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    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson
    E-Textile Tailor Shop by KOBAKANT
    The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

    Since 2020, Hannah is guest professor of the Spiel&&Objekt Master's program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin

    From 2013-2015 Mika was a guest professor at the eLab at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee

    From July - December 2013 Hannah was a researcher at the UdK's Design Research Lab

    From 2010-2012 Mika was a guest researcher in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at The Swedish School of Textiles

    From 2009 - 2011 Hannah was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech research group led by Leah Buechley


    In 2009 Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab


    Between 2003 - 2009 Hannah and Mika were both students at Interface Cultures
    We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition
    Conductive Materials

    Metal Poppers

    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

    [TABLE=3]

    6 Comments so far

    1. Mahesh on September 8th, 2009

      Send me a photo of the Poppers art no NS 4518 AC

    2. Ankur Aggaarwal on February 1st, 2010

      Needs 1 Lac YKK popper sets (16 L) for stretch fabric. Pls let me know ur best quote.

      Regards
      Ankur Aggaarwal
      Mob No- 91-0-9015437241
      E-Mail: ankur@pasupatitextiles.com

    3. Benedict on June 12th, 2012

      Hi there,

      I would like to purchase a set of about 500/1000 poppers (Post, stud, pocket) for non-stretch fabbrics including the tool to fix them. I think I’ll need the 7mm ones. Can you please direct me in the right direction?

      Best wishes,

      Benedict

    4. Sugath Siriwardana on May 10th, 2013

      Hi

      I would like to purchase a set of about 1000 poppers for machine strech fabric

      prong/capped prong (back)
      – stud/duostud (male)
      – socket (female)

      YKK – 16L SNAPY
      Best wishes,

      B.rgds/Sugath

    5. zain on November 14th, 2013

      hi
      i would like to purchase snap fastener button (nickel)with punching japan
      sizes 9 mm or 11mm
      art no.220
      5 grs packing
      brand royal crown

    6. nic on April 15th, 2015

      How do I know which brand and size I need?

      From where to where do I measure diameter- is it the entire popper or the active central piece?

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