How pins are made

I've been seeing a lot of threads about people wondering about manufacturing issues with pins, especially when it comes to pins with see-through/stained glass elements. I've designed and worked with manufactures for lapel pins in the past (not Disney), so I know a lot about the process, but thought some of you would like to know!

The easiest way to explain the process is with this video from How It's Made!
[video=youtube;k_EH_eHnHzY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EH_eHnHzY[/video]

Something I'd like you to see is how the coloring is done. This starts at about the 4:15 mark.
People have been wondering about the backs of pins being flat with stained glass/see-through areas.
This is because the enamel they use is liquid! To accurately fill the see-through area, the pin has to be flat against something so the color doesn't spill out behind the pin. If the Mickey waffle pattern was around these areas the pin would not be flat against a surface and the color would fill into whatever Mickey shapes are closest to the opening.

It's a little similar to the Sun Catcher melted crystal craft kits. In those you'd fill an area with little colored crystals, pop it in the oven, and they'd melt into the framework of whatever the sun catcher is.
You can see that in action here (sorry, can only embed 1 video)

Only difference with professional pins is the color is a liquid and instead of popping it into an oven, it just has to dry on a flat surface.

That is so interesting! :bigthumb: Thank you so much for sharing this with us!!!!

Wow so cool! Thank you for sharing! I loved it.

Very cool process, thanks for sharing!

fun video

Very cool. Looking at all the work that goes through making these pins makes you appreciate them more.

YoSoyAhPuch said:

Very cool. Looking at all the work that goes through making these pins makes you appreciate them more.

Click to expand...

I agree completely!

That's fascinating. I love seeing how all sorts of things are made. Thanks for sharing the video.

cool

Really cool! I wondered about this actually . Thanks.

Thanks for posting!! I love How its made

Saw this before ,thanks for sharing it again!

That's really cool! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing. Missed that episode

Pretty cool.

That was a very cool watch!

So interesting, thanks for sharing

very interesting thanks now we can see how our pins have been made

Here's a good example of what happens when the back area surrounding the see-through parts is not flat.
This is the new GSF Villains Frames Ursula pin.



The areas around her head have the see-through/stained glass elements.
This is the entire back of the pin...



Look at the blue area closest to the bottom. It looks like a pool of blue compared to the other side of the blue area which has nice and clear divisions between the see-through areas.
Here's a closer look:



The blue enamel has leaked between the sections of blue and joined on the back of the pin, it has also spilled out over the back ice cream cone texture a little down from the center of the photo. Although it doesn't show so well in the photos, it actually looks like the pin got stuck to whatever surface they produce it on and they had to break away a little bit of that blue so there is a little bit of a rough edge at some spots. I'm sure not all of the pins turned out like this, but the risk in production runs a lot higher than if the back surface were flat against the surface it's being colored on.