In contrast to duplication, replication is the term used for high volume industrial disc copying. There is normally  a minimum order of 500 discs albeit that you will normally pay pretty much the same for 500 as you would for 1000 so to make replication cost effect, it is best to base all orders on a mimium of 1000 pieces.In a disc replication plant, making disc copies goes through the following stages.1. Glass mastering. A piece of glass is polished and then small holes are etched onto the glass surface deep into the substrate to represent the 1’s of the binary content. The glass master becomes an exact replica of the original master. Since a glass master is too fragile to be handled, a metal stamper is made which can sustain the heat and pressure from the injection molding.2. Stamper masteringAs described earlier, a stamper is actually used in the making of the disc, . A stamper is usually made out of an aluminum plate. It’s the compliment of the glass master meaning all the 1’s on the glass master will become the 0’s and all the 0’s will become 1’s on the stamper. This male/female relationship between the glass master and the stamper makes the stamper the mother of the replication. When a disc is molded from the stamper the data reverse back to the original.3. Injection moldingA disc is make by injecting molten polycarbonate onto the stamper. The data on the disc will be the compliment of the stamper so they are converted back to the original as the glass master.4. SputteringThe polycarbonate discs after injection molding are transparent. A reflective mirror coating needs to cover up the disc so the pits of data can be read when the laser is reflected back to the disc reader. The process of making the disc reflective is called sputtering. Sputtering requires the transparent polycarbonate discs to be transferred to the sputtering chamber which is then quickly evacuated of air and filled with argon gas. The argon ions are attracted to the aluminum target by the use of a high voltage. As the ions strike the target, particles of aluminum are ejected and are deposited onto the CD surface.5. Artwork printingBefore artwork can be printed a lacquer is applied to the disc surface. The lacquer is then UV dried in few seconds. Artwork is then printed on top of the transparent lacquer. There are two ways to print the artwork; i.e. silkscreen or offset litho print. Silkscreen printing is good for vector based graphics and offset is good for photo based graphics skin tones etc. Both artwork formats come out with a very professional looking finish.

Although all duplicators available on the market can do direct reader to writers duplication, there are disadvantages of doing so, namely, the reader will wear out faster and the data transfer is less reliable. Imaging if you had to burn 500 CDs from a 1-to-7 duplicator, the reader will have to read 72 times. The more the reader reads, the faster the optical head ages. As the laser head ages, it will be more difficult for the reader to read data from the CD master. One common problem found on desktop PC is that for the same CD it could be read on one computer but not on other. That is probably caused by the aging laser head that fails to read data. Although a CD-ROM reader is very inexpensive now but changing one can be a daunting job for non-technical personnel. The solution to this is to store the CD masters on an internal hard drive. This way the reader will only need to read once and the data transfer from a hard drive to the writer is much more reliable.One X for CD is 150KB per second. So for a fully loaded CD-ROM with 650MB, it will take about 87 seconds for a 52X writer to complete the burning. The formula is 650 x 1024 ÷ 150 ÷ 52 = 87. As far as DVD, one X represents 1380KB/sec. With this rate, a fully-loaded DVD master with 4.7GB will require about 893 seconds (about 15 minutes) for a 4X writer to complete the burning. Again, the formula is 4.7 x 1024 x 1024 ÷ 1380 ÷ 4 = 892.8. The actual time will be longer because of the lead-in and lead-out. On the other hand, most of the time the master is not fully loaded so the numbers above are the extreme cases. Your burning time will be the function of how full the master is and what type of media you are using. Some media, although advertised for certain speed, may not be able to attain the rates it was advertised and the duplicator will try to burn at lower speed to ensure the integrity.Although making a duplicator to crack the copyright protection scheme isn’t really difficult from the technical point of view, most duplicator manufacturers, including New Cyberian Systems, Inc. do respect the hard work of the content authors or owners. If you try to copy copyright protected CDs or DVD’s, the duplicator will most likely complain. Even there is no copyright protection on most masters, you should be aware of the consequence of potentially breaking the copyright laws.

Virtually all-major trade and high street retailers who have traditionally attracted consumers with printed catalogues are now concentrating on how best to reel in the online shoppers. Whilst each year there has been a steady increase in goods being ordered online, in practice the take up is still slower than retailers would like and marketers need to encourage more, and more, and incentivise more to ensure they are participating successfully in this booming trend. With CD duplication and DVD duplication being such a cost effective way of marketing this option has never been easier or cheaper to do.The Retail Disc is the perfect catalyst to encourage traditional shoppers to migrate to online shopping and the inclusion of promotions and seasonal updates can be one of many new ways to entice customers to spend more on-line in your store.With the latest digital technology it’s now possible to take the entire content of your retail catalogue whether it’s 100 pages or 5,000 pages and place on a CD or DVD. A disc is cheaper to manufacture, less expensive to send out, and far easier to pick up in store than a bulky paper catalogue. Depending on the quantity needed the process would either be DVD duplication, CD duplication for smaller quantities of upto 1000 or DVD replication, CD replication for the larger runs of 1000 +. The Retail Disc only needs to be inserted into a PC or MAC and is fully recyclable. And as well as saving on costs and decreasing your carbon foot print, a disc is the best medium to take your customers automatically to your website. Customers can easily search your entire catalogue on disc, take a detailed product tour upfront or you can invite them to make a virtual visit to your show rooms.What’s more, you can tailor the disc to a specific target audience driving customers to dedicated areas or let them browse suggested promotions or associated others. And with a press of a button the customer is taken straight through to order the products of their choice. An interactive retail disc is a quick and easy way to order on-line. As you can see already, the benefits of doing this are endless.