How Quickly Can I Get it Back?
At PSI we make every effort to set your expectations to ensure there are no surprises down the line.
There are industry standards for turn times. What we refer to as our standard turn time is seven to ten business days. However, we understand that in many cases you need your order faster than this. We will always try to meet your deadline and make any recommendations that will help to achieve this.
Tips and tricks to speed things up…
There are some things that you can do to prevent delays with your order. In some cases, this may help to speed up the production schedule.
- Place your order – Let us get your order into our system as soon as possible. If we know your due date we can tell you when we need the master and artwork in order to meet your deadline.
- Send us what you got – The sooner you place your order, the better the chance we have of meeting your deadline. Many customers wait to place their order until after they have completed artwork and have a production-ready master. This is not necessary. If you don’t have everything ready to go, you can still place the order. Say for instance that your artwork is ready to go but the master is still in production. Go ahead and place your order. We can start the approval process and get your print materials into production.
- Make sure you have the correct templates – It is important that you use PSI’s templates for all artwork. Doing so will prevent delays as we may ask you to adjust your artwork so it will work with your templates. If your sales rep has not provided templates be sure to request them.
The steps that are involved in completing your order
You may have devoted weeks, months, or even years, to bring your CD or DVD project to fruition. The CD and DVD replication process is the final piece of this process. To help manage a customer’s (or a boss’s) expectations on how much time it will take, it is helpful to understand the various steps in the production process. Below is a rundown of the steps involved. In a future post, we will be going into greater detail.
The Manufacturing Process…
- Master and artwork arrive at our facility
- Our prepress team checks your artwork. We will send you PDF proofs or alert you of any issues that require corrections to the artwork
- We check your CD or DVD for data errors. If no errors are present, we output a glass master.
- The next step is to make a stamper. The stamper has microscopic pits and grooves which is a physical representation of the data
- Our engineer inserts the stamper into the mold on our replication line
- The replication line then melts down polycarbonate (plastic) pellets. The melted plastic is extruded into the mold, where the stamper molds the pits and grooves and creates a plastic disc
- We then apply a reflective metallic layer to the surface of the disc. After which, we lacquer the disc and test it
- The next step is to print your CD or DVD. We output printing plates, or screens. These plates and screens are what transfer your artwork onto the CD or DVD
- Your artwork is then printed onto the disc
- The finished discs are now ready for assembly. Our experienced staff efficiently completes your project.
- As we are packaging your project we also perform quality control to ensure that everything looks perfect
- The final step is boxing up your order for shipping or for pick up
In conclusion…Communication with your PSI representative is the key to a successful project. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss your next order!