So I am facebook friends with BBO poker tables and they provided a link to their new ceramic poker chips being made. Kind of interesting, I had no idea this is how it is done.
-
This site contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, Poker Chip Forum may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Video of ceramic poker chips being made (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter mike32
- Start date
MaxB
Full House
I always thought they printed directly on the ceramic chip....cool video.
That music was awful though (n) :thumbsdown:
That music was awful though (n) :thumbsdown:
siouxicide
Sitting Out
That's DOPE. Must be a pain to align it all!
detroitdad
Royal Flush
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
derekdd23
Flush
That was awesome, I would have never guessed that process.
Ben
Full House
beaver
Two Pair
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Psypher1000
Straight Flush
Wow..that isn't even remotely close to how I envisioned it. Thanks for the share!
No. Some ceramics are immaculately conceived.
Word
Mental Nomad
Full House
They print the edgespot design as a series of repeated. Then they stack up the chips and wrap the paper around them, so a stack of chips get edge spots all at once. Finally, it goes into a curved form heated press.
Whether using a curved form or the flat press, it's not the pressure that does the work - it's the heat. The heat makes the dyes turn into gas (this is called sublimation.) The gas goes into the chip; it's not just on the surface, it penetrates the outer layers of the chip. This is why it's so durable, it's not strictly "painted on," it penetrates a little.
When the image is transferred this way, it's called "dye sublimation," or dye-sub for short.
Ah that makes sense. Stacked... I'm familiar with the dye sub process as it's the same process I use for my custom cloths. I was more curious about the process of applying the print to each edge. I guess that's why some chip manufacturers have difficulty aligning edge spots with the faces.
My understanding is that it's not so much "difficulty" as it is "time consuming". If you have the process 100% automated, you can know exactly what orientation the chips will be relative to the face picture at each stage in the process. If you are operating by hand (like in the video), there are any number of steps where the orientation can shift. As a result, getting aligned edge spots / front and back requires manually checking the orientation at each stage.
Frankly, I'm impressed that a lot of operations charge as little extra as they do for alignment.
atomiktoaster
Full House
Check out the part of the video where he's putting the blanks down on the graphic sheet. There's stacks of chips on the table with the edges already printed but nothing on the faces. I would have liked to see how that process works though.
Chris La Mantia
Pair
It would make sense to do the edges first though, much easier to align faces with edges rather than edges with faces.
Pretty sure that's how it's done. PGI used to have a ton of blanks with edges already printed, and would occasionally offer discounted sales on those preprinted-edge chips. It was always a crap shoot, but cheap.
Mental Nomad
Full House
The edges need to be done first for a more substantial reason - when you stack up the chips to roll the edge paper around them, you want to be stacking blank faces against each other. If the face dye had already been applied, then when you heated the roll to do the edges some of the dye on the faces could also sublimate and transfer between the faces.
Create an account or login to comment
You must be a member in order to leave a comment
Create account
Create an account and join our community. It's easy!
Log in
Already have an account? Log in here.
