Lapel pins are special pins designed to be worn on the lapel of a jacket or a coat, mainly to indicate membership and sometimes to show achievement or honor. At other times, they may be also worn simply for decorative purposes. There are multiple varieties of Lapel Pins of different shapes, sizes and styles which are personalized to suit the needs of each purchaser. Mostly, lapel pins are either hard enamel pins or soft enamel pins, both of which are made of enamel paint via a die struck process. The process starts with making an impression of the desired design on a metal sheet.
The recessed (or design) areas are sandblasted to give it a finer look and then polished. In hard enamel lapel pins, the paint is heated while in case of soft enamel pins, the paint is air-dried. Cloisonné lapel pins are an excellent choice for highly colored and attractive lapel pins, and are ideal for building brand image. The process slightly varies from the die struck process in that the design areas are filled with color resins instead of being sandblasted. Then, there are the silk screen lapel pins that are similar to the offset printed lapel Pins which use offset and laser printing technologies to bring out the design to perfection, after which it is covered with an acrylic dome.
A die cast or pewter cast Lapel Pin is basically a metal pin with the desired brass, bronze, copper or a silver electroplating. Here, a pattern of the pin design is first sketched on a plastic sheet and from this the master copy is produced. The front and back pieces are glued, pressed between two rubber discs and vulcanized to create a 3-dimensional production mold from which pins are produced by pouring molten zinc or pewter.
