Brother fax machines

Brother has been at the forefront of innovation in fax machines for nearly thirty years. The current range of Brother fax machines include industry-acclaimed thermal and laser products.

About Brother fax machines

After starting out as a manufacturer of sewing machines, Brother expanded its range of products to include typewriters and then fax machines in the 1980s. Today, the range of Brother fax machines covers all supported technologies and fax machine types.

About Brother

Brother was in fact originally just a commercial name for the products manufactured by the Yasui Sexing Machine Company, founded in Japan 1908. The company then changed its name to the Yasui Brothers’ Sewing Machine Company, and after it started producing its own sewing machines - the first ever produced in Japan - the Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing company. Brother arrived in Europe in 1958 - in Ireland - and in the UK in 1968, after the acquisition of a Manchester-based sewing machine manufacturer. Brother started manufacturing typewriters in the 1950s, and the first Brother fax machines arrived on the market in 1987.

Range of Brother fax machines

Brother fax machines can be either:

- thermal fax machines - the most traditional technology used by fax machines,

- laser fax machines - more intended for heavy-duty use;

- multi-function printers, including fax capability - Brother actually was one of the first companies to produce such machines, and their array of products is one of the most complete on the market.

Selection of notable models

Since multi-function printers including fax functionality has been covered elsewhere in this guide, this article focuses on the notable models in the range of Brother fax machines using either thermal printing technology or laser printing technology.

Thermal faxes

Thermal fax machines by Brother are most suited for the private home/office market segment, or customers who need a no-frills, yet conveniently multi-function fax machine. The following models can be mentioned:

- The Brother FAX-575 is a personal fax, phone and copier with a 9,600bps modem which only needs 15 seconds to print a page, 25-page memory, and a 50-sheet page capacity.

- Brother’s FAX-T106 is a more modern system adding a digital answering machine with 15-minute recording time, 104 quick dial locations, a 1440kbps modem. The automatic feeder has a 10-page document capacity, for a total 30-sheet paper capacity and up to 25 pages transmit/receive memory.

Laser faxes

Brother fax machines using laser technology are more suited to SMEs which need more paper capacity, and a larger memory to receive long faxes.

Notable models include:

- The FAX-2840 high-speed laser fax machine, which has a 33.6kbps modem, a 30-sheet automatic feeder and a 250-page paper tray, 200 speed dials, 400 pages transmit/receive memory, and up to 20cpm mono copying speed;

- The FAX-8360P is the flagship model of the Brother fax machine range, as it includes up to 500-sheet transmit/receive memory and a matching optional 500-page paper cassette.