Is There a New Record Pressing Machine Out There?

@dwette I use vacuum clamping and I do not have any problems with lipless records sealing properly. 

@mijostyn I think they look nice, but it doesn’t seem to make much difference for me. I don’t manually cue records and I also use an outer ring. It might be that the ring pulls lipless discs down better onto the platter, but I can’t tell for sure.

@dwette  I am certainly noticing more lipless records and I have to say that I prefer them. For those of us who cue manually they are much nicer. 

Quality Record pressings in Salina, KS has had the ability to press discs without a lip all along. 

My Analog Productions subscription series of Prestige Mono and Stereo reissues are pressed with no lip, while my subscription series of the RCA Living Stereo are pressed with a lip. The folks at QRP once told me they also have contract pressing jobs that request/require no lip on the discs.

@mijostyn Machines with manual transfer capability have a few strengths. Mainly when the operators have the ability to manipulate the molten puck special effects in the records can be produced, such is split, tri, quad color, splatter effects etc. 

Also the production waste to quality yields tend to be far better on a manual press as quality assurance is built in vs an automatic where defects would be caught at a later stage in production. 

Generally the downside is speed and worker fatigue.

On the other hand, the super quality Japanese pressings in the 80s were all done on manual press, so there's that.

@hometownhero Thanx! It is a Canadian company. The machine is quite basic. The old machines trimmed and spit out the records automatically onto a tall spindle. This one relies on a human at each transfer step. Good for humans, bad for speed.

This is the newest record pressing machine on the market today.

https://maximumpressingsystems.com

The platter does not make noise. The Cosmos uses a magnetic thrust bearing. If you had a noisy turntable tight clamping might transfer noise better. With quiet turntables vacuum is a net positive. The wandering pitch of a record that is not flat is annoying.

Hey @mijostyn - wouldn't that have more vibration/rumble from the turntable transmitted to the record? You'd essentially have all the noise from the platter going  there.

@sokogear The mat on the Sota (the hard part) does not extend to the edge of the record. It is 11.5" in diameter. Only the soft vacuum seal extends past the lip of the record. Because there is a recess for the label and the mat is as hard as vinyl the record effectively becomes part of the platter and as flat as the platter. The main benefit of this sonically is pitch stability. Every record becomes a perfectly flat 200 gram record. People will mistake a quiet record for a digital source. 

That's Bags and Trane (sorry for the typo).

I just happened to be playing Bags and Trade (45) - I'm pretty sure it's Analogue Productions and it's squared off with no "lip", but it still makes a little pop when the stylus enters the groove.

I know you are big on vacuum/suction @mijostyn , but for those of us who want the minimal vibration transferred to the record from the platter, you don't want the mat going to the edge of the record. The mat I use is hexagonally shaped (called the eclipse Hexmat) and doesn't reach the edge of the platter even at its 6 outer points. They also have a cheaper one called the Yellowbird I think, which has a little more contact surface area between the mat and the record.

@bdp24 They are not the only ones that do that. The Mat on my Sota is 11.5" in diameter for just that reason. Beyond that is the soft lip which forms the seal when vacuum is running.

I don't know for a fact, but VPI's choice to make their platters 11.5" in diameter may have been to prevent the lips of LP's to raise the outer portion of the groove (each LP side contains only one long groove) off the platter. 

@bdp24 I recently recorded to hard drive the Classic Records 45 RPM Led Zeppelin box set. I do not recall the records having a flat profile, but maybe that came along after the set was published. There is an advantage to the flat profile and that is the record is nicer to cue manually. The stylus falls into the groove without skipping down the lip which sounds annoying. Since none of us use changers anymore the flat profile makes sense. The size of your mat would not matter either. 

The "no lip" LP is called a "flat profile", and was introduced back when Classic Records was in business. At least that is my understanding.

Another new one. Now what about lathes!

Newbilt record pressing machines:

    https://newbilt-machinery.com/

@gkelly Great find! It is interesting that they are having trouble finding a suitable substitute for PVC. All the suitable plastics are just as toxic. PVC is ubiquitous and very durable. Finding a better material is going to be very tough. 

if it’s possible, that is a injected molded vinyl record   https://thevinylfactory.com/news/injected-moulded-vinyl-manufacturing-technology/

@larryi I played the UHQR Aja last night and it has the same flat squared off lip. 

@bondmanp check out Viryl Technologies Warmtone, a brand new record press you can buy. They say it takes 18 months to pay for itself. 

Not sure any record presses are new.  I visited one plant that had bought a couple of old ones from a sneaker manufacturer who had repurposed some record presses to make sneakers.  He converted them back to press LPs.

I actually received a 180g record (Capital Records) that had around half of the circumference squared off while the other half was a normal lip. I returned it even though it played okay. I wonder if yours is a mistake too?

center label area is typically a bit thicker than the play area as well

@larryi I checked a bunch of Audiophile pressings. The lip appears flatter on the heavy records, but it is still there. The Wilco Record is not only dead flat but the edge is perfectly squared off. The lip is rounded off on all the other records. When you get a chance see if you can find a record with a squared off edge. 

Viryl Technologies "Warmtone" is the newest record press. The molds are custom made for each machine and the lip would be the preference of the customer. I think it came out in 2017. 

@larryi Thanx for the explanation. I will go back and look at a few of my audiophile pressings to see if there is a common denominator.

I also have quiet a few records with built in rumble. It would be nice if someone would come up with a new lathe. Modern computer aided machining (CNC) should be able to build better units. 

The lip served two primary purposes--when tables were automatic changes, meaning one record fell on top of another to play the second, third, etc. record, the lip prevented the playing surfaces from rubbing against each other.  The second purpose was to strengthen the record by reinforcing the most delicate and exposed part of the record.  

I have quite a few audiophile pressings that don't have a lip, and they date back a long time.  There is indeed a new pressing machine being put on the market, but, I don't think it necessarily relates to beadles records.

I should also note that this particular record is a fabulous pressing, as quiet as they come.