In detail? Mostly, no.
There have only ever been a few companies that have made compression-molded clay chips, and none of them published much information about it. Making casino chips is the same as making money, and the few companies that have done it treated most aspects of their production methods and business operations as highly confidential. In fact, David Spragg of Classic Poker Chips (one of the two remaining manufacturers) has said that, as a holder of a Nevada gaming equipment license, he is forbidden by law from revealing details about how his chips are produced.
We do, however, know quite a bit about the
generalities involved.
Here's one informative picture:
View attachment 720149
And here's another:
View attachment 720150
Edge spots (technically called "inserts") are cut from round blank slugs, as shown in the picture above. The chipmakers have different punches corresponding to the different available spot patterns. For example, if making a chip with a black body and three yellow 1/4" spots (which would be called a 314 spot pattern), they'll use the die to punch out three 1/4" spots from a yellow blank and then use the same die to punch a black blank. They'll use the yellow spots from the punched yellow blank and put them in the holes left in the punched black blank.
There's no measuring involved; it's done using prefabricated punches. Round punches cut out the blanks from the clay sheets, and "punched poker chip"-shaped punches cut out the inserts and the holes for the inserts.
Clay is placed by hand within the molds in the press, including putting the punched blank into the mold cup and then putting the inserts into the holes in the blank in the mold cup.
Molds are made by machining. A master die, or hob, is machined out of hardened steel. It looks like a die that's used in striking coins. The hob is used to strike mold cups. The mold cups are used in the press to make poker chips. It takes two mold cups - one for each side - to make one chip; the cups are placed in what's called a "shoe" within the press, and can be swapped in and out to make different chips for different runs on the press.
Here's a great post with some examples:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/redbellys-crown-jewels.3820/page-2#post-15370
Those are called "inlays"; the edge spots are called "inserts".
Inlays are lithographically printed on paper or vinyl and are usually then laminated with a protective layer of clear plastic, then cut out using dies into circles or other shapes. They're placed by hand on the blank chip (probably done outside the press, but that's one of those details that we don't have much visibility into). There's a bit of adhesive which holds the inlay in place until the chip is pressed.
Don't confuse an "inlay" on a compression-molded chip with a "decal" (aka label aka sticker) on an injection-molded chip. With injection molded chips, the chip is made in its entirety, and
then the decal is adhered
onto the surface of the recess that's molded into the chip. With compression-molded chips, the inlay is
pressed into the surface of the recess that's molded into the chip
during the molding step in the press.
There's tons more we could talk about! You can search the forum and read about specific things you're curious about, or feel free to ask specific questions here. Someone will answer, to the best that we can, given what little public knowledge exists.
Welcome to the forum!
