Baku CD Processing Plant

Opened in 2005, Baku CD is Gilan's third CD production plant, with other factories being located in Moscow and Kiev. Baku CD was the first manufacturing plant of its kind to be opened in Azerbaijan.The plant is equipped with the Skyline II CD production line, an entirely automated system manufactured by German company Singulus. The system comprises Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Fanuc of Japan and Siemens of Germany. The site also operates specialist equipment provided by Piovan (Italy), E-Mould (The Netherlands) and Boge (Germany), amongst others.

Avtivities of  Gilan CD plant

The plant can be operated on a 24/7 basis, having a maximum capacity of 23,000 compact discs per day, manufactured using five matrices, this equates to one CD every three seconds. Printing on the CD surface is realised using a Hanky Offset Printing (HPO) machine, able to imprint one CD per second.CD mastering is initially undertaken by the client and is then sent to Russia or Turkey for matrix manufacture. The pressing line incorporates a system whereby the matrix is automatically cleansed of lacquer, being pressed at –0.85 bar pressure. It is normally possible to produce 50,000 CDs from one matrix.

CD production

The imprinting of the design on the CD comprises two stages, whereby plates are produced from camera-ready artwork, being realised on a HPO machine. The ink is dried using ultra-violet light. This makes it possible to apply a range of finishes to the CDs, including transparent lacquer. The offset printing system generally comprises three stations for undertaking specific printing techniques. All inks used in the process, which are manufactured in Japan, are designed to be waterproof.Baku CD uses the most recently developed polycarbonates in its CD manufacture, all of which are certified as genuine by the imprinting of the word 'Gilan' near the CD centre. Furthermore, the CDs have achieved Quality Certification from the Azerbaijan Republic State Standardisation Institute. Manufacturing quality certification is assessed on an annual basis.