In fact, a large part of all North American music, software and video is recorded onto compact discs made right here in Canada, at a company called Cinram. The technology of the compact disc is made possible by the work of many engineers. Engineers not only developed the original concept of burning music into glass for perfect sound, they also developed the materials and manufacturing process used to make CDs. CDs are made of a number of different materials, including plastic, nickel and silver. Chemical engineers experiment with raw materials to make CDs more durable, cheaper and of higher quality.
Mechanical engineers design, test and build the machinery that makes the discs and their cases.
They also monitor the performance of these complex machines to ensure quality standards are high for each of the 100 million discs produced each year. A thin layer of metal, called photoresist, is baked onto the glass. Once it has hardened, the data, or binary code, is burned into the metal using a powerful laser, designed by mechanical engineers. A sodium hydroxide solution is then spooned over the disc. The sodium hydroxide solution removes the photoresist wherever the pulse of the laser beam touched it, leaving a tiny microscopic hole, or pit.