PHIL RIZZI Centring The centring of the grooves in relation to the pinof the turntable with which the recordis played must, of course, correspond precisely to that with which the master lacquer was cut. See the following... 6 Apr 2025
PHIL RIZZI Hydraulics Despite the fact that in the 1980s and 1990s there was a period during which even vinyl records — in some plants — were produced by injection moulding, their manufacturing normally involves the classi... 4 Apr 2025
PHIL RIZZI Thermal vectors Record pressing requires rapid and precise heat exchange across a wide thermal range — typically from nearly 200 °C down to about 50 °C. To meet these demands, all vinyl record manufacturing facilitie... 25 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI The extruder The extruder is the part of the press that "gelifies" the PVC granule, transforming it into a malleable filament. The PVC pellets are collected from the bottom of the hopper and conveyed from the bott... 21 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Record pressing: general overview The discs are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC, [-CH2-CHCl-]n ) where n indicates the number of repetitions of the basic monomer [-CH2-CHCl-] . There are several variants, which also differ in the repe... 15 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Separation Unlike in other sectors, where electroforming serves solely to coat, in the vinyl record industry, parts are produced that are then meant to be separated from one another. The first step, that of sepa... 12 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Temperature, density and pH The electroforming of nickel is usually carried out with electrolyte temperatures ranging from 40°C to 65°C and with a density ranging from 28° to 35° Baumé. High current and low temperature electrofo... 12 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Introduction to electroplating Recordsmanufactured industriallyare hot pressed bycompression. The PVC is first transformed from granule to filament, then compressed (with air pressure) inside a container until it becomes a small di... 12 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Voltage and current As previously discussed, each element involved in the electroforming process can be compared to a component of a DC circuit. For instance, if either the anode or cathode is not immersed in the electro... 7 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Electrolytic cells The figure shows a top-down view of an electrolytic cell, highlighting several of its fundamental components. As previously discussed, the cathode (marked with a negative sign, –) consists of a motor ... 7 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Theory of operation Electroforming: produces a metallic layer on another solid metallic substrate through the process of metal cation reduction, using a direct current supplied by a voltage generator; it is based on elec... 7 Mar 2025
PHIL RIZZI Silvering Once the master lacquer has been cut, it must undergo metallisation to become conductive and serve as the cathode (negative electrode) in the subsequent electroforming process. This metallisation invo... 6 Mar 2025