Keychains come in lovely designs and are extremely useful to keep keys safe. In the present time, they come in all sorts of designs and colors. People can have them shaped like the logo of their favorite football club or get one that looks like their favorite cartoon character.
Designs can also be personalized, and thus they can create an emotional connection. With the advent of sophisticated printing methods, people can have their names and pictures of their loved ones printed on fabrics or acrylic surfaces.
Acrylic designs are fancy since they look as beautiful as glass. However, acrylic is also a sturdy material and does not break as easily as glass. Thus, one can have designs that are gorgeous to look at and durable to use. If someone is looking for a pretty acrylic keychain, they can visit online stores like vograce.com, that specialize in making these keychains.
Why Are Keychains So Useful?
They Keep Keys Safe
Loose, single keys are easy to lose, especially tiny ones. If a keychain is added to them, they become noticeable; hence, they do not get lost easily.
They Are Used For Brand Promotion And Awareness Creation
Several organizations give out keychains as souvenirs and attach a design of their logo. Thus, they can promote a particular brand. If the design has a tagline that refers to a specific movement like sustainable development or breast cancer awareness, then the rings could be a great way to spread the message far and wide.
Different Types Of Keychains And How They Are Manufactured
Plastics
Hard and soft plastics are often used to make keyrings. Hard plastics are more robust and stiff, and soft plastics are slightly more flexible. Some plastics like polystyrene is a hard plastic as it remains hard and solid at average ambient temperatures. However, other plastics are not as hard as polystyrene at ambient temperatures, and they are known as soft plastics.
Plastics like acrylic are also used extensively to make decorative items. They are transparent like glass, yet they are pretty hardy for regular use. Some people cannot handle delicate materials like glass very well, and they usually go for acrylic designs.
Designs with acrylic can be shiny as they usually have glitters pasted on them. In order to make an acrylic keyring design, the starting material is usually a small round or square piece of acrylic. The motif that is to be embossed on the acrylic piece is stuck on vinyl tapes. The motif is then carefully transferred from the vinyl tape to the acrylic surface.
Another way to create a design on acrylic is to paint the surface and add glitters or stickers to it. However, while adding glitters, care should be taken to avoid unintentionally introducing air bubbles into the design.
Once this step is over, an Ultraviolet lamp is used to cross-link the decorations better onto the acrylic surface such that the glitter, stickers, etc., sits firmly on the surface of the acrylic piece.
Metals And Alloys
Metals and alloys like steel can be used to make keyrings. Metal designs are hard and strong; they are almost unbreakable. Also, carving out letters or logos is easy on metal surfaces.
To make anything out of metal, one must first melt the metal. Melting metal requires very high temperatures, and such temperatures can be reached only in a furnace. Thus, metal keyrings cannot be manufactured at home or in small units that do not have a furnace.
Some people buy a ready-made mold into which they pour the melted metal to get the desired shape. However, a mold can be made from scratch by drawing the design on a fibreboard.The fibreboard with the design is usually fixed onto a wooden surface to make the final mold.
The molten metal is poured onto the mold, and once the metal has solidified, it is carefully extracted out of the mold. Once the design has been removed, the sharp edges can be smoothened to get a perfect look. However, people must remember that making any metallic object perfect requires a lot of skill, and they need to be extremely cautious when working with hot, melted metals.
Rubber Designs
Rubber keyrings are soft, they are usually flexible, and can be easily molded into multiple shapes. Rubber is water-resistant and soft PVC is the core component used to make beautiful customized designs that are loved by people of all age groups.
After a mold has been finalized, the soft PVC is mixed with colors; after this step, the air bubbles are removed from the mix. Then this colored soft PVC is inserted carefully into the mold. Then it is sent for hardening.
Wooden Designs
Wood is a material of choice for making environmentally sustainable keyrings. This is because wood is made up of natural products and breaking down wood is a natural process that is much easier than breaking down plastics. Moreover, the raw material and the manufacturing process are pretty cheap.
To make a miniature design out of wood, people need a clean piece of wood and a saw that can be used to cut the wood to the desired size. Once a wood piece of appropriate size is ready, the next step is the carving which can be done with a chisel or a mechanical drill. Names and logos can be carved on a piece of wood, but the quality of the carving depends on a person’s expertise.
Conclusion
Apart from the materials mentioned above, like metals, rubber, plastics, and wood, keychains can also be made of glass which looks elegant but has to be handled with care. Small teddy bears or bunny rabbits made from different fabrics like velvet and flax and filled with polyester stuffing can make soft and cute toy-like designs.
Fancy keyrings are seeing a steep increase in demand. These have been used not just to keep keys safe, but some people see them as collectibles. Moreover, they make lovely and meaningful gifts, especially if they come with a personal message or a picture of a loved one.
