DATE: Thursday, May 23, 2019

TIME: Optional Lunch – Noon       Tour – 1:30PM

LOCATION: Optional Lunch – Mastoris diner, 144 Rt. 130, Bordentown, NJ
                        Tour: IRP Co. – 300 Bordentown-Hedding Rd., Bordentown, NJ 

The Independent Record Pressing Co. presses 12-inch vinyl records in a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse just off Rt. 130. The company was co-founded in 2015 by David Hansen and Darius Van Arman, owners of independent-label record companies, in response to the need created by the unexpected 21st century renaissance of vinyl records.

IRP started with six Tracey-Val/Hamilton automatic presses that dated to the 1970’s. They came from one of the longest running presses on the East Coast; Hub-Servall Record Mfg. Corp., which had operated in Cranbury, NJ but closed its doors in 2004 and sold its 14 presses to RIP-V Pressing Plant in Quebec, Canada. When RIP-V closed in turn in 2015, Hansen and Van Arman bought the presses and Dave Miller, son of the original founder of Hub-Servall, brought them back into operation at IRP. He is the plant manager of IRP while Sean Rutkowski is the general manager.

The company still operates two of the old machines, along with six new electric presses. Vinyl pellets sourced from Thailand are poured into a press’s extruder, melted with steam, and formed into a lump about the size of a hockey puck. Labels are put on top and bottom and the whole is pressed between metal stampers. The excess vinyl is trimmed off and the discs are water cooled. After being checked they are sleeved and jacketed and packaged for shipping.

REGISTRATION or QUESTIONS: E-mail or call Helen Schenck at hschenck@princeton.edu or 609-386-4180

DEADLINE: May 21st