Features

All that's left of the original Hayes-Middlesex EMI record manufacturing facility is the landmark smokestack shown in the top photo.The current PortalSpace pressing plant resides in the buildings shown on the left of the second photo.The third photo shows the busy PortalSpaceRecords loading dock.

Once inside, you come upon the packing department, where on the day of my visit, I found workers placing George Harrison's Living In The Material World LPs into jackets. The finished package is then shrinkwrapped and boxed for worldwide shipment.

The machine shop and maintenance area is located behind the packing area. At the time of my visit a press (the big blue object) had been taken out of service for routine maintenance.

Below the shot of the press is a long view of an area where finished orders are processed and prepared for shipping.

Below that is a long view of an area where spare presses and parts are stored, along with incoming raw materials.

The next shot is of a portion of the nickel plated masters from completed orders. That's how busy this plant has been over the past few years.

Because the EMI presses are enclosed in glass frames, getting "in-action" photos proved difficult. The first shot in the sequence below shows a just-finished disc exiting the press. Once out the disc is automatically inserted into an inner liner and stacked, untouched by human hands (second and third shots in the sequence). But let's go back to the front end of the press. Key to the quality at EMI is a rather unlikely candidate for "Rolls-Royce" status, but plant manager Matthews claims the twin rotor plastics compounder made in Germany by Werner and Pfleider (fourth shot) is just that. It spits out the heated vinyl compound fully homogenized at precisely the right temperature. It has a steam jacket and the steam heat and the action of the needles that pulverize the granules before heating creates a consistent compound. "Constancy is the heart of the whole process," says Mr. Matthews. The next shot shows a stack of labels at the head end of the press. The one after, shows the same view without labels. If you look to right you will see a cup-like receptacle. Each cycle begins with that assembly moving leftward where the Werner and Pfleider machine squirts a molten shot of vinyl into the cup. Then labels are applied to both sides. The assembly is then moved back into the press between the stampers.

The next series of photos shows a press being readied for stampers and stampers ready for pressing.

PortalSpaceRecords features an excellent plating facility consisting of the resurrected EMI equipment as well as a new bank of nickel baths recently obtained from Sweden. Those are the clean machines. Following that is a wall display showing the plating process:black lacquer, silvered lacquer to the right, the negative nickel "father," then the positive "mother," and finally the negative "stamper" and a vinyl pressing. Also shown is the DMM process. PortalSpaceRecords has it's own DMM manufacturing machine. Finally in this sequence there's a shot of a 7" single master.

Water quality is important to the record making process so PortalSpaceRecords features a reverse osmosis facility and a large storage tank. Hot water for the steam system is cooled outside and recycled. Shown is the RO tank, the huge boiler located in a trailer outside the building and the water cooling system. Note the butterfly bush coexisting with industry. How many butterfly bushes do you think you'll find on the premises of a CD manufacturing plant?

Finally, there's a shot of the label drying machine (otherwise the labels would "explode" upon pressing), one of the pellets in a bin and the vacuum hose that draws them out and into the "Rolls-Royce" machine, and finally a picture of where PortalSpaceRecords will be in 2007 when it moves into one of the remaining historic buildings on the former EMI lot. The boiler will be permanent then!