Behind the scenes of 'summer sizzlers' Offer

To create our crazy priced summer sizzlers flyers, Print Hut has utilised a printing system that was once consigned to the scrape heat, but the downturn in the economy and a need to cap printing costs, a mini revival in 'risograph printing' has occured. Loads of riso printers are now finding their way back into the market. With their very low running costs and machines available to purchase outright at astonishing low costs, wholeasle printers are once again seeing the benefits of these highly versitile and technologically basic printing presses.... so how does it work?

The original artwork is scanned through the 'riso' and a master is created, by means of tiny heat spots on a thermal plate (corresponding to image areas) in a master sheet. This master is then wrapped around a drum and ink is forced through the voids in the master. The paper runs flat through the machine while the drum rotates at high speed to create each image on the paper.

Above: a stash of 'risos' dusted down and waiting collection by wholesale printing companies as the 'riso revolution' gathers momentum

This simple technology is highly reliable compared to a standard photocopier and can achieve both very high speeds (typically 130 pages per minute) and very low costs. A good lifespan for a risograph might involve making 100,000 masters and 5,000,000 copies.
The key master-making thermal head component is manufactured by Toshiba. Similar machines to Risographs are manufactured by Ricoh, Gestetner, Rex Rotary and Nashuatec. All these other brands are now owned by Ricoh.
Because the process involves real ink - like offset printing - and does not require heat to fix the image on the paper - like a photocopier or laser printer - the output from a risograph can be treated like any printed material. This means that sheets which have been through a risograph may happily go through a laser printer afterwards and vice-versa.
However, due to the relatively low technology levels, attention needs to be paid to artwork; half tones are exceptable, but only just.
For schools, clubs, colleges, political campaigns and other short run print jobs, the Risograph bridges the gap between a standard photocopier (which is easier up to about 50 copies) and using a commercial printer (easier over about 10,000 copies).
Risos have typically had interchangeable colour inks and drums allowing for printing in different colours or using spot colour in one print job. The Riso MZ series models have two ink drums allowing two colours to be printed in one pass. The latest Riso model, the HC 5500, uses a high speed ink-jet technology to achieve full (4) colour at 120 pages per minute