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
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	Not yet identified. 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	Unverified
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.

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. The plot's colour 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 room for ten more Classics, 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.

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 ten more Classics 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, WC);
  • 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): two Duplex systems, each two HRP 12 presses with an EX 50 and an EX 35, the Classic, and ten more Classic positions in two rows.
  • 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: trim and 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.
    • 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.

• 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. Staff change here before crossing to the factory, whose staff entry keeps only PPE and a WC.
  • 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;
  • process and fire water tanks;
  • 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).

• Access:

  • one gate on the south side opens onto a truck apron in front of the dock doors;
  • 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.

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