HURRICANE ENTERTAINMENT, AFFORDABLE CD PRESSING SPECIALIST
Since the invention of the phonograph in 1876, music has been a popular source of home entertainment. In recent decades, the compact disc became the playback format of choice for recorded music.
Yet for most people, how a CD is made remains a mystery. With Hurricane Entertainment, you work with a certified manufacturing partner that has been in the business since the early years of the compact disc.
The company can produce hundreds of thousands of CDs a day. CD manufacturing involves eight production stages. The first stage applies only to CD-ROM production, while the remaining stages apply to both CD-Audio and CD-ROM.
1) Raw materials
A compact disc is a deceptively simple-looking object given the technology required for the CD pressing process. CDs are made of three layers of material:
- A base layer of polycarbonate plastic.
- A thin aluminium coating on the polycarbonate plastic.
- A clear protective acrylic coating on the aluminium layer.
2) Design
The compact disc is designed strictly to the standards set by Sony and Philips to ensure universal compatibility. A CD is 4.72 inches (120 millimetres) in diameter and 0.047 inches (1.2 millimetres) thick. The centre hole is 0.59 inches (15 millimetres) in diameter. A CD usually weighs about 0.53 ounces (15 grams).
A standard CD can store up to 74 minutes of data. However, most CDs hold only about 50 minutes of music, all recorded on one side of the CD (the underside). The data recorded on the CD takes the form of a continuous spiral starting at the centre and moving outwards.
3) The pressing process
Compact discs must be made in very clean, dust-free conditions in a "clean room", which is free of virtually all dust particles. The air in the room is specially filtered to keep dirt out, and people in the room must wear special clothing.
- Premastering
To make sure the data supplied by customers meets the right standards, we check how the content of their CD-ROM is organised and try to edit it to perfection.
- Glass mastering
Next, we create a glass master coated with a photosensitive layer and use laser light to write all our customers' information onto it. A thin layer of silver is then applied to the surface of the glass master by a process known as vacuum evaporation.
- Electroforming
The glass master is then turned into a "mould" used to press the discs. This is done by adding a layer of nickel to the glass master by electrolysis. The nickel layer is then separated from the glass base to recover the negative of the CD. The result is called the stamper. Further masters can be made by repeating the electrolysis stage.
- Pressing
Now that the mould has been created, it is time for the actual replication, where CDs are mass-produced in large quantities. Liquefied polycarbonate is injected into the mould, creating a compact disc that contains exactly all the data held in the master. It takes only a few seconds to complete a CD, unlike burning CDs on your own computer, which would take a few minutes.
- Metallisation
For the information on the CD to be read by players, it must be covered with a very thin layer of aluminium. The aluminium coating acts as a mirror that reflects the laser light so the CD can be read.
- Lacquering & printing
The CD is coated with a layer of lacquer to make it less sensitive to scratches. The lacquer covers the aluminium and seals it from the elements to make the CD less fragile. The CDs are then ready to be printed. The artist's name, text, logos and more are printed on the CD, usually by screen printing.
- CD packaging
The CD is automatically packed and prepared for shipping. We are committed to providing our customers with the highest-quality printing services and the most complete selection of packaging solutions in the industry. We know how important it is to choose packaging with maximum impact and offer a variety of options, from cost-effective automated packing to made-to-measure solutions. The quality of each one is checked before it is shipped to your door.
Get a CD pressing quote
