Vinyl Presents, based in Portsmouth, is looking to shake up the vinyl record market with its new factory in Hampshire, as it rides the vinyl revival.
In 2016 market demand for vinyl in the UK was over 1,700,000 records per month, with the majority of pressing plants overseas. Vinyl Presents’ production facility in Victory Trading Estate, Portsmouth started production in August and its order books are bulging.
Daren Fudge, Vinyl Presents’ Director, said: “Our plan is to bring record manufacture home to the UK. A huge percentage of vinyl is currently pressed overseas which is a trend we want to reverse. Our philosophy is simple - we believe we can put the UK back on the map as a leading vinyl producer by manufacturing a high-quality product backed up with great customer care.”
Record manufacture is a highly technical process and one in which quality is key. Vinyl Presents’ factory uses cutting edge pressing technology and an innovative temperature control system to maximise efficiency and quality, enabling each machine to produce two records every minute.
Aqua Cooling Solutions designed and installed its bespoke cooling system, as well as installing a steam heating system designed by others which works in-conjunction with the pressing machinery. The process starts with the raw vinyl material being melted before being passed to the pressing plates that have metal stampers containing the music installed on each plate. The pressing plates are then heated with steam and squeeze the vinyl into shape and press the music onto the vinyl, chilled water quickly cools the plates so that the vinyl retains the required ‘record’ shape. The excess vinyl is trimmed off and the records are automatically transported to cooling spindles ready for a night on the shelf before being hand sleeved and distributed to eagerly awaiting customers.
Daren Fudge, Vinyl Presents
Aqua Cooling’s temperature control system is at the heart of the pressing process. Equipment for the cooling system supplied included an, air cooled chiller, plate heat exchanger, inverter, pump and tank. They also installed and commissioned the equipment. Vinyl Presents also requested Aqua Cooling complete the installation of the steam system equipment and piping as well as the compressed air pipework.
Fudge said: “From the moment our engineer at Vinyl Presents first spoke to Aqua Cooling they filled us with confidence that they would be the right company to help complete our bespoke project. Their experienced team ensured the project was designed with efficiency and future expansion in mind, the installation was executed on time, on budget and the construction and commissioning activities were completed to an exceptionally high standard. We are delighted with the system performance and will continue to call upon their services to provide technical support and to help us with our future expansion.”
From initially identifying a gap in the market place, Vinyl Presents were up and running within a year and their rapid growth shows no sign of slowing. Aqua Cooling have designed the system pipework alongside Vinyl Presents’ own Process Design Engineer with future expansion in mind. The factory can triple the size of their current production when desired simply by adding additional presses and cooling equipment.
The British Phonographic Industry statistics show the vinyl market has grown again in 2017, for the ninth year in succession.
Caption to picture - Daren Fudge, Vinyl Presents’ Director & CEO