MECHANICAL ENGINEERING HERITAGE NO.21
All around drafting machine, MUTOH
‘drafter Type MH-Ⅰ’
Japan’s first design and drafting machine, ‘Drafter Type MH-1,’ was invented in 1953 by Yoshiro Mutoh, the founder of ‘MUTOH Memori Chokoku’ (MUTOH Scale Engraving) Ltd., the predecessor of MUTOH Industries, Ltd.* (*Current corporate name Mutoh Holdings Co., Ltd.) The mechanism of the drafter is not the ‘ladder type parallel-arm system’ seen in foreign-made products at that time, but rather an original ‘belt-pulley system’. This system enables the maintaining of parallelism with a high degree of accuracy without regard for parallelism adjustment, which helped make the basic work of manufacturing and drafting work faster and provided a great boost toward precision work. The ‘Drafter Type MH-1’ is the prototype of the arm-type ‘Drafter SAU-85.’ While the scale material was changed from metal to resin, and balance adjustment and contact degree adjustment functions were added to enhance user-friendliness, the machine’s basic performance carries the advanced technical level of the time to this day.
On exhibition (Reservation required)
MUTOH Showroom
- Hours open:
- 9:00–17:00
- Admission fee:
- Free
- Days closed:
- Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, year-end/New Year’s holidays
- Address:
- 3-1-3 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 154-8560
- Tel:
- +81-3-6758-7123
- URL:
- http://www.mutoh.co.jp/
- Access:
- 3 mins. on foot from Ikejiri-ohashi Sta. (west exit), Tokyo Den-en-toshi Line