A Brother to the Earth: Working Together for a Sustainable Future.

As a champion for greater sustainability, the Brother Group is determined to use resources effectively as much as possible to minimise our environmental footprint. This is the foundation for “Brother Earth”, our ongoing commitment to reducing the burden on the environment across all aspects of development, designing, manufacturing, transporting, and recycling, and to infuse the latest eco-conscious technology in our products. This dedication can be found in the development and implementation of innovations in not only our printing technology, but throughout our manufacturing factories and packaging processes as well, resulting in some of the most environmentally friendly printers ever.

Energy efficiency through improved airflow

When it comes to designing for sustainability, we realised that the biggest solutions are often found in the small details. As increased printer performance generates more heat and thus, expands more energy, we took on the challenge of how to effectively release the heat generated from our high-performance printers and maintain optimal temperatures. With that in mind, our engineers turned to cutting-edge simulation technology to predict air flow at the design stage. This allowed us to make fine-tuned adjustments and formulate new products with unprecedented airflow efficiency. This not only means that our printers require fewer cooling fans to operate, but also helps improve reliability and product lifespan due to stabilised internal temperatures.

Lightening the environmental burden through packaging

Brother products are shipped around the globe on journeys of up to several thousand kilometres, and our products must be well-protected until they reach the hands of our customers. However, traditional packaging designs are large and bulky, requiring more materials to produce and taking up greater volumes of storage and shipping space. We made it a mission of making our packaging more environmentally friendly, and went back to the drawing board to create an optimised new packaging design that’s not only lighter and smaller, but also stronger and safer. Today, Brother continues to reduce packaging size to improve the efficiency of transportation and minimise the burden on the environment.

A responsibility that starts within our factories

The goal for Brother has always been the same: to reduce CO2 emission while still maintaining maximum productivity. To see this in effect, you need not look any further than within our manufacturing facilities where we are always striving to reduce materials and energy usage to meet environmental standards. In our Xian factory in China, skylights were installed to lower electricity consumption, and smart technology has been deployed to automatically turns lights off when enough natural light is detected.  In the Philippines, we’ve fitted our factory with 100% LED lights to reduce the number of lights utilised by 40%. This has led to the factory being recognised as one of the highest energy-saving production factories in the Brother group. Each year, more such activities are being implemented across Brother production plants around the world, for we know that the journey towards sustainability is a never-ending effort.

Working towards Zero Standby Power

While most devices such as your television, microwave oven, and yes, even your printer is likely to feature a “Standby Mode”, the power that is consumed even when in that state can be significant when you consider that these are often left on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Brother’s goal is to make this power draw as close to zero as possible with our low energy standby technology known as “Green Standby”. This technology decreases the electricity consumption as the number of times charged by the capacitor is reduced, and the longer discharge time means that standby power can be maintained close to zero. Since its announcement, Green Standby has been further developed, achieving a power consumption that is a mere 0.002% compared to a standard low–capacity power supply. However, we believe that even lower power consumption is possible, and we will continue to work on making our dream of Zero Standby Power a reality.

These are just a few examples of the many steps Brother is always taking to create a brighter, more sustainable world for our future generations to enjoy. To explore our ongoing efforts, learn more here.

Is there an affordable way to print for your home business? Read on.

If you are reading this, chances are, you are either the owner of a home-based business, or someone who is considering starting one of your own – and you’re not alone! With the added flexibility, agility and freedom that running a business from your home affords, it is easy to see why a large portion of start-ups across the world are doing so. This, however, comes with certain challenges, one of which being that most business-grade printing solutions were made for traditional office environments, with very few options designed to be truly suitable for the home office.

With that in mind, what are some of the options you should consider when choosing a printing solution for your very own home-based business?

Laser or Inkjet? It depends.

One of the main benefits of inkjet printers is that they are an affordable option for any home business owner while being capable of delivering vibrant colour image and photo prints. However, with the high prices of printer ink, they could end up being significantly costlier once you start printing larger volumes. But that’s all about to change with Brother’s range of Refill Ink Tank Printers, a new breed of business-oriented ink printers designed for greater cost-savings while delivering outstanding print quality and print speeds.

Or, if you are looking for more document-focused printing capabilities, then look no further than Brother’s range of Laser and LED printers. With either mono or colour printing options, these capable solutions provide speedy, stable performance that’s ideal for high-volume printing of documents with crisp and easily readable text – even on smaller font sizes.

Print productivity that doesn’t cost you dearly.

Printing costs can make up a significant part of your expenses, which is why Brother’s Refill Ink Tank and Laser print solutions are designed with small businesses and home offices in mind. Our ultra-high yield refill ink bottles and toner cartridges offer affordable, high-quality prints for all your marketing, invoicing, presentation or reviewing needs that not only translates to a low cost-per-page, but also allows you to print thousands of pages before requiring a refill or cartridge change.

Form and functionality bundled in one compact package.

Forget about those large, costly copiers that are commonly found in big office departments. Aside from being affordable, Brother’s print solutions take up a significantly smaller footprint than traditional copiers and are perfectly suited for your home office. Packed with wireless networking capabilities that allow staff to easily connect to a single printer, high print speeds, flexible paper handling, high-volume duplex printing, and innovative Cloud Apps that offer seamless mobile printing and scanning on the go, they deliver amazing value and functionality for the modern home office.

Made for the home, built to last

Another major concern about compact printers is that they aren’t designed to withstand the vigours of high-volume business printing. The thought of costly supplies and frequent breakdowns are the main reasons why many are put off by the idea of utilising them.

But Brother has got you covered.

All of Brother’s genuine supplies are optimised to work perfectly with our printers for unmatched consistency and reliability, which results in less wastage, repair and maintenance costs in the long run.  And with over 100 years of award-winning reliability and customer service to its name, you can be assured that any Brother printer is built to last.

With that being said, there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all solution for your unique business model. Do you require a solution with only print functionality? Or maybe you’re looking for a Multifunction Centre that’s capable of scanning, copying and faxing as well? Whatever your needs, we’re sure that you’ll find the ideal solution right here .

Update an Old Shirt with Embroidery

Hello everyone. Laura here from Trash to Couture. For this post, I will share with you how to embroider onto a collared shirt with the Brother SE625 Sewing and Embroidery Machine. This is a great way to update old or boring clothing. The SE625 has a set of built in floral patterns that I will be using on this denim shirt. Get the details below on how to embroider you own custom look.

Supplies:

  • Brother SE625 Sewing and Embroidery Machine
  • Stabilizer: Choose the best one for your material
  • Embroidery thread
  • Embroidery pattern
  • Shirt to embroider
  • Marking tool
  1. Begin by pressing your garment. Then use the template to mark where you want your design to be. I mark both right and wrong sides with a fabric marking tool. Choose an area of the shirt that is flat. For this design, I will be using the yoke and the back panel.

Tip: Use a stabilizer that works with your fabric and place at least 1 inch over the markings. I love the ones that you can cut to measurement, peel and stick it right on.

2. Hoop it. Hooping Tip: You don’t want it too tight or too loose. It should sound like a drum when tapping it.

3. Set up your machine to embroider. You can adjust the size and placement of the pattern which makes it easy to place the design exactly where you want it.

4. Once the first set of embroideries is complete, continue to repeat the previous steps for more designs wherever you’d like. The SE625 makes it easy to mirror images to create patterns like I did on the yoke.

5. If the yoke isn’t enough, the back panel is another great place to embroider.

The options and ideas are endless on what you can add embroidery too! Watch my video to get the steps on how to embellish your shirt with embroidery:

Watch Video:

Speed simulated for demonstrative purposes. Actual speeds will vary.

This article has been republished from Brother Sews USA. The original article can be seen here: http://blog.brothersews.com/embroidery/embroider-shirt/