cnx_vinyl/docs/suppliers/equipment-suppliers.md

Equipment Needs and Supplier Map

Working list of everything the factory needs per production step, with the suppliers identified so far. Compiled 2026-07-17 from vendor research and the Newbilt planning documents. All pricing is quote-on-request unless a figure is given; figures are snapshots, not commitments.

1. Mastering and Lathe Cutting

What we need:

• Disk mastering lathe
• Stereo cutter head
• Cutting (drive) amplifiers matched to the head
• Mastering / transfer console and mastering chain (EQ, limiting, elliptical EQ)
• Preview / pitch-and-depth automation solution
• Vacuum system for platter hold-down and swarf (chip) suction
• Groove inspection microscope and reference playback chain for QC
• Low-vibration, temperature-controlled room
• Consumables: lacquer blanks, cutting styli

Suppliers identified:

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Agnew Analog	Chalkis, Greece	Type 612 lathe, Type 602 cutter head, Type 607 stylus machine, tube electronics	Bespoke, long build times; turnkey or components; info@agnewanalog.com
Sillitoe Audio Technology	Australia	SDMS complete cutting system: lathe, MMFB Mk3E feedback cutterhead, Master Control cutting amplifier, Space / Time Control automation software, vacuum, groove microscope	USD 125,000 standard system ex tax and shipping (order page, October 2026); built to order; closed head/amplifier pairing; info@sillitoeaudiotechnology.com. Comparison in vendor landscape

Open: cutter amps and preview automation (both bundled if Sillitoe), console, lacquer blank supply (e.g. MDC/Public Record type), styli supply.

Cutting service (until the in-house room runs):

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Schallplatten Schneid Technik (SST)	Frankfurt am Main, Germany	Lacquer cutting for pressing (7"/10"/12"), dubplates, half-speed, locked-groove and inside-out cuts; two Neumann cutting rooms; independent since 1969 (SST website, checked October 2026)	Already cut lacquers for Poy Records (POY003, 005, 006, 013, per SST's archive); met in Haarlem and offered help (email, 7 October 2026); on good terms with ResurRec; Daniel Krieger (MD), daniel@sst-ffm.de, mail@sst-ffm.de, +49 69 57 50 57. See vendor landscape
Used lathes and cutting rooms (contacts via OMS)	Germany, Switzerland	Railroad Studio Tracks (complete cutting studio for sale, October 2026), Mike Papas, Andreas Bauer (AB Mastering), Flo Kaufman (flokason), Martin Sukale	Leads from Lou Wullms' introduction letter, unverified; details in the vendor landscape

2. Silvering and Electroforming (Galvanics)

What we need:

• Lacquer cleaning / degrease station
• Silvering station (conductive silver layer)
• Nickel pre-plate station (low-stress strike)
• Electroforming cells (father, mother, stamper generations)
• Electro-clean / passivation station
• Deionised water supply (the passivation bench needs a DI connection)
• Clean room with controlled access, ventilation, fume extraction/scrubbing
• Closed-loop rinse water treatment and metal recovery (zero-discharge requirement; e.g. wastewater evaporator, reference: Gotta Groove Records model)
• Decontamination procedures and PPE program (nickel salts and silver nitrate hazards)

Suppliers identified:

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Plating Power / Digital Matrix Corp.	Farmingdale, NY, USA	VLSS silvering, VLPP pre-plate, VLFP 2/4/6-cell electroforming, EC-1000 passivation, control rings	No water treatment or metal recovery in their scope; no SE-Asia distributor; alex.greenspan@digmatrix.com
Pheenix Alpha	Sweden	PASU automatic silvering, PPPU pre-plating (four masters), PDPU dual-cell electroforming (up to 200 A per cell), PMPB passivation, cleaning and drying bench (nickel and DMM)	2024 flyers in ../equipment/pheenix-alpha/, summarised in galvanics and stamper prep; prices unpublished; PLC with network access; no water treatment in the flyers; same vendor as the AD12 presses (section 5), so one quote can cover both; info@pheenixalpha.com
Optical Media Services (OMS)	Baarlo, Netherlands	Vinyl electroforming equipment, new and refurbished (including CD/DVD lines converted to 14" vinyl); independent stamper service from lacquers and DMMs	Named by Sibert after Haarlem (good equipment, very familiar with the Asian market); introduction letter of 9 October 2026 in ../equipment/oms/: reference prices EUR 224,000 for a basic 4-cell wet room (2 × EFS2-200) and EUR 311,000 advanced (AEFS4-250, PLC), installation days extra, used equipment on offer (galvanics and stamper prep); possible link to Newbilt's announced electroplating equipment, unconfirmed; Lou Wullms (technical), lou.wullms@gmail.com, +31 6 5490 3443; Wilma Peeters (accounting and logistics), wilmapeeters6@gmail.com; office +31 77 477 8054

Open: industrial water-treatment vendor for the zero-discharge system; clean-room design/build contractor; fume scrubbing.

3. Stamper Preparation

What we need:

• Stamper center punch
• Stamper back-finishing machine
• Stamper trimming/forming (coining) machine

Suppliers identified:

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Sibert Instruments	Medstead, Hampshire, UK	VSP punch, VSF back-finisher, VSC coiner; a fully automatic VSPa punch also exists	Current specifications (2022 and 2023) and line-up drawing in ../equipment/sibert/, summarised in galvanics and stamper prep: single-phase 115 to 230 V, 6 to 8 bar air, 200 / 250 / 1000 kg, line 4958 × 833 mm, no data interface listed; budget of USD 250k for all three confirmed by email (October 2026), its time, spares, shipping and travel extra, itemised quotation and footprints when we are ready (Ian Locke, 9 October 2026, who advises settling the presses first); confirm no overlap with press-integrated forming before buying the VSC; sales@sibert.co.uk, Ian Locke (ian.locke@sibert.co.uk)

4. Stamper Service (bridge / overflow, until in-house galvanics runs)

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Stamper Discs	Sheffield, UK	1-step and 3-step stampers from lacquer/DMM, 7"/10"/12", fits Newbilt/Toolex/Viryl molds; brokers lacquer cutting via EU partners	Ships 30+ countries, no documented Asia customers yet; get written turnaround SLA; peter@stamperdiscs.com

5. Pressing

What we need (target fleet: 50% fully automated, 50% semi-automatic):

• Semi-automatic press line: extruder, presses, hydraulic aggregate, molds (12" 140/180 g, 7" and 10" insert sets), trimmer
• Fully automated press line: automatic presses incl. extruders, molds
• Steam generator: 750 to 900 kg/h for the five-press fleet (~400 kg/h for one Duplex), proposed as two 500 kg/h modules, local sourcing planned (steam and cooling)
• Cooling water system: up to ~650 kW for the five-press fleet (~250 kW for one Duplex), proposed as three 250 kW chillers, closed loop, local sourcing planned
• Workshop compressor / compressed air supply
• PVC grinder (recycling loop)
• Record separator plates, buffer spindles

Suppliers identified:

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Newbilt machinery GmbH	Alsdorf, Germany	Single 2.1 system (VEX 50 extruder, HRP 12 press ~150 t, semi-auto), Duplex expansion, molds, Vario trimmer, Granulator 400 grinder, Label Punch, EX 35 auxiliary colour extruder. Also builds the Classic 12" fully automatic press: hydraulic 3-column frame, built-in extruder (3 heated zones, water-cooled screw; 7.5 kW drive motor per the 2024 flyer, earlier noted here as 15 kW, confirm), automatic patty loading, automatic label supply, automatic cooling-plate management, spindle stack output, Siemens Security PLC (two 21" touchscreens per the 2024 flyer, one 10" per the website) with SCADA / OPC UA, inserts shared with the Duplex, CE approved, 28 s cycle (~128 records/h), vendor-claimed ≥95% yield and ≥95% uptime. So Newbilt is a single-vendor candidate for both fleet halves, not only the semi-auto one. Note the half-automatic press is a 4-column book-mould design; column count is the quickest way to tell the two apart on a factory floor	2024 quote EUR 200,549.50 (~USD 232k / ~7.7M THB) incl. freight, expired, needs re-quote; ask for build time and order-book position in the re-quote; ResurRec Bangkok already runs one automatic + one semi-automatic Newbilt: ask for the Thai install base and a service-response precedent; contacts Hans-Juergen Helm (Sales Manager) and Erwin Neubauer (Managing Director); 2026 flyers in ../equipment/newbilt/flyers-2026/, summarised in pressing-line.md
Pheenix Alpha	Märsta (Stockholm), Sweden; Solna in older listings	AD12 fully automatic press (24-26 s cycle, ~140 records/h, 1 operator per 4 presses); AD12 Manual semi-auto	Direct Toolex Alpha successor; possible single-vendor option for both fleet halves; also builds the electroforming line (section 2); claims 300+ presses installed worldwide; CEO offered a Teams call, references and a factory visit after Haarlem (October 2026); ResurRec's new Japan plant appears to run AD12s (Alexander's identification from photos, October 2026, revenue model); andreas.runsten@pheenixalpha.com, Robert Gunnarsson (CEO) robert.gunnarsson@pheenixalpha.com

Open: decision between Newbilt semi-auto + Pheenix automatic vs. single vendor; local steam-generator and chiller suppliers in Thailand.

6. Finishing and Packaging

What we need:

• Label dry oven (Newbilt quote lists France Etuves XU 112 as example)
• Shrink wrap machine (example: Minipack-Torre Replay 55)
• 7" center label punch / dinker
• Folded paper cartons: jackets and sleeves
• Printing for labels and packaging

Suppliers identified:

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Local packaging manufacturers	Chiang Mai region, Thailand	Folded paper cartons (jackets, sleeves)	Collaboration planned, partners not yet identified

7. PVC Compound

Preference: local (Thai/regional) sourcing if quality meets record specifications; European suppliers as fallback. Feed mix runs 80% virgin, 20% recycled in-house regrind.

Suppliers identified (2021 contact list, needs refresh; full contacts in 210519_Suppliers of PVC for vinyl record production.pdf):

Supplier	Country
P.A.T. Engineering B.V.	Netherlands
Dugdale Limited	UK
CAF srl	Italy
INEOS Compounds Aycliffe	UK
RESINOPLAST	France
TPC Plastics	USA
Polymer-Chemie GmbH	Germany
PCW GmbH	Germany

Open: identify and qualify Thai/regional PVC compound producers.

Lead (August 2026): photographs from the ResurRec tour show the pressing floor stacked with kraft sacks printed "MADE IN THAILAND", suggesting the incumbent already runs Thai-sourced material. The visible wording includes "Pigment", so these may be colorant/masterbatch rather than base compound, worth a photograph of a full sack label, or a direct question, to identify the supplier. Either answer is useful: a qualified Thai compound source would close this open item, and a Thai pigment source feeds the colour/splatter work the semi-automatic line is meant to serve.

8. Utilities and Site (customer-supplied around the machines)

• Solar PV installation (large; panel and array sizing open until site selection)
• Solar inverters: multiple Deye three-phase HV hybrid units. Verified series SUN-29.9/30/35/40/50K-SG01HP3 (battery window 160-800 V, up to 10 in parallel, IEC 61727/62116/62109 certified); larger SUN-60/70/75/80K SG02HP3 series to be confirmed via datasheet. Thai distribution exists (Solar Nicolo, solaris.co.th)
• Battery storage: Gobel Power (Shenzhen, est. 2012) GP-SRA-HV314 HV rack BESS, 271 kWh = 15 stacked 18 kWh packs (LFP 314 Ah, 1P18S), DC 225-985 V, 8000+ cycles, ~135 kW continuous discharge at 0.5P, CAN/RS485 with "Deye CAN HV" protocol support. Listed USD 39,900-58,000 (~1.3M to 1.9M THB), 50-60 day lead from China. Open checks: rack voltage vs. chosen Deye model's battery window (full 15-pack rack can exceed 800 V), safety certifications (UN38.3, IEC 62619, CE) not published, no performance warranty published, no Thai distributor
• Steam generation (electric, biomass, or solar-thermal assist under evaluation; Deepgrooves NL runs presses on wood-fired biomass boilers as a precedent)
• Water treatment for boiler feed and closed-loop cooling
• Compressed air generation
• Chinese suppliers for the steam boilers, compressed air and the central hydraulic plant (checked October 2026: makers, published prices, Thai offices, and what Thai law asks of an imported boiler) are in Chinese suppliers
• Hydraulic oil (~200 L, ISO VG 32/46 HLP per DIN 51524-2, per Newbilt spec)
• Whole-factory HVAC: continuous temperature (20-26 °C), humidity (35-60% RH), and PM control with zoned filtration tiers, sized for northern Thailand burning-season PM2.5 peaks; a major load for PV/battery sizing
• Clean rooms, ventilation, decontamination infrastructure for galvanics
• Fire protection, exhaust work benches, PPE stock
• Archive fit-out: mobile archive shelving for the father and mother archive. Reference: A-Z Solutions, Vienna, Austria (archive shelving, hand wheel or electric drive, lockable; office.at@a-z-solutions.eu, +43 1 718 42 48; price on request), quoted against LPI Rack Range (below); spec and sizing in facility security
• Storage systems, Thai manufacturer: LPI Rack Range (Thailand) Corp., Ltd. (https://www.lpi.co.th/en/, checked October 2026). Head office 191/9-11 Kanchanaphisek Rd., Dokmai, Prawet, Bangkok 10250; plants in Bangplee Industrial Estate and Bangpla, Samut Prakan; +66 2 003 1899, marketing@lpi.co.th. Range on its site: office mobile shelving for documents (the archive), library and hospital records shelving; selective, drive-in, mobile, shuttle and pallet-flow pallet racking (finished goods, the colour compound store); medium and micro racking, mezzanine floors and rack-supported mezzanines (packaging stock); cantilever and mould-and-die racking; mini-load AS/RS; rack-supported buildings. No specifications or prices published; quote on request. Listed with the other racking candidates in the utilities CSV

Thai supplier candidates and rough investment ranges for these utility and site systems are compiled in ../finance/utilities-investment.csv (budgetary figures, plus or minus 30%, researched July 2026).

9. Services and Expertise

Supplier	Location	Offering	Notes
Kevin Da Costa	UK	Vinyl manufacturing consultancy: factory layout, installation, training, process optimization	GBP 10k-20k packages (~USD 13.5k-27k) / GBP 450 per day (~USD 610); credentials self-stated, references needed
Newbilt service	Germany	Installation, commissioning, training beyond the included 5 days	2024 rate card: EUR 84/h (~USD 97 / ~3,200 THB) on-site plus surcharges and travel
buildfor.life	Thailand	Project consulting	Supporting

Open: mastering/cutting engineer training, galvanics process expertise (hardest skill to hire), local contractors for building and utilities. Payap University wants to build joint student programmes in audio engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT and business with the plant, a possible training pipeline (Payap partnership).