Today's Clay Poker Chips
Modern clay poker chips are typically only made with a small percentage of clay or some other material from the earth. It is estimated that poker chips have not been made of 100% clay since before the 1950s. These changes in formulation have been made to increase durability. While each chip manufacturer guards their exact formula and processes of making these clay poker chips, it is still easy to deduce that clay is only a small piece of the formula.
It is also known that modern day clay poker chips are made by using compression molding techniques. Making chip via compression molding is a tedious and time consuming process. This is a major contributing factor to the high price of authentic clay poker chips and why you typically only see them in casinos. Security and uniqueness of design are also limiting factors. In other words, the manufacturers that make chips for casinos have to get expensive molds made for the unique chips designed for that casino.
This exact design can not be sold to anyone else, because that would be a breach of security. Hence a new design and set of molds has to be made if these chips are to be sold to the public. However, it is not cost effective to do this unless several hundred thousand chips are being produced.
Compression molding is a neat process that is basically just as the name describes. Molds are created to the design specifications for the individual poker chip being made. The materials that make up the poker chip are mixed together into clay like substance. This mass is then formed into a long cylindrical shape and sliced into poker chip size sections. Note that the edge spots are not painted on.
They are actually made from different color clay that was inserted into the cylindrical mass before slicing. Once cut into the proper size slice the soon to be poker chip is inserted into the highly detailed mold and subjected to around 10,000 pounds per square inch and over 300 degrees of heat.
The inlays or labels that you see on these quality chips are often made of paper. However, this paper inlay in covered with a plastic or some other material that is water proof. All of these layers are put into place before the chip goes into the compression mold. Therefore the inlay becomes part of the chip, so it and its protective layer can not be removed without totally destroying the poker chip. These resilient and water resistant chips can be cleaned gently with soap and water.
Modern clay poker chips are typically only made with a small percentage of clay or some other material from the earth. It is estimated that poker chips have not been made of 100% clay since before the 1950s. These changes in formulation have been made to increase durability. While each chip manufacturer guards their exact formula and processes of making these clay poker chips, it is still easy to deduce that clay is only a small piece of the formula.
It is also known that modern day clay poker chips are made by using compression molding techniques. Making chip via compression molding is a tedious and time consuming process. This is a major contributing factor to the high price of authentic clay poker chips and why you typically only see them in casinos. Security and uniqueness of design are also limiting factors. In other words, the manufacturers that make chips for casinos have to get expensive molds made for the unique chips designed for that casino.
This exact design can not be sold to anyone else, because that would be a breach of security. Hence a new design and set of molds has to be made if these chips are to be sold to the public. However, it is not cost effective to do this unless several hundred thousand chips are being produced.
Compression molding is a neat process that is basically just as the name describes. Molds are created to the design specifications for the individual poker chip being made. The materials that make up the poker chip are mixed together into clay like substance. This mass is then formed into a long cylindrical shape and sliced into poker chip size sections. Note that the edge spots are not painted on.
They are actually made from different color clay that was inserted into the cylindrical mass before slicing. Once cut into the proper size slice the soon to be poker chip is inserted into the highly detailed mold and subjected to around 10,000 pounds per square inch and over 300 degrees of heat.
The inlays or labels that you see on these quality chips are often made of paper. However, this paper inlay in covered with a plastic or some other material that is water proof. All of these layers are put into place before the chip goes into the compression mold. Therefore the inlay becomes part of the chip, so it and its protective layer can not be removed without totally destroying the poker chip. These resilient and water resistant chips can be cleaned gently with soap and water.
0 comments:
Post a Comment