How Are Silicone Wristbands Made? A Step-by-Step Guide

Since 2004, Lance Armstrong wearing his Livestrong yellow wristband to raise awareness of cancer, silicone bracelets have been all the rage as a nonprofit fundraising and marketing tool.

However, not many people know about how silicone wristbands are made. Simply put, there are 9 steps involved in producing silicone bracelets, including draft design, silicone mixing, silicone cutting, manual cutting, making mold, thermoforming, coloring, quality inspection, and packaging.

The following is a detailed description of the production of silicone bracelets:

Step 1: Design Draft

Before production, Our designer will start to design the wristbands’ draft according to customer’s demand. For personalized your own silicone wristband, you could tell us some details, including style, color, size, quantity, font name, font color, and your logo or icon. After carefully confirming that there are no errors, our production department will arrange production according to the drawing.

• About Style
  Here are common silicone wristbands’ style: blank, debossed, debossed ink injected, embossed, embossed printed, Printed, and color-coated wristband.
  Besides, you can also other special wristband, like slap bracelet, tyvek wristband, hand sanitizer wristband, glowing in dark, color changing, QR code, and wristband keychain.
• About Color
  Our custom wristbands come in Pantone Shades and we can offer you all of the Pantone®C color system, so you can choose from nearly 1,000 different colors to get you any color you want. If you have no idea about Pantone Color. Please tell us your color what you need. And our designer will help you.
• About Size
  There are 5 common sizes for your reference in Harborway Gift, such as large size (8.27 inch), adult size (7.95 inch), women size (7.48 inch), youth size (7.09 inch), and children size ( 6.30 inch). If it is difficult to choose right size, please feel free to consult our customer’s service to get a advise.
• About Quantity
  Our MOQ is only 10 pieces of each design for customize silicone wristbands. We advise order more than 50 pieces to get lower cost.
• About message on wristband
  You can choose any font and font color for your custom silicone wristband. Of course, adding icons, logos on the bracelet are welcome.

Step 2: Silicone Mixing

To start, the base rubber silicone stock is made by mixing the elements together. Typically, the color of the desired main bracelet is mixed in at this point. Often bracelets are multicolored so all the needed stock is made at this point.

Step 3: Machine Cutting & Manual Cutting

Machine cutting and manual cutting are two common cutting methods. The base rubber silicone stock is shaped into tubes or strips by cutting. The thickness of the tubes and strips can vary as needed.

Step 4: Making Mold

Then, it’s time to mold the silicone stock. A steel mold is used. The stock goes in and is melted and a cross-section of the bracelet is done.

Step 5: Thermoforming

Putting the cut silicone into the mold. In this step, the cut and mix-colored silicone will be made into the shape of a bracelet.

Step 6: Trimming

We will remove the excess rubber of silicone wristbands. And, the blank silicone wristbands are finished production.

Step 7: Coloring

There are many ways to add messaging and this is the key difference in how you make these bracelets. For example, you can color print lettering and logos after the mold is made. You can choose different ways, like printed, ink injected, and embossed printed.

In addition to the above, Dual-layer printing is another option, but the cost will be higher.

Step 8: Quality Inspection

Quality is very important for silicone wristbands. Before packaging, each silicone wristband will be checked by the quality inspector to make sure they are no problem

Step 9: Packaging

Usually, the opp bag is a common packaging method. Of course, you can choose other ways.