Vinpower Digital Rolls Out Manual Tower Duplicators

The California-based company Vinpower announced last week a new series of compact, manual CD, DVD, and Blu-ray duplicators called SlimMicro. These duplicators are a slimmed-down version of the companies SharkCopier series, but only in size.

Available in CD / DVD or CD / DVD / Blu-ray configurations and with four or five writer drives, Vinpower’s new duplicators pack a big punch in a small package – shoebox size to be exact. The SlimMicro was designed for a small workspace or for travel, and because it’s a standalone device a SlimMicro duplicator can be powered up anywhere an electrical outlet is available.

The SlimMicro series was originally developed as part of a joint venture between Vinpower and SHINANO KENSHI CO, LTD. as part of the PlexCopier line for release in Europe and Japan only. Vinpower obtained rights to release its own version of the product in the United States.

MAM-A Completes Upgrade to Only U.S.-Made Media Line

As the only CD-R and DVD-R/+R producer to offer products made in the United States, MAM-A has injected some juice into its homemade brand. The company recently completed an upgrade to its Colorado Springs manufacturing facility and is now able to offer a full range of “Made in the USA” silver CD-R and DVD-R/+R products, plus its 24kt Gold Archival CD-R and DVD-R/R+ recordable media products.

This expansion gives more companies and consumers to option to buy local and cut down on their import tariffs.

Calibre 1080 DVD PC Line Discontinued

Styron, the Michigan-based company, has announced the Calibre 1060 DVD as the successor to the 1080 DVD PC resin, which the company recently discontinued. The Calibre 1060 will be available worldwide and will feature new functionality for all the company’s CD, DVD, and Blu-ray duplicator applications, including improved ductility and toughness. The new application offers high-flow capabilities, fast cycle times, and good pit replication for improved yields.

Although their competitors have largely avoided any new investments into flash fabricator production facilities, SanDisk Corp and Toshiba Corp. think otherwise. The two powerhouses have announced construction on a new NAND flash chip fabrication facility at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi City plant in Japan.

Referred to as “Fab 5,” the facility will be able to produce 210,000 NAND wafers a month when in full production. The name is derived from an existing partner facility, “Fab 4,” and will be comparable in size – Fab 4 has a ground area of about 125,000 square feet and a total floor space of 613,517 square feet. The first phase of the two-phase process is scheduled to be complete next spring; the facility will employ about 4,300 people, including 250 engineers. This will be the fifth flash memory fabrication facility for in Yokkaichi City for Toshiba.

Demand for the NAND flash chips has been on the rise, with prices recently leveling off, but the sheer investment cost of constructing fabrication plants – in the hundreds of millions – has kept most companies, including Samsung and Micron, static in the market.

Toshiba, on the other hand, has jumped head first into production, believing that the demand is poised to increase based on the rise existing and emerging applications in smartphones and solid-state drives using flash.

“With our partner SanDisk, we will increase the manufacturing capacity gradually in accordance with market conditions, in a way that further enhances our competitiveness in the memory business,” said Koyoshi Kobayashi, a Toshiba corporate senior vice president.

The plant will initially use Toshiba’s 20-nanometer lithography technology – the company’s smallest – which will allow the company to fit more data on a single NAND chip.

DVDDuplication.net was facing a challenge in 2010: how to keep up with growing demand. The company’s solution? Simple. Increase production capacity.

In July, the California-based DVDDuplication.net upgraded and replaced 30 percent of its equipment and incorporated an additional 20 percent in overall capacity – a costly endeavor and one that’s not popular in the industry.  But, based on the year’s projections, the company is now ready to take on significantly more business and increase efficiency for its current and future clients.

“This is a milestone moment for our company given the economic difficulties of 2009,” said president and owner Brian Fisher. “The industry in general has been put under strong price pressure, both, from the 2009 recession, and from the stagnant growth of the overall market. However, DVD printing and duplicating equipment manufacturers continue to make improvements in their equipment.”

Equipment manufacturers have been making improvements to their CD, DVD & Blu-ray duplication lines. Blu-ray publisher sales are growing and continued demand for 2011 sees the potential for duplication facilities to add a Blu-ray duplicator to their production line. Rimage has a new professional series publisher line consisting of the 3400 and 5400; Microboards released the G3 Publisher this year. Manufacturers continue to improve duplication and publishing equipment.

Contact us to discuss upgrading your duplication, printing & publishing capacity.
1-866-409-1090

WebShop, the new online store from Rimage Corporation, makes the company’s disc publishing supplies available to customers. Traditionally, Rimage customers would have secured their CD and DVD printing and replication equipment from authorized third-party suppliers, but now these customers have a direct link to the products they have come to rely on.

The WebShop is available to U.S. customers at webshop.rimage.com and to European customers at webshop.rimage-europe.eu. Rimage believes the new site will help strengthen and simplify their partner network and help ensure their customers get the most out of their investment.

“The WebShop provides our customers with an important option that helps them keep their operation running smoothly,” said Christopher Wells, vice president of marketing and strategy for Rimage Corporation. “They can shop direct from Rimage, or from one of our authorized partners.”

Rimage customers can find print ribbons, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, print cartridges, and media kits on WebShop, but they can still get their Rimage products from their disc publishing partners.

Blu-ray discs have been on their way to taking over the home movie market for quite a while, but now the Blu-ray Disc Association is stepping up its game. They have developed what is being called the BDXL format which allows a Blu-ray Disc to hold up to 128GB of information in a quadruple-layer format – a significant increase from the average 50GB high-definition Blu-ray discs on the market today.

The new BDXL format will also come in a triple-layer version, which will be rewriteable, however the first release will only be available for data storage.

“The BDA worked diligently to create an extension of the Blu-ray Disc format that leverages the physical structure of the design of the disc to create even more storage capacity,” said Victor Matsuda, Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee chair.

Sony has not as of yet agreed to take the new BDXL capture and playback product to the consumer market, but admits that it may not be long before players may be capable of playing the BDXL format as well as the conventional 2GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs. Both types of formats were developed from the same technology.