What Materials Do You Need To Make A Medal?

If you are new to custom medals or you are going to customize medals for the first time and are not sure which materials are suitable for your medals then reading this article will be enough.

This article will elaborate on what are the most common materials used to make medals and list the advantages and disadvantages of these materials.

The main materials used to make medals are: zinc alloy, copper, iron, stainless steel and aluminum.

The following is a detailed description of these materials:

1. Zinc alloy

Zinc alloy is the most commonly used material for medals. Zinc alloy has a low melting point and good fluidity, which means it is easy to die-cast into various shapes. The density of zinc alloy is 7.2g/cm3, and because of its characteristics, it is ideal for medals that use a 3D effect, which is better than any other material. Zinc alloy is also a great choice if your medal is more than 3mm thick.

However, zinc alloy also has a disadvantage in that it has more raw edges, which will be repaired in later processing.

2. Copper

Copper is the most expensive of the common materials used to make medals. Copper has a density of 8.9cm3 and uses a different stamping process than zinc alloy materials. Copper is heavy and suitable for high-quality products. If you put copper products into your hands, you can feel the high-quality of copper products, so if you have a budget and want high quality products, then copper material is a very high-quality choice.

3. Iron / stainless steel

The density of iron and stainless iron is about 7.8gcm3, iron is relatively cheaper, but at the same time, the disadvantage is obvious, it is easy to rust, so generally iron products will use drip glue to isolate the product from the air. Since stainless iron material can only use printing and etching process, therefore, most customers will choose it for nameplates.

4. Aluminum

The density of aluminum is about 2.8g/cm3. aluminum is the cheapest compared to other materials. But he also has more restrictions, aluminum products have no texture, while the quality is very light, can not use electroplating, and can only use oxidation or spray paint.

In the case of making the same product, the above materials are ranked from expensive to cheap: copper > zinc alloy > iron/stainless iron > aluminum

Of course, we are also able to customize other materials for the medals, such as PVC, solid gold, wood, etc.