How Vinyl is Manufactured and Processed

How Vinyl is Manufactured and Processed

The process of how to press vinyl records to be played or sold. Let’s assume that the song, or album, has been recorded, mixed and mastered, depending on quantities, vinyl records are produced by cutting on vinyl blank or on lacquer disk and pressing as a result. The audio file will be physically cut into a master disc.

Making the Vinyl Blank
If it is a single piece record, vinyl dubplate, it will be cut in real time using a cutting machine. The cutting head of the machine cuts the audio information directly into the vinyl blank via the cutting stylus. Manufacturing takes exactly as long as the entire playing time of the finished plate. After that, the record is ready to play. An edition of 5 to about 50 pieces of a vinyl album, mixtape, etc., is done by direct real time cutting on vinyl blanks.

Making the Lacquer Disc
The audio information is cut on an aluminum disc which is coated with an acetate lacquer layer in real time with a cutting lathe. All later made vinyl are identical copies of this master disc. It is vital in this phase to keep the dust away from the surface of the lacquer sides to prevent any imperfections.


Recording Sound onto the Lacquer Disc
Process of custom vinyl pressing start with placing the blank disc onto a lathe. A heated sapphire designed to engrave grooves into the lacquer surface of the disc is used to record sound. The sapphire tips cut the recorded sound wave into the surface of the disc, with a small vacuum sucking up the lacquer. The recorded sound will be engraved into the disc as one continuous spiral groove, a physical manifestation of the frequency and amplitude. Once the cutting is complete, the sapphire tip is lifted, and the lacquer surface is checked for any defects.

Preparing the Stamper
The lacquer master is being sprayed with a layer of silver nitrate and then gets placed in a special electric bath. By the addition of nickel and electric current which flows through the pool, the nickel deposits on the silver of the lacquer master. After some hours this new negative layer is ready for pulling off, the result is a mirror image of the master disc, known as the stamper or the father, which is necessary for the next step. after this process the lacquer master is defective or useless.

Sometimes a mother is being formed again from the first father which gets engraved and archived to be able to produce additional stampers after several years. The mother is the negative image replacing the master disc.




The Finished Vinyl
A stamper serves to press 500 to 1000 pieces of vinyl until it's worn out. In mechanical or hydraulic press machines. A stamper for each side of the vinyl, A and B, is being clamped into the pressing machine. Vinyl granules are placed in the form of a puck, also called vinyl cake, with the labels in the middle between the two stampers and pressed together with high temperature and force. Overlapping material gets removed and the vinyl is ready for cooling. In a few minutes, a large number of vinyl copies can be produced.

In the vinyl pressing phase, PVC pellets can be coloured and mixed to create different tones of the finished record. The entire process usually takes about 30 seconds per record and is fully automated. Once the records are perfectly trimmed, the first step starts again with a new lacquer fed into the stamper.


Additional information and sources:
Know the process of pressing vinyl records
The making of vinyl records
Production of phonograph records


Below find data showing the sales history for vinyl records:
Vinyl sales in America

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