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Cloisonne and

Cloisonne Plus

Laser-Fired

Cloisonne

Soft Enamel, Die-Struck Plus and Economy

Photo-Etched Enamel

Screen Print and Four-Color Process

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Stock American Flag Pins

Die-Struck Metal Keytags

Medallions & Coins

Precious Metals, Stones & Service Awards

Attachments, Findings & Accessories

Metal

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Embroidered Products

Bendaflex® PVC Products

Favor-IT Emblems

asi # 30117    ppai # 167575    UPIC: EMBLEM    SAGE: 62756   

ABOUT METAL PRODUCTS

 

The process of making a lapel pin starts with the assessment of the artwork or design. This will identify which process to use or which process will work the best. Does the artwork demand that colors touch or run together? Are there shadows or small text and details? Will sequential numbers be required?

 

Traditional lapel pin manufacturing requires a metal die. A reverse image of your design is carved into stainless steel creating a die. This die is stamped into copper or brass sheets using several tons of pressure that form a detailed impression (raised and recessed metal areas) of your artwork. A special punch or cut tool (like a cookie cutter) is fabricated and literally punches the design away from the metal sheet so it can be hand-polished, colorized and plated.  With a traditional pin, colors cannot touch. The colors must be separated or trapped by the raised metal walls. The measurement of a metal product is calculated by using the longest length, whether that is horizontal or vertical.

 

Cloisonné is also referred to as hard enamel. Colors are hand-filled with a powdered glass or a poly-resin paste mixture into struck copper. Each color is filled to the surface and baked at nearly 1600F, one color at a time! This process is repeated for each color. Once completed, these are polished to a jewelry-like finish and plated with 22k

gold, nickel, silver or other plating options. The traditional nail and barb is added to the backside. Laser-Fired Cloisonné adds another step to finished Cloisonné. Laser or screen print colors can be applied on top of the polished surface allowing colors to touch, eliminating the need for metal walls to separate some colors. Higher levels

of detailing are now achieved.

 

Pins struck in brass without color-fill are traditionally referred to as Die-Struck. When adding pantone® PMS colors, these are commonly called Soft Enamel. Soft Enamel pins are hand-filled with an enamel paint using a syringe and needle. This is baked at a lower temperature (200-400F) and once cured, the colors remain slightly recessed in the metal. A clear coating or epoxy can be added to the surface to protect the colors. Without colors, the recessed areas are textured while the raised surface is high polished.

 

Photo Etch Enamel does not utilize a traditional die. Your design is etched into a thin metal using an acid-reaction process. A recessed area remains after the acids are removed readied for enamel pantone® painting, baking and polishing. An epoxy dome is optional.

 

If colors must touch, run together or when colors require screening, half tones, ghosts or shadows Screen Print or Four-Color Process pins are appropriate. These are economical and an alternative to the high end processing. Screen Printing requires each color to use a separate solid pantone® color while Four-Color processing incorporates the use of CMYK or film separated artwork, just like color photography. These process choices use an epoxy dome and usually have no plating since the metal is not viewable.

 

Key Tags, Coins and Medallions use all the same techniques. Coins would require two dies (for the front and back images). It is easy to imagine these as oversized lapel pins without the traditional nail and barb backing, but using other attachments and findings.

 

As you can envision, metalwork is a time consuming and labor intense process. Individually, these are precious pieces of jewelry!