New auto pressing machines comparison

[klikli_ska]

Hi, nice to meet y'all.

I operate a WarmTone in daily production and have had experience with Toolex Alpha and SMT presses in other plants. I have never tried the Pheenix Alpha or Newbilt hands on so I can't comment on their mechanical operation. As you will tell I'm kind of a WT fanboy...

Any other questions about the WT let me know and I'll try to help.

Thanks for all your info, llaryllama!! Is very good to read all the details your are talking about. About stampers changeover, as you have SMT experience, what do you think? Thanks in advance!

[llary]

So what did you end up buying (if anything) and any thoughts?

[klikli_ska]

So what did you end up buying (if anything) and any thoughts?

Hi! We finally bought a Pheenix Alpha AD12. Very happy with it!!

[trendkiller]

Hello,

How are everyone's machines doing? Any new thoughts, revelations, problems, lessons learned, etc?

[greenvinylrecords]

Injection moulded records can be done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ19WovCQQ4&t=69s

and

www.greenvinylrecords.com

Injection moulded records have been tried in the 1970, but techniques and materials have been a lot improved a lot these 50 years.
The quality of the sound is great now, same or better than a regular vinyl records (depends on the stamper).

Also no steam is used, so more than 70% CO2 reduction.
Cycle time is down to 17 seconds now

[misjah]

Injection moulded records can be done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ19WovCQQ4&t=69s

and

www.greenvinylrecords.com

Injection moulded records have been tried in the 1970, but techniques and materials have been a lot improved a lot these 50 years.
The quality of the sound is great now, same or better than a regular vinyl records (depends on the stamper).

Also no steam is used, so more than 70% CO2 reduction.
Cycle time is down to 17 seconds now

4 years later and still 0 pressing plants using these....correct me if i'm wrong.

[llary]

I don't like to be negative, but I saw a 3 second clip at the end of that video of a terrible sounding off center record.

Sometimes the "cool factor" of a project means realistic concerns get brushed aside.

In my part of the world using steam is not a negative, natural gas is cheap and more environmentally friendly than using electric from coal power stations.

PVC is not really the worst material either, it's completely recyclable so there is no waste. I get kind of annoyed when companies push any plastic product as "green" - plastic is plastic, let's just be honest about it.

How much do these gigantic injection moulding systems cost? I'm guessing half a million dollars just to get a foot in the door? Plus the robotics, moulds and general expensive of doing something unknown and unproven.

Full marks for engineering skill, not so many marks for a feasible industrial product.

[untitledthe]

Cool development from Pheenix Alpha, an automated Picture Disc press;

https://youtu.be/Q0DVej3exyQ

[trendkiller]

That's a good write-up. To answer your question regarding spacer discs, as far as I know Toolex never did have such an option but perhaps others can chime in. Edit: Pheenix offers it as an option and the Germans make a spacer disc stacker for AD12, too. If everything is in order, you shouldn't really need them...

Hello Aussie,

I'm curious what you mean by " If everything is in order, you shouldn't really need them..." Spacers aren't needed? Then why does everyone use them? I'm just curious, no argument. Cheers.

[Aussie0zborn]

A lot of users of Pheenix Alpha presses don't use them and you'll note that they produce a perfectly consistent stack of of 100 evenly spaced records without sagging or dishing. The Alpha design also allows the record to cool while suspended in free air for a few seconds before being stacked.

This relies on the moulds being perfectly machined so that the outer label area and outer disc area are exactly the same thickness which in turn relies on the stampers having minimal TTV to maintain these dimensions. In such a case, the records are not going to sag (dish) as you get to the top of the stack of 100.

[trendkiller]

Thanks for that! I've wondered this for a while now. In all of the videos I've seen of the Pheenix AD12, no one is using spacers. I was assuming they had a stack of rejects! Haha! Glad I was wrong!