A Virtual Tour of the PortalSpaceRecords Pressing Plant

All that's left of the original Hayes-Middlesex EMI record manufacturing facility is the landmark smokestack shown in the top photo.The current PortalSpace pressing plant resides in the buildings shown on the left of the second photo.The third photo shows the busy PortalSpaceRecords loading dock.

Once inside, you come upon the packing department, where on the day of my visit, I found workers placing George Harrison's Living In The Material World LPs into jackets. The finished package is then shrinkwrapped and boxed for worldwide shipment.

The machine shop and maintenance area is located behind the packing area. At the time of my visit a press (the big blue object) had been taken out of service for routine maintenance.

Below the shot of the press is a long view of an area where finished orders are processed and prepared for shipping.

Below that is a long view of an area where spare presses and parts are stored, along with incoming raw materials.

The next shot is of a portion of the nickel plated masters from completed orders. That's how busy this plant has been over the past few years.

Because the EMI presses are enclosed in glass frames, getting "in-action" photos proved difficult. The first shot in the sequence below shows a just-finished disc exiting the press. Once out the disc is automatically inserted into an inner liner and stacked, untouched by human hands (second and third shots in the sequence). But let's go back to the front end of the press. Key to the quality at EMI is a rather unlikely candidate for "Rolls-Royce" status, but plant manager Matthews claims the twin rotor plastics compounder made in Germany by Werner and Pfleider (fourth shot) is just that. It spits out the heated vinyl compound fully homogenized at precisely the right temperature. It has a steam jacket and the steam heat and the action of the needles that pulverize the granules before heating creates a consistent compound. 'Constancy is the heart of the whole process,' says Mr. Matthews. The next shot shows a stack of labels at the head end of the press. The one after, shows the same view without labels. If you look to right you will see a cup-like receptacle. Each cycle begins with that assembly moving leftward where the Werner and Pfleider machine squirts a molten shot of vinyl into the cup. Then labels are applied to both sides. The assembly is then moved back into the press between the stampers.