I found the thread about Chipco chips below to be quite interesting... and in some cases quite inaccurate.

We were able to spend close to four hours at the Raymond, Maine plant in June seeing every aspect of how a Chipco chip is made. From what I was told we were one of the few non-Chipco employees to EVER set foot past the reception area. It was a fascinating tour and I was shocked at how much larger an operation it is (in size and in employees) than I ever expected.

Here are a few answers to some of the speculation below...

The composition of Chipco chips are 84% barium sulfate (bleached white clay). Only 15% is a polymer (plastic) binder and there's 1% [proprietary info] for strength (you don't expect me to share ALL their secrets do you? ).

So as you can see while there is a small percentage of plastic in the chip, it has CONSIDERABLY more clay/ceramic than plastic. Anyone that says otherwise is simply mistaken.

The blanks are made at the Chipco plant. At one time GE made them but for many years Chipco has manufactured their own. In fact the "robot" that stacked the blank chips was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The machinery/robot runs 24/7 making the blanks even when there are no employees there.

The chips are not fired per-se. There is a heating aspect of things to make the blanks but to my surprise there is no kiln type of process once the image is set onto the blanks.

Hope that clears up a few things... I wish I could tell all but Chipco does consider most of their processes to be proprietary so unfortunately much of what I saw I cannot divulge.

I included a link below to a page on our site that tells more about Chipco, their history and their products. Below is a photo from our June visit with Chipco founder/President John Kendall.

Dave
http://www.HomePokerChips.com
Cheques in the Mail Inc.