MYIRO-1: First Impressions of the Instrument

It’s February 2021 and the year is already off to a very busy start over here at Techkon USA. As you probably remember, just a few short weeks ago, we issued a press release announcing our partnership with Konica Minolta to launch, promote, and distribute MYIRO-1 solutions in North America. This was indeed exciting news for us and we are thrilled to partner with Konica Minolta on this innovative product.

In case you missed our press release in January, here is the brief description of the MYIRO-1 instrument that we published:

From the initial product inception, MYIRO-1 was designed to be the most accurate and repeatable, low cost, spectrophotometer to meet the high-end color profiling needs of the photography, commercial print, packaging, and signage industries. Up until now, these markets have long been served by products that have under-delivered on measurement consistency and overall product reliability. MYIRO-1 promises to change the current market perception of low-cost spectrophotometers and profiling with its unrivaled measurement accuracy, consistency, build quality, and product reliability. In addition, MYIRO-1 is a WLAN device allowing spectral measurements to be transferred wirelessly to the computer which removes the limitations, tangles, and hassles of USB cables for the user.

At this point, I’d like to use this blog as an opportunity to expand upon the description above and add just a little more color and context to these statements.

First, I think it’s important to understand that this product was engineered by Konica Minolta and is manufactured by Konica Minolta in Japan. Konica Minolta has annual sales of over $9 billion per year and they have a dedicated business unit that focusses on high quality color measurement instrumentation and color management solutions. In fact, these color measurement solutions are widely considered “best in class” in the automotive, food & beverage, paint, coatings, plastics, textiles, and also the print & publishing industries. Konica Minolta instruments are praised for their innovative product designs, exceptional build quality, absolute measurement accuracy, and measurement consistency. For these reasons, Techkon USA is absolutely confident that the reliability and consistency of MYIRO-1 will surpass the competition and meet or exceed the quality standards that we build into our own Techkon branded solutions.

Next, let’s discuss how well measurements from MYIRO-1 compare to measurements from the other legacy, low cost, handheld device on the market. This is a popular question from customers who already own legacy instruments and are considering the upgrade to MYIRO-1 as their existing units reach the end of their life. Simply put, MYIRO-1 measure just like those existing devices because both manufacturers have NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology ) traceable calibrations. This mean NIST has already certified that both manufacturers will produce instruments that match the NIST-maintained measurement standards for spectrophotometers and thereby these different devices will match each other. This is obviously great news for anyone looking to make the switch and allows for a seamless & worry-free changeover to MYIRO-1.

Finally, regarding the ergonomics of MYIRO-1, I know the built-in wireless connectivity has garnered much of the excitement among our users and those looking to make the switch. This is obviously a huge design win over the competition because it allows the user to find a location where they have the space to spread out their printed profiling charts, get their measurements done, and avoid the physical limitations and hassles associated with scanning targets while tethered via USB. However, another feature also generating praise is the smooth scanning action of the instrument when scanning an ICC profiling target with the measurement guide. In my opinion, the measurement guide contains just the right grooves, slots, and friction less materials that allow MYIRO-1 to glide effortlessly over each a row of color patches. While MYIRO-1 certainly did not invent the concept of using a measurement guide to aid scanning, I think it’s safe to say that MYIRO-1 did improve upon this process with their design.

I think I am going to wrap it up here regarding my first impressions of the MYIRO-1 hardware. I hope you found this blog informative and if you have any questions about the MYIRO-1 instrument, our new ICC profiling solutions, or any Techkon products, please feel free to contact us. In my next blog, I’ll give my first impressions regarding the MYIROtools profiling software and its capabilities. Stay tuned and please stay safe out there!