.
The company is regarded as the inventor of the fibre-tipped (felt-tip) pen in 1962. Included in its innovations was its success in adapting traditional Japanese practice to industrial production. Nowadays, Pentel produces a wide range of products that include writing implements, art materials and office goods.
History After dissolving Horie Bunkaido, a Japanese wholesaler of Japanese traditional writing brushes established by his father, Yukio Horie, founded Pentel in 1946 in Tokyo as Dai Nippon Bungu Co., which later would become "Japan Stationery Limited" (Nihonbungu Kabushiki Kaisha). The goal was to manufacture crayons and pastels for use in education. The first products for sale were released in 1951, followed by pencils in 1960.
In 1963 Pentel launched the "Sign Pen", a fibre-type pen that was used by then President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, who bought a dozen of them to sign photographs, apart from being adopted as the official writing instrument of NASA and going into space with a Gemini mission in 1966.History of the Pentel Sign Pen on Pen Cult website Demand for a Sign Pen was so extraordinary that the Tokyo factories could not supply all requests. The Sign Pen was one of Pentel's most successful products with more than two billion units sold.
In 1971 the company changed its name to "Pentel Co. Ltd." and one year later, the green rollerball pen with water-based ink, was launched. Horie remained as President of the company until his death in 2010.
In the 2010s, Pentel launched the "Pocket Brush",Pentel brush on Cult Pens website a fudepen that used replaceable waterproofReview: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen by Teoh Yi Chie, December 28, 2014 ink cartridges, like fountain pens (and unlike conventional brush pens, which are more like marker pens.)
Brush pens (designed and recommended for calligraphy) have also gained popularity among comic book artists, who choose them to ink their works instead of dip pens or traditional brushes. One of those artists using Pentel was Neal Adams.Larry Hama interview in Comic Book Resources June 3, 2009
Products Stationery Product lines include Sharp Kerry, Sharp P200 series, Multi 8 (All-purpose mechanical pencil), Twist-Erase, Q-Erase, Quicker Clicker, Graph 1000, Graphgear (500, 800 and 1000), Smash, Orenz, OrenzNero (mechanical pencils or "sharps"); Ain and Hi-Polymer (mechanical pencil leads, erasers); Energel (gel ink pens); Floatune, Vicuña (hybrid ink ballpoint pen); RSVP (oil-based ballpoint pens), Pentel Pen (permanent marker), and Sign Pen (fine tip marker).
Range of products manufactured by Pentel includes:Pentel catalog on Pentel of America, Ltd. (archived), Sep 21, 2010
Type Products Writing implements Rollerball pens, gel pens, ballpoint pens, mechanical pencils, fountain pens, marker pens, highlighters, brush pens, pencils, colour pencils, refills Art materials Oil pastels, crayons, watercolors Office supplies Erasers, correction fluids, correction tapes, glues
Other products Pentel produces and sells electronic devices and production equipment in addition to stationery.
Electronic equipment – Touch panel, digitizer (liquid crystal pen tablet), touch switch, electronic pen (airpen) Production equipment – for industrial robots, industrial automatic assembly machines, precision dies for injection molding, precision hand presses OEM supply (OEM Division) – Cosmetic parts, stationery, office supplies, medical equipment
References
External links
Pentel Global Pentel of America