Apollo Masters

The Making of a Perfect Master
Introducing the new Apollo Master Audiodisc. It outperforms Every Master Ever Made.

Apollo Lacquer Master -
The Most Polished Performer:

Aluminum substrates of sufficiently high quality must be used for lacquer masters.

Initially developed for the manufacture of computer memory discs, this elaborate, multi-step polishing process totally removes the original aluminum surfaces on both sides of the blank, thus eliminating all dips, pits, bubbles, rolling marks and other i mperfections. If not removed such defects would show up, magnified in the lacquer coating surfaces.

Polishing the aluminum discs
Micropolished substrates are checked for flatness and thickness uniformity.

Our Exclusive Lacquer Formulation:

The ingredients, which must meet unusually tight specifications, are compounded by the chemical staff in our Banning plant. The formulation and the process of preparing it are totally proprietary and not available to any other lacquer master manufactur er.

These new developments in aluminum and lacquer formulations allow us to exercise complete control over the critical raw materials, thus minimizing the major difficulties experienced in the manufacturing of lacquer masters.

Innovators in the lacquer formulation for the Apollo master have resulted in a number of significant improvements in performance

Filter Tanks
The Apollo Formulation is highly filtered in stainless steel housings to remove any particles.

Mastering the Master

The greatest formulation and finest raw materials cannot by themselves assure a perfect product.

This is particularly true when manufacturing lacquer masters. To produce consistently superior masters, all manufacturing processes must be scrupulously and continuously controlled. The operations must be performed in well-equipped facilities with hig hly trained personnel.

Apollo's new factory in Banning is ideally suited to produce such masters. Is the most modern and sophisticated of its type in the world.

Take, for instance, the control of air cleanliness. The air is ac clean as, of cleaned than the medical, microchip or computer-disc industries. All workers wear class 100 clean room uniforms which cover them from head to foot. The work areas are ente red only through air locks to eliminate room pressure fluctuations and debris infiltration. All this is done to assure absolute cleanliness of the aluminum and lacquer surfaces.

Ultrasonic cleaners
Before coating, the aluminum blanks are washed in ultrasonic cleaners.

After polishing, the aluminum blanks are washed in special ultrasonic cleaners to render them totally free from oils and other residues.

The degree of blending and filtering that the lacquer formulation undergoes and the resulting smoothness and consistency are amazing. The aluminum and the lacquer finally come together in the coating room. There, the automatic coaters perform the crit ical step of depositing a perfectly even layer of lacquer on the aluminum blank.

Coating and drying
Class 100 clean air is used in the coating room. All personnel must wear special uniforms which cover them from head to foot. This is necessary to assure absolute surface cleanliness.

Even the apparently simple drying and curing process is an example of modern control systems. Throughout the process, all the parameters are continuously monitored by automatic sensing equipment and by quality control technicians.

All masters are 100% visually inspected to assure the absence of any imperfections in the cutting area. Only the surfaces which meet such criteria are accepted for Apollo masters. Those which do nor are rejected. The accepted lacquers are then indivi dually coded identify the manufacturing date, as well as other information about the process and materials.

TESTING... Testing... And More Testing:

Samples of the finished lacquer masters are continuously tested for conformity with all specification requirements. There are many physical and chemical tests, ranging from measurements of coating thickness and surface hardness to adhesion and solvent retention.

Microscopic inspection
High powered microscopes equipped with video cameras aid in determining such things as stylus life, accurately analyzing visual defects, etc. In addition to displaying the results on a color monitor, video tape recordings are made for further study.

The meticulous attention and concentration on the smallest details ensures that the highest quality discs possible are manufactured in our new Banning plant.

Test cutting
Selected lacquers are cut with a variety of test signals and are processed to the mother stage. They are then compared against the performance properties of the original lacquers.

Even the lacquers which have been released to inventory are periodically sampled to check the effects of storage and aging. In addition, environment tests are performed to determine the effects of temperature, shipping, and packaging. Continuous conta cts with customers give us a source of additional feedback on the day to day performance of our lacquers.


TECHNICAL DATA

Electrical Test Data

Recording
Cutting lathe/headNeumann VMS 70/SX74
Cutting stylusAdamant NSH-2
Playback
TurntableTechnics SL-1100
Cartridge/stylusShure SC39ED/SS39ED
Stylus force1 gram
PreamplifierCustom, Capitol Records
Noise meterDBX 81

Dimensions

Product #DescriptionDiameter
Inches
(mm)
01-14-20214" Apollo masters14(355.6)
01-12-20212" Apollo masters12(304.8)
01-10-20210" Apollo masters10(254)
Thickness and tolerances
Inches
(mm)
Aluminum base0.036+-0.002(0.914+-0.05)
Lacquer coating10.007+-0.0005(0.178+-0.0127)
Overall thickness0.050+-0.004(1.27+-0.1)

Center Hole Diameter

Incehs(mm)
0.286+-0.001(7.26+-0.025)

Preffered cutting Side

The side without the code number stamp.

The other side although frequently cuttable may have physical defects.

Signal to noise ratio test conditions

Reference level (0 dB)1000Hz at 3.54cm/sec. left channel
Heater current/power0.45 Amperes/2.025 Watts
Groove width, no modulation2.5 mils (0.064 mm)
Diameter for noise reading10 inches (254 mm)
8 inches (203 mm) for 10" masters
RIAA equalization, recordOn
RIAA equalization, playOff

Recommended Conditions for Shipping, Storage, Plating, etc.2

Master storage
Tempature
70+-10 degrees F (21+-5.5 degrees C)
Humidity
50+-20%
Shipping of uncut mastersNot to exceed 110 degrees F (43 degrees C)
Shipping of cut masters70+-10 degrees F (21+-5.5 degrees C)
Maximum time between
cutting and plating
As short as possible.
Optimum results if under 72 hours
1 Tolerance do not apply within 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) from the edge.
2 The recommendations are general guidelines only.


Apollo Masters Corporation 101 West Lincoln Street - Banning, California 92220 - (909) 849-8831
Internation Sales 20758 Bermuda Street - Chatsworth, California 91311 - (818) 341-9314
National Sales 567 Racquet Club Lane - Thousand Oaks, California 91360 - (805) 373-3769

One of the G C International Companies


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