How Do I Stop My Discs From Sticking Together?

Q: I am a high school teacher and I run multiple copies of DVDs for the football coaches and for my TV Production class projects. It appears that [brand name deleted] discs seem to jam up our automated robotic feed duplicator. I have tried manually separating them and writing titles on them with felt tip markers PRIOR to duplication, hoping that this would cause them to stick together less, but nothing has helped.

Which type of discs would you recommend to solve this stickiness issue? Or is there a certain manufacturer or brand that you would recommend that stick together less than others?

A: First, I'll address the question about which disc you should buy. You should always try to use the brand of disc that was recommended by your equipment manufacturer. Some discs are thicker or heavier than others - the difference in size can be measured in microns, but it can affect your results. For example, we've learned that heavier discs usually perform better than lighter discs in gravity-fed printers.

If you'd like more information on disc quality, you can check the reviews and forums on CDFreaks.com. Their content is concentrated more on data performance as opposed to the print performance of the disc, but it's a good source of information.

As for the stickiness issue, I did some research by reading some product manuals on the Microboards Web site. According to the documentation for the HCL autoloader, the most common problems when using an autoloader are disc static and "sticky disc" issues. Static charge is often the culprit. Not only is this frustrating, but it could shock the robotic arm and make your whole disc publishing system publishing freeze up.

Microboards recommends you try to eliminate static before loading your discs on the to autoloaders spindles. You can do this by separating the discs before you place them on the spindle or, if that doesn't work, use canned air to blow air around the edge of your discs. (The canned air trick can reduce static up to 90%.)

Many of our manufacturers also suggestion you "fan" your discs prior to placing them in your printer or autoloader. Fanning is lightly separating your discs the same way you would fan a deck of cards when performing a card trick. ("Go on...pick a disc..any disc.")

A third solution was actually provided by the person who originally posed this question. He later wrote back and reported that his autoloader has a setting that "shakes" the robotic arm to dislodge extra discs. And, sure enough, the HCL Autoloader has the same function. The manual said the HCL Autoloader has a "disc separator" function under its Loader Utilities. When you select this option, the robotic arm stops at the top of its travel and bounces one to three times to dislodge discs that are stuck together.

Dean Engel answers real questions from Polyline cusomters regarding disc publishing equipment, discs and media packaging. Dean's blog http://askdeanslist.blogspot.com/ also appears as an occasional feature in polyNEWSline, Polyline's monthly newsletter. A trusted name in media packaging for more than 35 years, Polyline is the largest U.S. distributor of in-stock media packaging for CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray, VHS and audio. In addition to a large selection of media packaging options, Polyline offers a large variety of brand-name recording media, including bulk CDs, Blu-ray discs and DVDs.