Whether you’d like a large quantity of extravagant boxsets or a small run of white labels, Well Tempered can remove the pressure and complexity of vinyl manufacturing, and handle the process for you. We offer an extremely efficient service at very competitive prices.

Vinyl Manufacture is a time consuming and highly technical procedure. Well Tempered is at the top of the list of vinyl manufacturers world wide.

Processing:
Through a very complicated and delicate process, the lacquer is carefully cleaned and washed in preparation for silvering. A sliver nitrate is then sprayed onto the lacquer, creating a metal coating and making it ready for electroplating.

The silver disc is submerged in a solution of nickel sulphamate electrolyte for a period of approximately ninety minutes. The nickel is deposited onto the lacquer through the electroplating procedure creating a negative which can then be separated from the original disc.

The negative is then cleaned and coated with a passivator. The electroplating procedure is repeated with the negative in order to create a new positive. This positive is an exact copy of the original lacquer but made from nickel metal, this positive is also known as the metalwork.

From the metalwork the stampers can be made. These are negatives, so once again have to be produced through electroplating as before. Stampers can be used to create approximately one thousand records until it is worn out or split. A new stamper has to then be made from the positive.

Test Presses:
Test Presses are then created and sent for approval. These must be checked carefully for audio quality, skips, pops and crackles, and surface noise. It is necessary to do this using a good quality record player and stylus.

Vinyl Pressing:
After separation, the stamper is prepared and fixed onto the press. The mechanical system drops a bottom centre label into place onto the bottom stamper, followed by the vinyl biscuit or ‘cake’, and then finally the top label. The stampers are then quickly heated with steam and then pressed together and the vinyl squeezed into shape. A blade then swings round and shaves off the excess vinyl, while the stampers are cooled using cold water.

Coloured Vinyl
The vinyl compound starts off clear, a polycarbonate is added which colours the vinyl black. It is this additive that reduces the noise floor level. A pressing of coloured vinyl requires a dye and uses less polycarbonate resulting in slightly noisier floor level. As a simple rule, the lighter the colour of the vinyl the noisier the record.

Packaging
Many pressing plants have automated sleeving machines, though many prefer to sleeve the product manually. Manual sleeving enables the plant to give that extra added quality control, and make sure that no defective records are shipped to the customer.