also know as: snap, snap fastener, press stud
also see: Tools >> popper machines

Metal poppers are great for making electrical connections. They are traditionally a wearable fastener. They are a washable and reliable connection method.

We have found that not all metal poppers are good for solder to. White bronze, brass, PWP nickle free, silver finish…

Sewable Poppers

Poppers intended for hand sewing are great because they require no tools and the sewing itself can be done with conductive thread to make the conductive connection. On the other hand, if you have a lot of snaps to sew, it becomes tedious. Although a well sewn connection is sturdy, if it is under a lot of train and often open and closed, the threads tend to become loose.

Machine Poppers

Snaps can be attached to fabric by hammering, plying. Both methods require For plying snap fasteners, there are special snap pliers.

There are different kinds of machine poppers for stretch and non-stretch materials.

Machine poppers for stretch fabrics

The ones for stretch materials have pronged backings that pierce through the stretch fabric at multiple points, reducing the risk of tearing a hole. A single layer of jersey fabric tends to tear if a popper is attached and there is strain on it, or it is often opened and closed. To avoid tearing one can enforce the fabric with a second layer in the back. The three different parts necessary for pronged poppers are:
- prong/capped prong (back)
- stud/duostud (male)
- socket (female)

Machine poppers for non-stretch fabrics

For non-stretch materials the backs have a single post. These are often found on Jeans and are not suitable for stretch fabrics:
- post (back)
- stud (male)
- socket (female)

Dice

Sizing

Poppers are measured in Ligne and cm. Ligne comes from the French word meaning line and is used to measure the diameter of buttons and poppers. It is abbreviated with the letter L or represented by the triple prime ‴.

The standardized conversion for a ligne is:
1 ligne = 2.2558291 mm or 1 mm = 0.443296 ligne

I find that everybody converts Ligne to cm differently. Here are a few conversions taken from charts posted on various websites:
12L (7.8MM), 14L (9MM), 16L(10.5MM), 18L (11.7MM)

11 Ligne = 7mm
12 Ligne = 7 – 7.7mm
14 Ligne = 8 – 9mm
15 Ligne = 9.2 – 9.8mm
16 Ligne = 10 – 11mm

1 L = 2.2558291 mm
1 mm = 0.443296 L
1 inch = 40 L

Basically you want to watch out that the size poppers you order will work with the size of the dice of your popper tool.

Supply

I found this chart useful when ordering poppers from Durable Fasteners >>
http://kobakant.at/downloads/PDFs/DurableFasteners-poppers.pdf

I have found that if you order from an industrial supplier you can get 1000 popper sets (4000 pieces) for 40 – 80 USD
Fly press machines are about 100 – 500 USD
Dice vary from 20 – 100 USD per set

Suppliers

Durable fasteners (Morito) >> www.durablefasteners.co.uk (UK)

DTP Supplies (Prym) >> www.dtpsupplies.com (UK)

YKK (U.K.) Ltd (YKK) >> http://www.ykkeurope.com/contact.php (UK)

Mansam >> http://www.mansam.com/ (UK)

Prym >> http://www.prymfashion.co.uk/gripfixindex2.html (UK, world wide)

Morito >> http://www.morito.co.jp/english/index.html (Japan)

USA:
>> http://www.snapsource.com/
>> http://sewtrue.com/

Prices

Poppers