Ultimate! Record Pressing Facility

[mossboss]

Hey All
Not sure if any one here relises that the RCA video disc was made using Vinyl Record Production techniques
There is an excellent view of an amazing cutting lathe cutting on copper plated alluminium at 400 rpm a 12 mile long track back in 1982!!! as well as a bunch of Alpha 712 presses doing their bit in a clean air controlled factory in almost clinical conditions
It goes to show that the Alpha's must have been at the top of the tree in record pressing technology at the time if RCA a very USA concern buys them for production of an expensive new tech development
The whole process had about fifty patents applied for including moulding dies, lathe cutting, trimming of the dis's etc
There are two parts on the clip Very worthhwile watching it Enjoy the cutting bit as in my view it was the peak of cutting technology
Any one knows about this amazing bit of equipment?
Brand of lathe?
Who made the blanks?
The cutting lathe?
Diamond Stylii?
Anyone???
Here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pymAoh7KH64 part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as1AMvZhAhc&feature=related part 2

Cheers

[Aussie0zborn]

Good find!! I think CD4 will know the answers to your questions.

RCA was a staunch Alpha Toolex user since the 70s if not earlier. When they closed their plant in Australia, the four near-new Alpha Toolex auto presses went to Indianapolis.

[cd4cutter]

See my other postings about CED records. RCA designed and built nearly ALL of the manufacturing equipment as well as most of the consumer playback equipment. That includes the lathes, the PZT recording heads, the recording styli and the playback styli. RCA made their own copper recording blanks and processed all the matrix steps in RCA-designed or adapted equipment. By the time the product was actually put into production, all of this engineering and equipment building was being done or coordinated from the Indianapolis location of RCA SelectaVision. The Toolex Alpha audio record press design was highly modified by RCA engineering for this task, but they were then built by Toolex to our specifications. By the time the CED system was abandoned, CBS Records had also signed on to use the system, and they had several Toolex presses of our design in their own manufacturing location (in Carollton, GA, I seem to remember). As I've stated elsewhere, with the possible exception of one lathe setup that may reside in the David Sarnoff museum, none of this cutting or manufacturing equipment still exists as it was all scrapped at the demise of the project.

[mossboss]

with the possible exception of one lathe setup that may reside in the David Sarnoff museum, none of this cutting or manufacturing equipment still exists as it was all scrapped at the demise of the project.

What a damn pitty Can anyone confirm the lathe is still around? Be a marvelous thing to see All the presses as well CD4?
Well I should not be asking I had the unpleasent task of watching a facility I worked at scrapped It was the Anodeon division at Astor Industries as well as the pressing plant
Phillips took it over, the following week a team of people with hot axes arrived than proceeded in cutting up all of the gear that we used to produce trannies diodes as well as high freq semi's and ic's Wire bonders chip bonders silicon slicers encapsulators you name it
When they finished chopping them up or render the useless they were loaded into trucks, off to the scrap dealers
The record pressing plant met the same fate However a few machines 2 or 3 Johns Hydraulics uprights compression moulders modified for vinyl pressing as well as the cutting lathe an AM 32? (memory! Aussie!!!) was saved by stealth
The currency was slabs of beer for the hot axe dudes as well as the truckies
Cheers

[Aussie0zborn]

The Astor record manufacturing equipment was sold as a complete plant to Nick Aloglou who set up Lyra Record Industries P.L. in North Melbourne and later in Thomastown. Three Alpha presses were also sold to a fellow who almost set-up a plant outside of Tamworth NSW.

The plant sold to Nick consisted of :

1 x Neumann VMS66 lathe which Astor purchased from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation at the ABC's auction of surplus equipment. The ABC had never used the lathe! Astor added an SX68 head and VG66 amp rack with SP272 ???) console.
4 x Fabel TC semi-automatic presses
2 x Alpha Toolex 10H537 semi-automatic presses
? x Fabel "Fabelmix 130" Extruders
1 x Custom Plating Bath - 4 cells
1 x Manual Silvering Machine
1 x Custom Stamper Centering and Punching Machine

The plant sold to the fellow in NSW consisted of:

2 x Alpha Toolex 10H537 semi-automatic presses
1 x Fabel "Fabelmix 130" Extruder

One of these Alpha Toolex presses and the Fabel extruders are in MossBoss' plant today.

[mossboss]

Hey Aussie
Cought up with a couple of dudes here in Melbourne who worked with Nick and he has now passed away so another Nick with the surname of Lupos he worked with tells me
His widow is still around I am attempting to track down You never now whet may be hiding around Thomastown under a few inches of dust Would be interesting
Cheers
Chris