Meet the Robot that Presses Vinyl in 30 Seconds

♫ Now darling I am not afraid

[Narrator] We've actually figured out a way

to quantify record quality.

Back in the day it was impossible to do that.

Now we can take signal to noise ratio

of the electrical signal off the records.

We can count pops and clicks and sound artifacts.

♫ Ain't gonna hurt you

[Narrator] Just because something's older

doesn't necessarily make it inferior.

The only difference you're going to find from our records

to a record from the 1970s is our records

are a little bit flatter, and sound a little bit better.

♫ I will never do you wrong

[Narrator] We took the traditional process

of making records, and we've modernized it.

The biggest thing that we thought

was exciting was where the automation

parts of the machine that allowed one technician

to run up to four warm temp presses.

Every single possible variable is controllable

and programmable from our interface.

It allows the operator monitor

every single portion of the process.

We're offering what is being proved

is an average of one vinyl press per 30 seconds

with an opportunity with the right environment

to get down to about 22 seconds.

We get a higher yield off the press for a few reasons.

We've improved the consistency of the melt

by re-engineering the screw and the extruder.

We've improved the way the puck or the pre-mold

is transported into the hydraulic ram.

That's more of a solid foundation.

That was a traditional pain point

of some of the older presses.

To transfer it to the cutting station,

we use a vacuum system to pick the mold up

from the label instead of using

a traditional means of picking up the record

by the flashing.

Right now we have two machines

and they're going to be able to produce

what about six to eight of the old machines

were able to produce.

In the old machines there's typically

a 30 to 40% yield loss.

The Warm Tone record press is under 1%.

Meaning if you're making 1,000 records

instead of recycling 300 or 400 of those records,

you can actually deliver those to the customer

which just makes the timing much, much faster,,

makes it less expensive for both

the artist and of course for us as manufacturers.

I think this is just such an important event

that's happening that should really

expand and excite the artist community.

This is an opportunity to really

get the sound that they're asking for.

As uptick in vinyl sales have started,

what we've seen is there's been

some really healthy margins for the independent artist

so we just saw it as a great opportunity

to really tie the local scene

and the independent music scene to this really big need

which is vinyl records, which we've seen

from our end as one of the only ways

that an independent musician can really

make money in the digital space.

Now they can actually sell their music again

rather than just renting it.

(upbeat music)