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January 27, 2017 01:00 AM

Toronto company using new technology to press vinyl records

Michael Lauzon
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    Microforum Vinyl
    Microforum, unlike many of its rivals, is pressing records with fully automated machinery.

    Toronto — A Toronto media company is riding the wave of renewed interest in vinyl records by employing a new generation of vinyl record pressing technology.

    Microforum Vinyl is currently putting its first two vinyl compression presses through startup phases and has four more of the presses on order from Viryl Technologies Corp., said Microforum President and co-owner Frank Stipo in a Jan. 18 phone interview.

    Microforum, unlike many of its rivals, is pressing records with fully automated machinery. The two presses will be able to press about 8,000 records per day. Stipo said two more of the Warm Tone brand presses from Toronto-based Viryl will be installed in June and another two are slated to be running at Microforum by the end of the year.

    Stipo said his company is also unusual because its vinyl formulation is unlike the compounds being pressed in older, manually operated record-making equipment.

    “We don't use lead stabilizers,” Stipo said, indicating Microforum avoids lead because of its unpopularity and restrictions in consumer products. Older record presses have wide processing windows and require “forgiving” vinyl formulations that are often lead-based.

    Microforum's equipment makes a vinyl “puck” or biscuit, which is automatically conveyed to the pressing stage where 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure converts the puck into a flat record with grooves pressed into each side from stampers.

    Microforum marketing and sales manager Aine Guiney says the whole process starts with a high resolution digital file of the desired music. The file has higher resolution than files used to make compact discs. The audio file directs the cutting of the music track in real time into two nitrocellulose layers, which are then electroplated to form two stampers, one for each side of the record. In the press, labels are next applied to each side.

    Microforum Vinyl

    Microforum's equipment makes a vinyl “puck” or biscuit, which is automatically conveyed to the pressing stage where 2,000 pounds per square inch of pressure converts the puck into a flat record with grooves pressed into each side from stampers.

    From floppy discs to CDs to vinyl

    The power plant for the pressing equipment is a 150 horsepower boiler and a 130-ton chiller, which can handle the heat transfer needs of up to seven presses.

    Stipo said his firm's investment in the record-pressing machinery will amount to about C$2.5 million (US$1.9 million) when all the presses are installed. Microforum is starting with black vinyl compound but will soon introduce colored vinyl that some recording artists specify. It is sourcing its vinyl compounds from Molecular Trading Ltd. of Stockport, England.

    Microforum started out 22 years ago making floppy discs for early personal computers. About 10 years ago it branched into optical media, injection molding polycarbonate resin into compact discs and other formats. Now it is adding vinyl record technology in its 60,000-square-foot plant in Toronto. About 20 of its 50 employees will be directly involved in the vinyl record operation.

    Microforum is the second customer for Viryl's Warm Tone vinyl pressers. Hand Drawn Records LLC in Addison, Texas, installed machines in December 2016 and is now putting them through their paces.

    Vinyl record popularity is on the rise as audio aficionados try to revisit the warm analog sound of the disks. Microforum is one of many record pressers popping up to supply a global market projected to soon reach $1 billion a year.

    One of the longstanding players in vinyl record pressing, United Record Pressing, recently moved into a 142,000-square-foot plant in Nashville, Tenn., to replace previous digs it had occupied since 1949. UPR pressed records by some of music's titans, including Michael Jackson and the Beatles when they introduced “Please Please Me” to North America in the 1960s. NPR was one of the biggest pressers in the world, able to make 30,000 records a day in its old Nashville facility. Now it has 50 percent more capacity in the new location.

    In Jamaica, Tuff Gong International is re-launching its vinyl record factory in Kingston in a partnership with Sunpress Vinyl of Miami. Tuff Gong, founded by reggae music icon Bob Marley in 1965, will resume vinyl record production in spring after being dormant for several years.

    For a video report on the new presses, and links for more information, see Plastics News Now.

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