Fax Machine for the Domestic Market

Design concept for a fax machine for use in the home.

The fax machine started life as a business tool for transmitting and receiving images of documents. As it becomes a ubiquitous communication device, its use is increasingly common in the domestic environment. However, the business-oriented design of most fax machines isn't well-suited to home use. They're often over-complicated and without aesthetic consideration for the home. The objective of this project was to address the needs of this market and design a fax machine suited for home use.

This integrated telephone/fax machine provides standard functionality in a simple, uncluttered design. Outgoing documents are fed into the top of the device, and incoming faxes are received at the bottom. All other operations (dialling, setting options) are clearly available in the middle section, with telephone-specific buttons placed towards the telephone handset.

The fax machine uses an inkjet print mechanism with plain paper, instead of traditional fax thermal printing. Thermal paper is non-recyclable and the print degrades quickly, necessitating photocopying of faxes for future reference. This may be acceptable in a business environment but is not at all practical in the home. The ink cartridge and paper roll are easily user-replaceable by opening the hinged middle section. The print mechanism paper path has been configured to eliminate the "paper curl" problem common to fax paper rolls.

To integrate into the domestic environment, the product is constructed in ABS for a durable high-quality finish, with a simple clean aesthetic. This is combined with a low-cost high-quality print mechanism.

(1:1 Scale facsimile model pictured.)

< Previous

Next >