WEA Manufacturing
WEA Manufacturing was the
History
WEA Manufacturing Inc. was created in 1978–1979 when
The company invested in CD manufacturing in 1986, matching a $247,000 contribution by economic development corporation Ben Franklin Technology Partners to develop and implement new processes of
WEA Manufacturing grew to become one of the largest manufacturers of recorded media in the world.[10]
The company began manufacturing
The company's DVD division, Warner Advanced Media Operations (WAMO), helped design the high-density format used in DVDs, and manufactured some of the first DVDs in the late 1990s.[5]
The company was sold to Cinram International in October 2003 and no longer exists under the name WEA Manufacturing, but the Olyphant plant continued to operate under its new ownership.[5] In 2005, the company was Lackawanna County's largest employer, with over 2,300 people working at the Olyphant plant.[5]
Cinram closed the former Allied plant in 2006, while Technicolor (which purchased Cinram's assets in 2015) closed the Olyphant plant in 2018.
Patents
WEA Manufacturing held U.S. patents related to compact disc manufacture:
- Print scanner, (1993).[13]
- Interference of converging spherical waves with application to the design of light-readable information-recording media and systems for reading such media, (2004).[14]
- Method of manufacturing a composite disc structure and apparatus for performing the method, (2005).[15]
- Methods and apparatus for reducing the shrinkage of an optical disc's clamp area and the resulting optical disc, (2005).[16]
Litigation
In 1990, WEA Manufacturing was sued by a Canadian firm, Optical Recording Co. (ORC), for alleged
See also
- Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, another early U.S. manufacturer of CDs
References
- ^ "WCI Buys 2nd Of 3rd Plant Objective". Billboard. May 1, 1979. p. 4.
- ^ "Construction of WEA's new pressing plant starts". Billboard. Oct 27, 1979. p. 4.
- ^ Foti, Laura (Nov 21, 1981). "Specialty Plant Enlarges WEA's Pressing Capacity". Billboard. pp. 9, 92.
- ^ "Gary L. Rader vs. WEA Manufacturing and Specialty Records" (PDF). US Courts (PDF). 2003-10-27. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 27, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Pennsylvania TechFormation 2005 Status Report (PDF) (PDF), p. 38, archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-07-24, retrieved 2009-10-28
- ^ "WCI Building CD Plants in U.S. & Europe". Billboard. Mar 29, 1986. p. 1,80.
- ^ "About WMG". Retrieved 2009-10-28.
1986 · WMG creates WEA Manufacturing, its first CD manufacturing plant.
- ^ Horowitz, Is (Oct 4, 1986). "CD Avalanche". Billboard. p. C-3.
Warner Communications Inc. (WCI). CD production at the company's Olyphant, Pa., factory, also a traditional supplier of vinyl disks, was due to begin in September. Before the end of 1986, an annualized production rate of 14 million units should be realized, says Geoffry Holmes, WCI vice president. Two production modules will provide this output rate.
- ^ Paige, Earl (Oct 4, 1986). "Confab: CD Fill to Remain Slow". Billboard. pp. 4, 85.
'Our fill is the pits,' said WEA president Henry Droz, although he noted the start-up of production at WEA's Olyphant, Pa. plant. Modules, each with 7 million–10 million CD capacity, are coming on line. One is running, but he said he doesn't know the start-up date for the three others that are projected.
- ISBN 1932705457.
- ^ "International Directory of Company Histories - Time Warner Inc". Encyclopedia.com. 1993. Retrieved 2012-05-19.
- ^ Niland, Bob (1994-01-02). "LD#09: Mint Marks". Retrieved 2012-05-19.
- ^ US 5181081, Suhan, John M., "Print scanner", published 1993-01-19, assigned to WEA Manufacturing Inc.
- ^ US 6771585, Li, Yajun & Wolf, Emil, "Interference of converging spherical waves with application to the design of light-readable information-recording media and systems for reading such media", published 2004-08-03, assigned to WEA Manufacturing Inc.
- ^ US 6896829, Kern, Ellis E. & Mueller, William R., "Method of manufacturing a composite disc structure and apparatus for performing the method", published 2005-05-24, assigned to WEA Manufacturing Inc.
- ^ US 6865745, Kern, Ellis E. & Mueller, William R., "Method of manufacturing a composite disc structure and apparatus for performing the method", published 2005-03-08, assigned to WEA Manufacturing Inc.
- ^ Nunziata, Susan (July 4, 1992). "Court Rules Time Warner Infringed On Optical Recording Patents". Billboard. p. 85.