Custom Enamel Medals — Soft Enamel & Hard Enamel, Pantone Color Matching

Soft enamel is the standard for 90% of medal orders. It costs less, produces crisp visible metal lines between colors, and has a textured feel that people associate with traditional awards. Choose soft enamel for sports medals, race medals, school awards, event medals — any order where you need reliable quality at a reasonable per-unit cost. Hard enamel costs 15 to 25 percent more because of the additional polishing step required to make the surface flush and smooth. Choose hard enamel when the medal is a premium recognition piece — military challenge coins, executive awards, luxury corporate gifts, or any award where the recipient will hold it and immediately feel the ceramic-smooth surface. Hard enamel also has slightly better impact resistance because there are no raised metal edges to catch on things. If you are unsure, we recommend soft enamel. It is the industry workhorse for good reason.

One to three colors is standard pricing and covers most designs — a primary logo color, a background color, and black for text outlines or details. Four to six colors incurs a small per-color surcharge because each additional color requires its own mixing batch, its own filling pass by a technician, and its own semi-cure oven cycle. Seven or more colors is priced individually per color and is typically reserved for complex full-color logo reproductions or highly detailed designs. Black counts as one color. White counts as one color. The metal color — gold, silver, copper, and all plating variants — comes from the plating process, not from enamel, and does not count toward your color total. Glitter, glow-in-the-dark, and translucent effects each count as one color plus a separate process surcharge.

When fully cured at 100 degrees Celsius for 60 minutes, enamel chemically bonds to the zinc alloy substrate and will not peel, chip, or fade under normal indoor display conditions. A medal hanging on a wall or stored in a drawer will look the same decades later. Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can slowly fade enamel pigments over many years — this is true of all pigmented coatings — because UV radiation breaks down color molecules at a microscopic level. For medals intended for outdoor display, hard enamel offers slightly better UV resistance because its flush surface has less exposed pigment area per unit of surface. Physical impact — dropping the medal on concrete, for instance — can chip any enamel type. This is mechanical damage, not a material failure.

Yes — Pantone color matching is standard on every enamel medal order we produce. We stock 10 base enamel pigments — white, black, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, brown, and transparent clear — and mix from these to match your specified Pantone colors. You provide the Pantone numbers. We mix to match. The color formulation is recorded in your order file and archived. When you reorder next year, we retrieve the same formula. Batch-to-batch color consistency is one of the main reasons clients reorder with us season after season. For color-critical projects — brand logos where the exact shade of blue matters legally or aesthetically — we offer a swatch sample service. A metal plate with your exact colors applied, shipped to you for physical approval under your own lighting. Nominal fee, credited toward your order.

Soft enamel medals have a textured, slightly concave surface. Run your finger across a soft enamel medal and you will feel the raised metal lines between each color — the boundaries are physical, not just visual. The enamel sits slightly below the metal line, creating a recessed effect that catches light differently at different angles. This is the classic medal feel that most people recognize. Hard enamel medals are completely smooth and flush across the entire surface — no raised metal lines, no texture. The enamel and the metal are polished to the same level, creating a ceramic-like finish that feels like a single continuous surface. Under light, hard enamel has a uniform reflection across the entire medal. Visually, hard enamel looks more premium and refined. Tactilely, it feels more substantial. The difference is immediately obvious when you hold one of each.

Yes — you can combine soft enamel in some areas with hard enamel in others, or add glitter to one recess while keeping the rest standard. Each enamel type requires its own process stage, so mixing types increases production complexity and cost. For example: a medal with soft enamel in the background, hard enamel in the central logo, and glitter in the outer ring would require three separate filling passes, multiple semi-cure cycles specific to each type, and careful masking between stages. The per-unit cost reflects the additional labor and oven time. We will quote each combination separately so you can see the cost breakdown. Most clients who mix types do it selectively — one special effect area surrounded by standard soft enamel — rather than mixing all six types on one medal.

Four things cause the majority of enamel defects. First, dust — airborne particles landing on wet enamel before it enters the oven create surface bumps that are permanent after curing. Our filling area is a clean-room environment with filtered air and no unrelated activity. Second, moisture in the compressed air lines — the syringes use pneumatic pressure assist, and any water vapor in the air line introduces microscopic bubbles that become pinholes after curing. Our air lines run through inline moisture traps and dessicant dryers checked daily. Third, incorrect thinner ratio — too much thinner and the enamel runs, too little and it will not flow into narrow recesses. Each color and fill width has a documented thinner ratio. Fourth, incomplete fill — the technician misses a corner or does not apply enough material. Our 10× magnification QC catches this and the medal is stripped and redone.

For most events — sports tournaments, fun runs, school awards, participation medals — no, it is not worth the extra cost. Soft enamel is the industry standard for a reason: it looks great, holds up well, and costs less. Your recipients will be happy with soft enamel medals. Hard enamel is worth the extra 15 to 25 percent when the medal is a premium recognition piece where the tactile experience matters — military challenge coins that will be carried in a pocket and handled daily, executive awards displayed on a desk, luxury corporate gifts where the recipient's first physical impression determines perceived value. Hard enamel is also preferable when the design has large solid-color areas where the visible metal lines of soft enamel would interrupt the visual flow. If you are unsure, ask yourself: will the recipient hold this medal and judge its quality by touch? If yes, consider hard enamel. If the medal will be worn for an hour at a ceremony and then hung on a wall, soft enamel is the right choice.

Our MOQ is 100 pieces per design, and it is the same whether you order soft enamel or imitation hard enamel — 100 pcs with one color or six, one enamel type or mixed types on the same medal. What changes with hard enamel is the number of process stages, not the quantity floor. Hard enamel paste is applied before plating, then the medal is polished flat so the color sits flush with the metal lines; that extra polishing stage is what adds 15 to 25 percent to unit cost. For a first order, budget time for a sample before the bulk run: sampling takes 7 to 10 days, mass production 7 to 15 days after approval. If your ceremony date is fixed, work backwards from it. Missing sample-approval time is the most common reason an otherwise straightforward order becomes a rush job.

From approved artwork, mass production runs 7 to 15 days. Add 7 to 10 days if you want a pre-production sample first. Free design work and 3D renderings come back within 24 hours of your brief, with unlimited revisions, so the design stage rarely holds up a schedule. Volume is not the bottleneck — our line produces 30,000+ pieces per day, so a 5,000-piece order runs on a timeline comparable to a 500-piece order. What actually extends lead time is design complexity: every additional enamel color needs its own mixing batch, its own filling pass, and its own semi-cure oven cycle at 60-70 degrees Celsius for 60 to 90 minutes; mixing enamel types on one medal adds masking stages between them. Tell us your event date up front and we will build the production schedule backwards from it.

Send vector artwork — AI, EPS, PDF or CDR — with the Pantone reference called out next to each design element. Vector files matter because enamel recesses are defined by closed paths; a JPEG or a screenshot has to be redrawn, which costs you design time for no benefit. If you do not have vector art, our in-house design team will rebuild your logo from a raster image for free, with 24-hour turnaround and unlimited revisions. Along with the file, specify four things: the Pantone value for each color, which areas should be filled with enamel versus left as bare plated metal, the plating finish you want on the exposed metal, and the medal size. We mix from 10 base pigments to hit your Pantone values, then archive the formula. For color-critical brand work, request a swatch plate — a metal sample with your exact colors, produced through the same process, shipped for approval under your own lighting.

Yes. Enamel fills the recessed areas of a die-cast medal, and zinc alloy (Zamak 3, 5 and 7) cast at 385 degrees Celsius holds sharp 3D relief and cut-outs, so high-relief designs reproduce detail well. Two planning rules apply. First, recess width: soft enamel needs a minimum fill width of 0.3mm, while hard and glass enamel need 0.5mm — narrower than that and the color will not fill reliably or polish flat. Second, steep walls: on a strongly domed surface our technicians fill each recess by hand with a fine needle instead of flooding the face, so very small color areas on a curved wall should be simplified at the design stage. For personalization, laser engraving handles variable content such as serial numbers and names, but engraving through enamel removes pigment and exposes the metal below — if you want engraved names, reserve a flat bare-metal area (usually the reverse) and tell us before tooling. Where a 3D surface needs full-color artwork instead of enamel, UV printing covers height differences up to 7mm.

Send vector artwork — AI, EPS, PDF or CDR — with the Pantone reference noted next to each element. Four dimensional rules decide whether a design runs cleanly on zinc alloy: a minimum wall thickness of 2mm, a minimum relief height of 0.4mm, a minimum metal line width of 0.3mm, and a minimum fill width of 0.3mm for soft enamel or 0.5mm for imitation hard enamel. Convert all fonts to outlines so text cannot reflow on our side, and keep enamel areas as closed paths — an open path will not hold color. If the medal carries variable content such as names, bib numbers or serial numbers, tell us at the artwork stage: laser engraving removes pigment, so we reserve a flat bare-metal area, usually on the reverse, for it. No vector file? Our in-house team rebuilds your logo from a raster image free of charge, with 24-hour turnaround and unlimited revisions.

Most enamel defects trace back to four sources, and each one has a specific control on our line. Dust: airborne particles landing on wet enamel before it enters the oven leave permanent specks, so filling happens in a clean-room area with filtered air. Moisture: water vapour in the compressed air that assists the syringes turns into microscopic pinholes after curing, so the air line runs through inline moisture traps and desiccant dryers checked daily. Thinner ratio: too much thinner and the enamel runs out of the recess, too little and it will not flow into narrow corners, so each color and fill width has a documented ratio. Incomplete cure: if one color is not set before the next goes on, the two bleed together, so every color gets its own semi-cure at 60 to 70 degrees Celsius for 60 to 90 minutes before the next pass. Anything that still shows at 10x magnification is stripped back to bare metal and refilled rather than touched up.

Tooling is the fixed cost, so the more pieces it is spread across, the lower it sits inside your unit price. At our 100-piece minimum the full die-cast tool is amortised over the fewest units, which is why that tier carries the highest unit cost; at 1,000 pieces tooling becomes a small share and filling labour dominates; at 5,000 pieces tooling is a minor line item and enamel color count and finish choice drive the number instead. Volume does not stretch the schedule — our line runs 30,000+ pieces per day, so a 5,000-piece order is planned on a timeline comparable to a 500-piece one. From approved artwork, sampling takes 7 to 10 days and mass production 7 to 15 days. On a reorder the tool comes back out of storage and your Pantone formula is already archived, so there is no tooling charge and no color re-approval — the fastest route to the same medal you ran last season.

We have been manufacturing medals in Huizhou, Guangdong since 2010, with die casting, plating, enamel filling and inspection under one roof. Capacity is 30,000+ pieces per day, and the minimum order is 100 pieces per design. Casting runs on 88-ton machines using Zamak 3, 5 and 7 zinc alloy at 385 degrees Celsius. Plating is a nine-stage line — an alkaline copper strike of roughly 500 seconds followed by an acid copper bath of 20 to 60 minutes — and enamel is cured at 60 to 70 degrees Celsius for the semi-cure stage and 100 degrees Celsius for the full cure. We hold ISO 9001, BSCI, Sedex, Reach and RoHS certification and ship to 50+ countries. Quality control is three-stage, with every medal inspected under 10x magnification; anything that fails is stripped and refilled rather than patched.

AP glue and epoxy resin do not add colour. They are clear protective layers poured over a medal after the colour has already been filled and cured, and they never go back into the enamel oven. That distinction matters when you read a supplier specification: if a quote lists epoxy as one of the enamel types, the colour underneath still has to come from soft enamel, imitation hard enamel, glass paint or printing. What the clear layer actually does is seal the surface against water and handling, add thickness, and give a high-gloss domed lens. The finish we call flat bake is bake paint plus AP glue, where the colour comes from the paint and the glue only levels and protects it.

Four measured limits govern artwork. Soft enamel, also called bake paint, fills a recess as narrow as 0.3mm. Imitation hard enamel needs 0.5mm, because the thicker paste has to fill completely and survive polishing flat. Solid glass paint needs 0.5mm. Transparent glass paint also needs 0.5mm, and it demands a clean polished base because any flaw underneath shows through the tint. Below those limits the colour either will not reach the corner or will not polish flat. The fix is always made on the drawing: widen the element, drop the smallest detail, or move it to bare metal where the plating finish carries the design instead.

We hold ISO 9001, BSCI, Sedex, Reach and RoHS certification, and our compliance file also covers TUV Rheinland and USJ audit reports plus Disney factory authorisation. Brand and programme affiliations include ByteDance, Disney, PPAI, RRCA, Running USA, APA, ASI and BAA. Supporting evidence is the manufacturing data behind them: casting, plating, enamel filling and inspection all run in our own Huizhou, Guangdong facility, established in 2010, with 88-ton die casting machines, a three-stage QC process and a 100% qualified delivery rate on released orders. Send us your vendor questionnaire and we will return the completed pack with certificates attached.

Work backwards from the ceremony using four fixed stages: a line-item quote within 24 hours of your brief, free design and 3D renderings within 24 hours, sampling in 7 to 10 days, and mass production in 7 to 15 days after approval. Tooling is a one-time charge per design, and once the tool exists it is stored for reuse, so a reorder drops the tooling stage entirely and reuses your archived Pantone formula with no colour re-approval. Capacity is rarely the constraint — the line runs 30,000+ pieces per day — the stages that slip are artwork revision and late colour confirmation. Tell us the event date up front and we build the schedule backwards from it.