Video-Matic Group Inc. of West Valley City, Utah, has introduced a proprietary process to disperse color evenly during the injection molding of polycarbonate compact discs.
Customers like the idea of a signature color identifying CD-ROMs containing their literature. Customers include Palm Inc., Intel Corp., FedEx Corp. and, for yellow pages, Qwest Communications International Inc., said Ken Rasmussen, Video-Matic founder and chief executive officer.
The idea is marketed as VM ColorDisc, said Video-Matic mechanical engineer Aaron Searle. Clariant Masterbatches' technical design and production site in Phoenix supported Video-Matic through “an interesting transformation” to achieve proper formulations last year, said Clariant sales representative Mike Walsh.
If a formula is incorrect, pigment particles can hinder a laser's reading of digitized data. Tight tolerances prove difficult for small replication shops to counterfeit and help reinforce a content holder's copyright protection.
“We tried to make our own compounds and failed miserably,” Searle said.
Video-Matic expects to stock as many as 25 standard and custom hues of concentrates from Clariant Masterbatches, based in Charlotte, N.C. The Utah firm has ranged into a black-light-glowing fluorescent, a luminescent and exotics in purple or green.
Video-Matic employs 130, occupies 40,000 square feet and had 2001 sales of about $15 million. The firm replicates CDs on one 60-ton and two 40-ton Netstal presses and may add equipment to begin the more complex production of digital versatile discs.