Split README into topic documents

- README reduced to overview with linked document index - docs/equipment/pressing-line.md: fleet strategy, Newbilt plan, site reqs - docs/suppliers/vendor-landscape.md: researched vendor narratives - docs/sustainability.md: solar, zero-discharge water, materials - docs/worker-safety.md: training, clean rooms, PPE - docs/facility-security.md: access control, CCTV, archive/audio protection, fire and life safety, plant monitoring, Thai compliance anchors
2026-07-17 12:51:04 +07:00
1 parent 6281c5b223
commit 0a4f47a5cc
@@ -34,9 +34,8 @@ In-house galvanics (steps 3 and 4) removes the dependency on overseas stamper
 suppliers, a common bottleneck for pressing plants, and shortens turnaround
 for clients. Partnering with local carton manufacturers keeps packaging
 sourcing close to the plant, in line with the local-sourcing preference for
-materials. The current planning documents cover the pressing line (steps 5
+materials. The pressing line is documented in detail; equipment, partners,
-and 6) in detail; equipment, partners, and budgets for the other steps are
+and budgets for the other steps are open planning items.
 open planning items.
 ## Project Status
@@ -50,225 +49,47 @@ open planning items.
 - A collaboration with [Resurrec](https://www.resurrec.com/) is under
  discussion.
-## Pressing Line: Equipment Plan
+## Planning Documents
-The target press fleet is a **50/50 split between fully automated and
+The detail lives in dedicated documents:
 semi-automatic presses**: automated presses for standard production volume,
 and semi-automatic presses for splatter and other color effects, special
 editions, and small runs, where an operator working the mold directly is an
 advantage rather than a cost. The semi-automatic side is covered by the
 Newbilt evaluation below; a fully automated press line is an open
 procurement item.
-The core semi-automatic machinery under evaluation comes from
+- [Pressing line equipment plan](docs/equipment/pressing-line.md): the
-**Newbilt machinery GmbH** (Alsdorf, Germany):
+  50/50 automated/semi-automatic fleet strategy, the Newbilt system under
-
+  evaluation (≈ €200,500 quoted scope), and site requirements
- **Newbilt Single 2.1 system**: one VEX 50 extruder feeding one HRP 12
+- [Vendor landscape](docs/suppliers/vendor-landscape.md): researched
-  hydraulic press (~150 t press force), pressing 12" records at 140 or 180 g
+  candidates for mastering and cutting (Agnew Analog), galvanics equipment
-  with a Newbilt book mold set. A Vario trimmer handles 12" cuttings, with
+  (Plating Power / Digital Matrix), stamper preparation (Sibert), bridge
-  a 7"/10" upgrade path.
+  stamper service (Stamper Discs), and automated presses (Pheenix Alpha)
- **Duplex upgrade path**: the hydraulic aggregate is already sized for a
+- [Equipment needs and supplier map](docs/suppliers/equipment-suppliers.md):
-  second press, and an additional press and extruder are quoted options, so
+  the full needs list per production step with supplier tables and contacts
-  the plant can scale from Single to Duplex without replacing infrastructure.
+- [Sustainability](docs/sustainability.md): the solar installation (Deye
- **Supporting equipment**: label dry oven, shrink wrapper, PVC grinder
+  inverters, 271 kWh Gobel Power battery stack), the zero contaminated water
-  (scrap feeds back as the ~20% recycled share of the feedstock), 7" center
+  commitment, and the materials strategy
-  label punch, buffer spindles and separator plates.
+- [Worker safety](docs/worker-safety.md): safety training, galvanics clean
-
+  rooms and decontamination, PPE
-The June 2024 Newbilt quotation totals **≈ €200,500** including freight from
+- [Facility security and site systems](docs/facility-security.md): access
-Alsdorf to Thailand and seaworthy packaging. Two major utility systems are
+  control, CCTV, archive and audio protection, fire and life safety, plant
-deliberately excluded and will be **sourced and installed locally in
+  monitoring, Thai compliance anchors
 Thailand**: a ~400 kg/h steam generator (with water treatment) and a ~250 kW
 cooling water system. The quotation has passed its validity date and will need
 re-confirmation before ordering.
 Site planning for the semi-automatic line works from Newbilt's Duplex
 requirements: roughly 200 m² of production floor, 32 kVA connected
 electrical load, saturated steam at 10 bar,
 and compressed air and cooling water circuits, plus side rooms for materials,
 compressor, chiller, and finished goods.
 ## Vendor Landscape
 Research on candidate vendors for the rest of the chain (from vendor sites
 and trade press; capabilities are claims until quotes and visits verify
 them). Pricing is unpublished across the board: every one of these is a
 quote-on-request conversation.
 ### Mastering and cutting: Agnew Analog (Greece)
 [Agnew Analog Reference Instruments](https://agnewanalog.com/) builds the
 **Type 612 disk mastering lathe** (unveiled 2023, billed in the trade press
 as the first all-new lacquer cutting lathe since the mid-1960s) and the
 companion Type 602 stereo cutter head, sold turnkey or as components. Bespoke,
 low-volume manufacturing by J. I. Agnew, so expect long build times. The
 lathe is only the platform: a working cutting room additionally needs cutter
 amplifiers, a mastering console, a preview/pitch-automation solution, vacuum
 and swarf handling, plus lacquer blanks and styli as consumables.
 ### Silvering and electroforming equipment: Plating Power / Digital Matrix (USA)
 [Plating Power](https://www.platingpower.com/) is the vinyl brand of Digital
 Matrix Corporation (Farmingdale, NY), the dominant turnkey vendor for vinyl
 galvanics. Their line covers silvering (VLSS station), nickel pre-plate
 (VLPP), production electroforming (VLFP 2/4/6-cell system), and
 electro-clean/passivation (EC-1000), all built for clean-room use with fume
 extraction hookups. Two gaps matter for this project: they supply **no
 closed-loop water treatment or metal recovery** (a separate industrial
 water-treatment vendor must deliver the zero-discharge system; the
 zero-discharge plating room at Gotta Groove Records in Ohio, built around a
 wastewater evaporator, is the reference model), and no stamper
 punching/finishing equipment (see Sibert below). No Southeast Asia
 distributor; contact is via the US factory or their Japan/Korea distributors.
 ### Stamper preparation: Sibert Instruments (UK)
 [Sibert Instruments](https://www.sibert.co.uk/) (Hampshire, in this niche
 since the early 1970s) makes the machines that turn a raw electroformed
 nickel shell into a press-ready stamper: the VSP center punch, VSF
 back-finisher, and VSC coiner (trim and form in one pass). One-off capital
 equipment filling exactly the gap between the plating line and the presses.
 ### Stamper service, as a bridge: Stamper Discs (UK)
 [Stamper Discs](https://www.stamperdiscs.com/) (Sheffield, founded 2018,
 family-run) is a trade galvanics service: send lacquers or DMM masters, get
 back press-ready 1-step or 3-step stampers in 7"/10"/12", explicitly made to
 fit Viryl, Toolex, and **Newbilt** molds. They ship to 30+ countries and can
 broker lacquer cutting through European partners. Natural role for CNX
 Vinyl: stamper supplier while the in-house galvanics line is being built,
 then overflow capacity and a quality benchmark. Watch-outs: a small
 single-site operation, no documented Asia customers yet, and two
 international freight legs per job.
 ### Fully automated presses: Pheenix Alpha (Sweden)
 [Pheenix Alpha](https://www.pheenixalpha.com/) (Solna) is the direct
 successor of Toolex Alpha, founded in 2006 by former Toolex staff. Their
 **AD12** is the continuation of the original 1977 fully automatic press:
 24 to 26 second cycle (roughly 140 records per hour), one operator running
 up to four presses, 7"/10"/12" up to 200 g, about 3.25 m² per press. Each press has 25 kW installed electrical power and
 consumes per cycle roughly 1.2 kg of steam, 12.5 L of chilled water in a
 closed platen circuit (compatible with the zero-discharge goal), and
 compressed air. Deepgrooves in the Netherlands runs its AD12 steam from
 wood-fired biomass boilers, a working precedent for the renewable-steam
 question. Pheenix also offers the **AD12 Manual**, a semi-automatic press on
 the same platform aimed at splatter and short runs, which makes them a
 possible single-vendor alternative covering both halves of the 50/50 fleet;
 that option should be weighed against the Newbilt plan on price, spares, and
 support.
 ## Sustainability
 Two commitments are fixed design requirements for this plant, not aspirations
 to be traded away during engineering: run on as much renewable energy as
 possible, and discharge no contaminated water. Both are decisions we can
 actually make, because the two biggest utility systems (steam and cooling)
 are explicitly excluded from the Newbilt scope and will be sourced and
 installed locally in Thailand. That gives us a free hand to spec them green
 from day one.
 ### Renewable energy: large solar installation
 The pressing machinery itself is a modest electrical load: 32 kVA connected,
 ~21 kW average for a full Duplex line. The real energy demand sits in the
 utilities around it, above all the steam generator (400 kg/h saturated steam
 at 10 bar / 180 °C) and the 250 kW cooling system.
 - A large rooftop/ground PV installation is planned. Northern Thailand's solar
  irradiance is favorable, and daytime-heavy production shifts align well with
  PV output.
 - The chosen hardware direction: multiple large **Deye** three-phase hybrid
  inverters (30 to 80 kW class, parallelable up to 10 units) paired with a
  **Gobel Power** high-voltage LiFePO4 battery stack at **271 kWh** (15
  stacked 18 kWh packs, LFP 314 Ah cells, rated 8000+ cycles). Deye is an
  officially supported protocol on the Gobel BMS, and Deye has established
  Thai distribution. Two engineering checks are open: matching the battery
  rack's DC voltage window to the specific Deye model (a full 15-pack rack
  can exceed the 800 V window of the smaller Deye series), and obtaining
  Gobel's safety certifications (not published) for a Thai commercial
  install. At 271 kWh the stack is a peak-shaving and ride-through buffer,
  not full off-grid autonomy, against loads like the 250 kW cooling system.
 - The machine load and cooling system are straightforward PV targets.
 - Steam is the open engineering question. Options under evaluation include an
  electric boiler (maximizes the solar share), a biomass boiler (locally
  abundant fuel), and solar-thermal pre-heating of boiler feedwater. No
  technology choice has been made yet; it will be driven by honest numbers on
  load profiles, storage, and grid backup, not by what sounds greenest.
 - System sizing (kWp, storage, grid-connection model) is open until the site
  is chosen.
 ### Zero contaminated water
 The reference process schematic shows a conventional open "dirty water"
 cooling loop. We will not build it that way.
 - Cooling (up to 250 kW, 220 l/min peak, roughly 98% of it mold cooling) will
  run as a closed loop with a cooling tower/chiller, so process water is
  recirculated rather than discharged.
 - Steam condensate will be recovered and returned to the treated feedwater
  cycle instead of being dumped.
 - The planned in-house galvanics line (silvering and stamper electroforming)
  involves plating chemistry: silver solutions and nickel baths. This is the
  hardest part of the zero-discharge commitment. Rinse water will need
  closed-loop treatment and metal recovery, designed in from the start rather
  than retrofitted.
 - Solvent handling (flagged in the site requirements) will be contained and
  disposed of as controlled waste, never via wastewater.
 - Target: no process-water discharge to the local environment. Detailed water
  balance and treatment design are pending site selection.
 ### Materials
 The plant design already includes a PVC recycling loop: an in-house grinder
 returns trimmings and rejects to the extruder, with the standard feed mix at
 80% virgin / 20% recycled compound. Record scrap becomes feedstock, not
 landfill.
 For the virgin compound itself, the preference is **local (Thai/regional)
 PVC sourcing if the quality meets vinyl-record specifications**. The current
 supplier list (2021) is almost entirely European, with one US option;
 qualifying a
 local compound would cut shipping distance, cost, and the carbon footprint of
 the feedstock. European suppliers remain the fallback where quality demands
 it.
 ## Worker Safety
 Worker safety is a founding priority, on equal footing with the environmental
 commitments:
 - **Safety training**: proper, structured training for all operators and
  maintenance staff, starting with the vendor-led commissioning training and
  extending into an ongoing in-house program. The pressing line combines
  hydraulics (~180 bar), saturated steam (10 bar / 180 °C), and hot PVC, and
  every one of these demands trained, deliberate handling.
 - **Clean rooms for galvanics**: silvering and stamper electroforming will
  run in dedicated clean rooms with controlled access, proper ventilation and
  exhaust, and decontamination procedures for people and equipment leaving
  the area. Plating chemistry stays inside its containment.
 - **Personal protective equipment**: appropriate PPE (overalls, gloves,
  goggles, and process-specific protection) is mandatory per work area, in
  line with the equipment vendor's site requirements (exhaust work benches,
  fire protection) and local regulations.
 Safety infrastructure (training program, clean-room specification,
 decontamination workflow) will be planned alongside the equipment, not after
 it.
 ## Repository Layout
 ```
 docs/
-├── consulting/   Consultancy proposals and overviews
+├── consulting/            Consultancy proposals and overviews
 ├── equipment/
-│   └── newbilt/  Offers, site requirements, process schematic, service rates
+│   ├── newbilt/           Offers, site requirements, process schematic,
-├── finance/      Project cost overviews
+│   │                      service rates (vendor PDFs)
-└── suppliers/    Supplier contacts and the equipment supplier map
+│   └── pressing-line.md   Press fleet strategy and equipment plan
 ├── finance/               Project cost overviews
 ├── suppliers/             Supplier contacts, vendor landscape, supplier map
 ├── facility-security.md   Security, fire and life safety, compliance
 ├── sustainability.md      Energy, water, materials commitments
 └── worker-safety.md       Training, clean rooms, PPE
 ```
-Documents are primary sources (vendor PDFs and spreadsheets) and reflect the
+Vendor PDFs and spreadsheets are primary sources and reflect the state of
-state of negotiations at their file dates. Treat prices and lead times as
+negotiations at their file dates. Treat prices and lead times as snapshots,
-snapshots, not commitments.
+not commitments.
 ## Roadmap for This Repo
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
 # Pressing Line: Equipment Plan
 The target press fleet is a **50/50 split between fully automated and
 semi-automatic presses**: automated presses for standard production volume,
 and semi-automatic presses for splatter and other color effects, special
 editions, and small runs, where an operator working the mold directly is an
 advantage rather than a cost. The semi-automatic side is covered by the
 Newbilt evaluation below; a fully automated press line is an open
 procurement item (see the [vendor landscape](../suppliers/vendor-landscape.md)
 for the Pheenix Alpha candidate).
 ## Semi-automatic line: Newbilt
 The core semi-automatic machinery under evaluation comes from
 **Newbilt machinery GmbH** (Alsdorf, Germany):
 - **Newbilt Single 2.1 system**: one VEX 50 extruder feeding one HRP 12
  hydraulic press (~150 t press force), pressing 12" records at 140 or 180 g
  with a Newbilt book mold set. A Vario trimmer handles 12" cuttings, with
  a 7"/10" upgrade path.
 - **Duplex upgrade path**: the hydraulic aggregate is already sized for a
  second press, and an additional press and extruder are quoted options, so
  the plant can scale from Single to Duplex without replacing infrastructure.
 - **Supporting equipment**: label dry oven, shrink wrapper, PVC grinder
  (scrap feeds back as the ~20% recycled share of the feedstock), 7" center
  label punch, buffer spindles and separator plates.
 The June 2024 Newbilt quotation totals **≈ €200,500** including freight from
 Alsdorf to Thailand and seaworthy packaging. Two major utility systems are
 deliberately excluded and will be **sourced and installed locally in
 Thailand**: a ~400 kg/h steam generator (with water treatment) and a ~250 kW
 cooling water system. The quotation has passed its validity date and will need
 re-confirmation before ordering.
 ## Site requirements
 Site planning for the semi-automatic line works from Newbilt's Duplex
 requirements: roughly 200 m² of production floor, 32 kVA connected
 electrical load, saturated steam at 10 bar, and compressed air and cooling
 water circuits, plus side rooms for materials, compressor, chiller, and
 finished goods.
 Source documents live in [`newbilt/`](newbilt/): the budgetary offer, the
 Duplex site requirements, the process schematic, and the service rate card.
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
 # Facility: Security and Site Systems
 What the plant needs beyond the production machinery. Access control and
 CCTV are set requirements; the rest of this list is what a plant of this
 profile definitely needs, to be refined during site design.
 ## Physical security
 - **Access control**: zoned, not just at the gate. Minimum zones: general
  production, galvanics clean room (controlled access is already a safety
  requirement), chemical storage, master/stamper archive, server/IT room,
  finished goods and shipping. Badge or biometric, with logs.
 - **CCTV**: entrances, perimeter, loading dock, production floor, chemical
  storage, archive. Retention policy to be defined; Thai PDPA (personal data
  protection) applies to camera footage of staff and visitors.
 - **Intrusion alarm** with monitoring, covering off-hours.
 - **Perimeter and lighting**: fencing appropriate to the site, lit
  approaches and parking.
 - **Visitor management**: sign-in, escort rules, PPE issue at entry, no
  unaccompanied access to production or galvanics.
 ## Protecting the irreplaceable
 - **Master and stamper archive**: fathers and mothers are unique metal
  parts; a destroyed father can mean re-cutting and re-plating a release.
  The archive room needs fire-rated construction or safes, climate control,
  access logging, and an off-site strategy for the most critical masters.
 - **Client audio**: pre-release music is a high-value leak target, and
  labels ask about it before they send masters. Isolated storage for client
  files, encrypted transfer and at-rest storage, strict need-to-know access,
  and a written policy the sales team can show clients.
 - **Chemical inventory**: silver nitrate is valuable and regulated; nickel
  salts are hazardous. Locked storage, inventory tracking, and controlled
  issue to the galvanics team.
 ## Fire and life safety
 - **Fire detection and alarm** throughout; suppression matched to each zone
  (hot PVC and hydraulic oil in pressing, chemistry in galvanics, paper and
  cartons in packaging/finished goods, and the boiler room).
 - **Boiler room safety**: the steam generator (10 bar, 180 °C) needs its own
  room, safety valves and interlocks, and inspection per Thai boiler
  regulations (Department of Industrial Works requirements, licensed boiler
  operator).
 - **Emergency equipment in galvanics**: eyewash stations and emergency
  shower at the plating line, spill kits, and neutralizing agents.
 - **Emergency lighting, marked exits, assembly point**, and first-aid
  coverage on every shift.
 ## Plant systems and monitoring
 - **Utility monitoring and interlocks**: fume-extraction interlocks on the
  galvanics line (no extraction, no plating), steam and compressed-air
  pressure monitoring, leak detection, and safe-shutdown sequences.
 - **UPS and controlled shutdown** for the IT room, access control, alarms,
  and the press PLCs (a power cut mid-cycle should never leave a press in an
  unsafe state; the battery stack can carry critical loads).
 - **Lightning protection and grounding**: northern Thailand has intense
  storm seasons; the PV array, steel structures, and electronics all need a
  proper LPS and earthing design.
 - **Environmental monitoring**: temperature and humidity logging in
  production (the process spec calls for 20-26 °C, 35-60% RH), the archive,
  and the clean room.
 ## Compliance anchors (Thailand)
 - Factory license (Ror.Ngor. 4) and Department of Industrial Works
  requirements for the machinery classes and chemical quantities involved
 - Boiler registration and licensed operator requirements
 - Hazardous substance registration for the plating chemistry
 - PDPA compliance for CCTV and personnel data
 - Local fire codes and building permits during construction
 All of this belongs in the site design brief, so contractors quote it from
 day one rather than retrofitting it.
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
 # Vendor Landscape
 Research on candidate vendors for the production chain beyond the Newbilt
 pressing line (from vendor sites and trade press; capabilities are claims
 until quotes and visits verify them). Pricing is unpublished across the
 board: every one of these is a quote-on-request conversation.
 The tabular needs-and-suppliers map lives in
 [`equipment-suppliers.md`](equipment-suppliers.md); this document is the
 narrative per vendor.
 ## Mastering and cutting: Agnew Analog (Greece)
 [Agnew Analog Reference Instruments](https://agnewanalog.com/) builds the
 **Type 612 disk mastering lathe** (unveiled 2023, billed in the trade press
 as the first all-new lacquer cutting lathe since the mid-1960s) and the
 companion Type 602 stereo cutter head, sold turnkey or as components. Bespoke,
 low-volume manufacturing by J. I. Agnew, so expect long build times. The
 lathe is only the platform: a working cutting room additionally needs cutter
 amplifiers, a mastering console, a preview/pitch-automation solution, vacuum
 and swarf handling, plus lacquer blanks and styli as consumables.
 ## Silvering and electroforming equipment: Plating Power / Digital Matrix (USA)
 [Plating Power](https://www.platingpower.com/) is the vinyl brand of Digital
 Matrix Corporation (Farmingdale, NY), the dominant turnkey vendor for vinyl
 galvanics. Their line covers silvering (VLSS station), nickel pre-plate
 (VLPP), production electroforming (VLFP 2/4/6-cell system), and
 electro-clean/passivation (EC-1000), all built for clean-room use with fume
 extraction hookups. Two gaps matter for this project: they supply **no
 closed-loop water treatment or metal recovery** (a separate industrial
 water-treatment vendor must deliver the zero-discharge system; the
 zero-discharge plating room at Gotta Groove Records in Ohio, built around a
 wastewater evaporator, is the reference model), and no stamper
 punching/finishing equipment (see Sibert below). No Southeast Asia
 distributor; contact is via the US factory or their Japan/Korea distributors.
 ## Stamper preparation: Sibert Instruments (UK)
 [Sibert Instruments](https://www.sibert.co.uk/) (Hampshire, in this niche
 since the early 1970s) makes the machines that turn a raw electroformed
 nickel shell into a press-ready stamper: the VSP center punch, VSF
 back-finisher, and VSC coiner (trim and form in one pass). One-off capital
 equipment filling exactly the gap between the plating line and the presses.
 ## Stamper service, as a bridge: Stamper Discs (UK)
 [Stamper Discs](https://www.stamperdiscs.com/) (Sheffield, founded 2018,
 family-run) is a trade galvanics service: send lacquers or DMM masters, get
 back press-ready 1-step or 3-step stampers in 7"/10"/12", explicitly made to
 fit Viryl, Toolex, and **Newbilt** molds. They ship to 30+ countries and can
 broker lacquer cutting through European partners. Natural role for CNX
 Vinyl: stamper supplier while the in-house galvanics line is being built,
 then overflow capacity and a quality benchmark. Watch-outs: a small
 single-site operation, no documented Asia customers yet, and two
 international freight legs per job.
 ## Fully automated presses: Pheenix Alpha (Sweden)
 [Pheenix Alpha](https://www.pheenixalpha.com/) (Solna) is the direct
 successor of Toolex Alpha, founded in 2006 by former Toolex staff. Their
 **AD12** is the continuation of the original 1977 fully automatic press:
 24 to 26 second cycle (roughly 140 records per hour), one operator running
 up to four presses, 7"/10"/12" up to 200 g, about 3.25 m² per press. Each
 press has 25 kW installed electrical power and consumes per cycle roughly
 1.2 kg of steam, 12.5 L of chilled water in a closed platen circuit
 (compatible with the zero-discharge goal), and compressed air. Deepgrooves
 in the Netherlands runs its AD12 steam from wood-fired biomass boilers, a
 working precedent for the renewable-steam question. Pheenix also offers the
 **AD12 Manual**, a semi-automatic press on the same platform aimed at
 splatter and short runs, which makes them a possible single-vendor
 alternative covering both halves of the 50/50 fleet; that option should be
 weighed against the Newbilt plan on price, spares, and support.
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
 # Sustainability
 Two commitments are fixed design requirements for this plant, not aspirations
 to be traded away during engineering: run on as much renewable energy as
 possible, and discharge no contaminated water. Both are decisions we can
 actually make, because the two biggest utility systems (steam and cooling)
 are explicitly excluded from the Newbilt scope and will be sourced and
 installed locally in Thailand. That gives us a free hand to spec them green
 from day one.
 ## Renewable energy: large solar installation
 The pressing machinery itself is a modest electrical load: 32 kVA connected,
 ~21 kW average for a full Duplex line. The real energy demand sits in the
 utilities around it, above all the steam generator (400 kg/h saturated steam
 at 10 bar / 180 °C) and the 250 kW cooling system.
 - A large rooftop/ground PV installation is planned. Northern Thailand's solar
  irradiance is favorable, and daytime-heavy production shifts align well with
  PV output.
 - The chosen hardware direction: multiple large **Deye** three-phase hybrid
  inverters (30 to 80 kW class, parallelable up to 10 units) paired with a
  **Gobel Power** high-voltage LiFePO4 battery stack at **271 kWh** (15
  stacked 18 kWh packs, LFP 314 Ah cells, rated 8000+ cycles). Deye is an
  officially supported protocol on the Gobel BMS, and Deye has established
  Thai distribution. Two engineering checks are open: matching the battery
  rack's DC voltage window to the specific Deye model (a full 15-pack rack
  can exceed the 800 V window of the smaller Deye series), and obtaining
  Gobel's safety certifications (not published) for a Thai commercial
  install. At 271 kWh the stack is a peak-shaving and ride-through buffer,
  not full off-grid autonomy, against loads like the 250 kW cooling system.
 - The machine load and cooling system are straightforward PV targets.
 - Steam is the open engineering question. Options under evaluation include an
  electric boiler (maximizes the solar share), a biomass boiler (locally
  abundant fuel), and solar-thermal pre-heating of boiler feedwater. No
  technology choice has been made yet; it will be driven by honest numbers on
  load profiles, storage, and grid backup, not by what sounds greenest.
 - System sizing (kWp, storage, grid-connection model) is open until the site
  is chosen.
 ## Zero contaminated water
 The reference process schematic shows a conventional open "dirty water"
 cooling loop. We will not build it that way.
 - Cooling (up to 250 kW, 220 l/min peak, roughly 98% of it mold cooling) will
  run as a closed loop with a cooling tower/chiller, so process water is
  recirculated rather than discharged.
 - Steam condensate will be recovered and returned to the treated feedwater
  cycle instead of being dumped.
 - The planned in-house galvanics line (silvering and stamper electroforming)
  involves plating chemistry: silver solutions and nickel baths. This is the
  hardest part of the zero-discharge commitment. Rinse water will need
  closed-loop treatment and metal recovery, designed in from the start rather
  than retrofitted.
 - Solvent handling (flagged in the site requirements) will be contained and
  disposed of as controlled waste, never via wastewater.
 - Target: no process-water discharge to the local environment. Detailed water
  balance and treatment design are pending site selection.
 ## Materials
 The plant design already includes a PVC recycling loop: an in-house grinder
 returns trimmings and rejects to the extruder, with the standard feed mix at
 80% virgin / 20% recycled compound. Record scrap becomes feedstock, not
 landfill.
 For the virgin compound itself, the preference is **local (Thai/regional)
 PVC sourcing if the quality meets vinyl-record specifications**. The current
 supplier list (2021) is almost entirely European, with one US option;
 qualifying a local compound would cut shipping distance, cost, and the
 carbon footprint of the feedstock. European suppliers remain the fallback
 where quality demands it.
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
 # Worker Safety
 Worker safety is a founding priority, on equal footing with the environmental
 commitments:
 - **Safety training**: proper, structured training for all operators and
  maintenance staff, starting with the vendor-led commissioning training and
  extending into an ongoing in-house program. The pressing line combines
  hydraulics (~180 bar), saturated steam (10 bar / 180 °C), and hot PVC, and
  every one of these demands trained, deliberate handling.
 - **Clean rooms for galvanics**: silvering and stamper electroforming will
  run in dedicated clean rooms with controlled access, proper ventilation and
  exhaust, and decontamination procedures for people and equipment leaving
  the area. Plating chemistry stays inside its containment.
 - **Personal protective equipment**: appropriate PPE (overalls, gloves,
  goggles, and process-specific protection) is mandatory per work area, in
  line with the equipment vendor's site requirements (exhaust work benches,
  fire protection) and local regulations.
 Safety infrastructure (training program, clean-room specification,
 decontamination workflow) will be planned alongside the equipment, not after
 it.