Arts & Entertainment
Thermofax: Is It The Beginning of the End?
A lone provider of materials for re-purposing old office equipment into a tool for creative experimentation with imagery meets its demise.
Welsh Products announced in an email on September 5th:
Retirement sale!
After 38 years of business, Welsh Products will be closing down this fall. In an effort to clear out our inventory, we are offering large discounts on our website and hope you will take advantage of the savings.
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End of an Era
The heart of our business has always been the amazing combination of Riso Thermal Screen with 3M Thermofax thermal imagers. But with the aging and dwindling supply of 3M Thermofax imagers, and with Riso changing the screen last year, it has become impossible for us to continue to offer the standard that our company and customers demand.
While Riso's updated screen still works very well for many of our customers, there are far too many that are having problems getting the same results. We have worked hard with Riso and our customers to try to solve these issues, but still too much remains unsatisfactory.
We thank you for being a loyal customer.
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I hope it's not the end of an Era. They used the words "amazing combination" and that is indeed true!
Makersville seeks to find those combinations of old and new that provide substantial opportunities for creative engagement. The speed and low cost of the Thermofax/Riso screen system meant that a screen could be produced for as little as $5. True, they are art screens... each impression one is individually applied, comes out differently and not necessarily consistently in quality.
Makersville has taken many of its students through the Thermofax, regardless of how the student comes in to us: Game design, graphic design, Sewing, Me-Me tees, Christmas making. So much fun!
It's taken us some time to figure out what combination works for us with the new screen materials. They require more carbon, and only a subset of the printers now produce images with enough carbon. Our Brother MFC 7220 still works, our HP 2605 doesn't work any longer. It doesn't work as well as it did with the old materials, but it still works.
If you have a Thermofax and would like to report your experience with your printer, let me know and I'll update a list that I've started.