cnx_vinyl/docs/site-candidates.md

Site Candidates

The site strategy is a long lease of raw land on which the purpose-built plant is constructed (business plan section 6.1, built from business-plan/build/). What any site has to offer is unchanged: ~4 rai minimum and 6 to 8 rai with expansion, truck access and turning, room for the cooling tower and a separated battery enclosure, a 500 to 1,000 kVA medium-voltage connection, a slab rated 3 t/m² and a frame able to carry the overhead crane (scale, crane, workshop and tours), factory permission for pressing with a steam boiler, and, for Phase 5, permission for an electroplating line (galvanics and stamper prep).

The three candidates

	Mueang Chi, Lamphun	Northern Region Industrial Estate, Lamphun	Payap University land, Chiang Mai
Status	Working candidate: the massing model, PV roof design and construction RFQ are sited here	Fallback	New lead (October 2026): the university approached the project and is interested in leasing land to us. The point it gave fails zoning (checked 14 October 2026); other Payap land not yet checked
Lessor	Private owner	IEAT	Payap University (private, non-profit, founded by the Foundation of the Church of Christ in Thailand)
Plot	5-0-66.5 rai, 18.4708 N, 98.9642 E, narrow and skewed	Leased estate plots	Point given: 18.7977 N, 99.0383 E; parcel boundary, size and title not yet known. The main (Mae Khao) campus is at 18.795 N, 99.033 E
Distance to Chiang Mai old city	~35 km	Lamphun valley	~5 km east, on the Chiang Mai–Lampang superhighway
Zoning for factory use	Unverified (agricultural land)	Industrial estate; licensing through the estate	At the point given: zone ย.7-1, very high density residential, record pressing not permitted (Chiang Mai city plan, 25 May 2026)
Galvanics effluent	Ours to permit; zero discharge	Shared central effluent treatment	Needs the lessor's consent on top of the permit
Neighbours	Agricultural	Industrial	A pharmaceutical facility under construction on the same land

Payap University (new lead, October 2026)

What we know from the conversation: Payap University is interested in leasing land to the project, and a pharmaceutical facility is under construction on the same land. The plot, its size, the title, the term and the rent are not known yet.

Public facts. Payap's main campus, Mae Khao, is at 272 Moo 2, San Phranet, San Sai district, on the Chiang Mai–Lampang superhighway. The university bought it in 1974 as about 120 acres of low-lying land and has since grown it to about 275 acres (~700 rai) with purchases across the ring road (Payap's own history page). Its Faculty of Pharmacy put the construction of a cosmetics production facility and co-working space out to tender in July 2024, and the university has announced a centre for producing active compounds from cannabis and medicinal plants by bioreactor (RPAH) with an industry sponsor. Whether either of these is the pharmaceutical facility on the offered land is to be confirmed.

Zoning at the point Payap gave (checked 14 October 2026). The point 18.797678 N, 99.038272 E on the DPT land-use plan map lies in zone ย.7-1, very high density residential, of the Chiang Mai comprehensive city plan in force from 25 May 2026. The zone allows housing, government institutions, utilities and other uses, buildings up to 23 m, a floor area ratio of 6:1 and 70 % site coverage. It prohibits every factory under the Factory Act except the types listed in the plan's annex, and it prohibits warehouse and silo businesses. The annex, read for this zone:

• Type 107 (CD production; its definition names gramophone records and recorded tapes) is not permitted here. The plan permits it only in the low density residential, special industrial, agricultural land reform and rural and agricultural zones.
• Type 72 (radio, sound recording, record players and gramophone records) is allowed here only for modification or repair, not production.
• Plastics products and metal plating are not on this zone's list at all. What is listed is small trades: bakeries, printing, musical instruments, packing, repair shops.

So a record-pressing plant cannot get a factory licence at that point, whichever of these types the Department of Industrial Works applies. Caveats: a point query does not show the parcel's boundary, and a large campus parcel can cross zones; the DPT site says its data is preliminary and not a legal reference, so the provincial public works and town planning office confirms; and the pharmaceutical facility under construction may sit in another zone, hold another factory type, or predate the plan, which is worth asking. Because the same plan permits type 107 in its low density residential and rural and agricultural zones, other Payap land (the purchases across the ring road) is worth checking before the lead is dropped. Source record with the zone's full rules and annex: land-listings/payap.

Why it is worth pursuing.

• Location. About 5 km from the old city and 25 to 30 km nearer the team, customers and the airport than Mueang Chi. The visitor corridor, the artist platform and hiring all work better in town.
• A partner, not only a landlord. Payap also wants to build new student programmes with us in audio engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT and business administration; that strand has its own page, Payap partnership. Its Faculty of Pharmacy has analytical labs that could back the PVC material lab (quality automation), and a formal university collaboration is the kind of R&D and skills cooperation the BOI merit measures reward; confirm which measure applies.
• Production is already being built there. If the pharmaceutical facility has factory permission, the land may already have a path through licensing and a medium-voltage supply nearby. Shared infrastructure (MV connection, RO water, effluent treatment) is worth asking about.

What could rule it out (check in this order, before any design work):

1. Zoning. Failed at the point Payap gave (zone ย.7-1, above). For any other plot: its zone in the Chiang Mai comprehensive city plan and whether it allows a record-pressing factory with a steam boiler and, later, electroplating. A pharmaceutical or cosmetics plant and an electroplating line are different factory classes, so the neighbour's permit proves little. Ask the provincial public works and town planning office, as for Mueang Chi.
2. Can the university lease to a company? Title type (Chanote needed), university council approval, and whether campus land of a private higher-education institution carries restrictions on commercial leases. This is a question for Thai counsel, together with the lease terms the business plan already requires (registered 30-year lease with renewal, building ownership, mortgageable).
3. The pharmaceutical neighbour. A GMP facility is sensitive to dust, smoke and fumes. Ours: the boiler stack (biomass smoke next to a pharmaceutical plant in town would be a hard sell, which favours electric or LPG steam; see biomass), galvanics extraction, PVC extrusion fumes, press noise and truck traffic. Agree emission and buffer rules in the lease rather than after the first complaint.
4. Flooding. Payap describes the Mae Khao land as low-lying when bought. Check the plot against the 2024 flood extents; the design's floor, 1.2 m above ground for the loading docks, helps but is not a flood assessment.
5. Plot fit. Shape and size against the 60 × 25 m building, the detached utility yard and the phase 2 footprint (6 to 8 rai). The Payap scenario model below needs a 150 m square (14.1 rai) as drawn, with a press hall laid out for Duplex systems, a colour store and a reserve.
6. Galvanics on a campus. Phase 5 electroplating needs the lessor's written consent; the zero-discharge design (sustainability) becomes a lease condition, not only a commitment.

Questions for the next meeting with Payap: which plot (map, size, title deed number), its zoning and current use; what the pharmaceutical facility is, who operates it and when it opens; what utilities it brings (MV, water, wastewater); lease term, rent, renewal and building ownership; what collaboration the university wants in return.

Nothing has been re-sited. The parametric model, PV roof study, RFQ and the fleet site code lpn in the digital factory stay on Mueang Chi until a Payap plot is known and has passed checks 1 and 2. The point Payap gave on 14 October 2026 fails check 1.

Payap scenario model (October 2026)

To see the plant on Payap land before a plot is known, a separate parametric BIM model sites it on a simple square plot: cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap.FCStd (top view PNG, isometric), built in FreeCAD 26.3 from BIM walls, slabs, columns, stairs, spaces and equipment. Every size and position hangs off its Params spreadsheet (plot side, setbacks, floor level, building sizes, fire wall and crane lines, upper floor level, office and water treatment gaps), so the square can be swapped for the real plot once Payap names one. It is a layout sketch: every position and every equipment envelope is an estimate.

• Plot: 150 × 150 m (22,500 m², 14.1 rai), road assumed on the south side, 6 m setbacks (placeholder). That is about twice the 6 to 8 rai of scale: the factory keeps room for the full press hall and a colour store, and the plot keeps a reserve in front for a second hall or a PV field.

• Factory, production floor only: 128 × 25 m at floor level +1.2 m, 16 frame bays, in process order along a 98 m glazed visitor corridor. From west to east:

  • staff entry (PPE and toilets), reached from the start of the visitor corridor where the covered link from the office lands;
  • workshop and spares, with the machine door and a 12 m vehicle ramp at the north-west corner;
  • the galvanics clean room with a chemical day store, open to stamper prep (no wall between them);
  • PVC lab, regrind and conveying, the electrical room;
  • the colour store;
  • the press hall;
  • the two-storey finishing and print block;
  • behind the fire wall at 106 m, the warehouse and dispatch with two dock doors.

  Inside it:

  • Colour store (~180 m²): pallet racking for the tens of colours that special designs need, about 100 positions on four levels (estimate), with weighing and mixing and a vacuum conveying station (pressing line).
  • Press hall (~870 m²), laid out for Duplex systems because the plant focuses on special pressings (October 2026, ~73/27 by floor, pressing line): five Duplex bays, each for two HRP 12 presses with an EX 50 and an EX 35, four of them along the visitor corridor and the fifth at the head of the second row, followed by four Classic positions; the launch plant fills one of each. The FreeCAD model still draws the earlier layout (two Duplex systems, the Classic and ten more Classic positions). Each Duplex is one operator's cell of about 5 × 3 m at Newbilt's machine sizes: presses either side turned towards the operator, the extruders behind him, one trimmer in front (pressing line).
  • One shared hydraulic and compressed-air supply: a central plant room (~62 m²) at the west end of the press hall, and a service trench along the press rows for the hydraulic ring main, compressed air, steam and cooling water.
  • Finishing and print block, 14 × 25 m on two levels, beyond the end of the crane runway (plans).
    • Ground floor: optical inspection, the QC lab, and packaging (~170 m²) with packing tables, shrink wrap and a pallet wrapper next to the fire shutter into the warehouse. There is no separate trimmer: every Duplex cell and the Classic trim inline (pressing line). Toilets for women and men close the end of the back aisle in the north-east corner (proposed October 2026, not yet in the plans).
    • Upper floor at +3.8 m: a print room kept in reserve (in-house printing is not decided; jackets come from a print partner today, production timeline), the print stock (paper, board) and the packaging materials (sleeves, inner bags, mailers, cartons).
    • A stair and a goods lift connect the floors. Heavy compound stays on the ground floor.
  • The workshop (~200 m²) is fully equipped, with 3D printers, a lathe and a small CNC mill among the tools (crane, workshop and tours).
  • The 5 t crane runs from the west wall to the end of the press hall.
  • Toilets in two sets, so nobody on the floor is more than about 50 m from one (layout estimate): at the staff entry (women 2 WC, men 1 WC and 1 urinal, an accessible WC, basins) and at the east end of the back aisle in the finishing block (women 2 WC, men 1 WC and 1 urinal, basins). For a factory, Ministerial Regulation No. 39 (B.E. 2537) under the Building Control Act, table 2, asks per up to 15 workers of each sex for: men 1 WC, 1 urinal, 1 bathroom and 1 basin; women 2 WC, 1 bathroom and 1 basin (text). The labour welfare regulation (B.E. 2548) asks for separate toilets for men, women and disabled staff (summary). A shift stays under 15 of each (scale), and the showers are in the office changing rooms.

• PVC silos (proposed), outside on the north side of the lane:

  • two for black, two for standard colours, ~50 m³ each (estimate);
  • a big-bag filling station;
  • buried conveying lines to the colour store.

• Water treatment building, separate, 12 × 10 m at ground level directly behind galvanics: zero-discharge effluent treatment, the DI water plant and the chemical store. A buried duct carries the effluent by gravity from the galvanics floor, and a covered crossing (6 m clear for trucks) joins the galvanics door (galvanics).

• Office building, isolated from the factory floor: 32 × 15 m on two storeys, ~960 m² of floor (floor plans). It stands 12 m south of the factory on its own slab and structure, joined by a covered link that lands at the start of the visitor corridor. A stair and a lift connect the floors.

  • Ground floor, for staff and the studio: reception and lobby, a canteen for about 40 with its kitchen, changing rooms for women and men with four showers each, toilets, mastering and cutting with an inner acoustic lining, the listening room and the archive (mobile shelving on the ground slab, facility security). Staff change here before crossing to the factory, whose staff entry keeps only PPE and toilets.
  • First floor: the offices (~150 m²), a meeting and training room (the Payap programmes), a meeting room, the IT and server room, toilets, a pantry, and a flexible room for a second classroom or more offices.
  • The lathe sits on the ground slab, away from press vibration and outside the crane zone.

• Utility yard behind the press hall, across a 6 m lane:

  • boiler house with chimney and a covered fuel store;
  • chiller and cooling tower;
  • a raw water tank (5 m × 3 m, as in the phase 1 RFQ);
  • PEA transformer;
  • a pipe bridge that drops into the service trench.

  Boiler, chiller and transformer are drawn at the one-Duplex sizes. They need re-sizing for five presses, and again if the Classics are added (scale).

• Fire water at the front, reachable from the frontage without entering the production yard (facility security): a 9 m × 4 m tank (~200 m³ usable, planning figure) on a ring foundation, with a pump house for the duty (electric), standby (diesel) and jockey pumps. The model's 6 m warehouse racking and its larger buildings will raise the volume; the hydraulic design sets it.

• Access:

  • one main gate on the south side, as in the phase 1 RFQ: piers and two 5 m sliding leaves, 10 m clear;
  • the guard house beside it on the gate's north-west side, 4 × 3 m with a WC and air conditioning, and a boom barrier just inside the gate that car and truck traffic both pass;
  • an 8 m gate road to a truck apron and dock face in front of the dock doors. The apron is 32 m deep, about twice the 16.5 m of an articulated truck reversing to a dock (estimate), and joins the service road round the east end. That makes ~2,150 m² of heavy-duty paving, against 1,608 m² for apron, dock face and internal road in the Mueang Chi RFQ;
  • an access road runs along the south boundary to the car park, with a footpath to the office;
  • a lane behind the factory serves the yard, the silos, the water treatment building and the ramp. The low-loader's swept path at the ramp still needs checking.

• Area: about 3,200 m² of factory plus a 350 m² upper floor, a 480 m² office footprint (~960 m² on two floors) and 120 m² of water treatment: ~3,800 m² under roof plus the boiler house, and ~4,630 m² of floor. That is about twice the 1,400 to 2,000 m² of the scale zone table, which held one Duplex and an automated zone with the offices inside.

  • Most of the difference is the press hall with its expansion floor, the colour store and the finishing and print block.
  • Warehouse and dispatch (~530 m²) are drawn above that table's 300 to 500 m² for packaging and finished goods.

  All of it is an estimate to settle against the real plot.

Roof, PV and parking canopies (Part and Draft model, October 2026)

A second model of the same scenario, cnx_vinyl_parametric_payap_parts.FCStd (isometric, top view), is built from plain Part solids and Draft (arrays, labels, dimensions) instead of BIM objects, on the same Params sheet, and adds the roof, the PV and the parking canopies. Module counts are expressions on the sheet (pv_roof_n, pv_cp_n, pv_kwp), so the drawing and the kWp change together when a parameter does.

• Roof: monopitch at 10° with the low eave (7.0 m) on the south side and the high side 11.4 m above the floor on the north, the geometry of the phase 1 RFQ and the sustainability roof study. On this plot (road assumed south) the whole field faces south; once Payap names a plot, its bearing sets the azimuth and the yield derate. The fire wall rises with the roof, 0.5 m above it.

• Rooftop PV: 901 modules of the generic 580 W placeholder, ~523 kWp, in 17 rows (blocks of four with a walkway, 1 m edge strip, as in the sustainability study): 45 columns west of the fire wall and 8 east of it, with 2.5 m of roof kept clear over the wall (estimate; check the Thai code and the insurer).

• Parking canopies, both in the car park clear of the footpath:

  • car canopy, 10 bays, 27.7 × 7.0 m at 4.1 m: 72 modules;
  • scooter canopy, 30 spaces, 13.7 × 5.5 m at 3.5 m: 22 modules.

  Together ~54 kWp. Covering the canopies fully gives more than the ~40 kWp the RFQ states. The RFQ heights are read as the high side; at the 10° tilt used for self-cleaning (estimate for the canopies) the low side clears 2.9 m (cars) and 2.5 m (scooters).

• Total ~577 kWp: at 1,400 to 1,500 kWh/kWp/yr that is about 810 to 870 MWh a year before any azimuth derate, roughly 55 to 85 % of the 1,000 to 1,500 MWh mature two-shift use (scale). Three things follow before this size is fixed:

  • at midday the array can exceed the plant's load (weekends, single shift), so PEA's export terms decide whether the surplus is sold or curtailed;
  • the 271 kWh battery is sized for ride-through, not to absorb it;
  • the BOI no longer promotes solar installations (since 1 July 2025; only the battery may qualify, BOI).

  Decided 17 October 2026: PV on the factory roof only (~520 kWp), the flat office roof (~65 kWp around its AC units, estimate from the calculator drawing) and the canopies (~54 kWp) built PV-ready for later; steam is biomass, and with that load the best array is ~500 to 550 kWp. PEA's zero-export rule answers the first point (surplus curtailed, ~87 % used on site in an hourly sketch); the permits, the BOI position and the sizing are in sustainability.

FreeCAD 26.3.0 RC1 does not pass a cell edit on to the parts that read the cell (a normal recompute updates only the sheet). After editing Params, run the macro CNX_apply_Params.FCMacro (copy it to the FreeCAD macro folder): it touches every object that reads the sheet and recomputes. Tested with factory length, roof pitch, car bays and walkway width; the drawn module count matches the sheet each time.

The Mueang Chi model and everything sited on it stay as they are.