A lanyard can actually be made from a mixture of cords. The most popular cords used with lanyards are cotton, polyester twill, and nylon. You can find cords at very cheap prices but whatever you get remember that they can not be printed. The reason why is because it handles the flat surface with strap types very poorly.
If the customer would like their metal plates to be hot stamped they would need to provide the artwork. After the artwork is provided, the plate becomes heated. The film is put above the lanyard. Once the film is placed on top of the lanyard, pressure is applied and that causes the film to heat up and the material are transferred and shows the design plus color. Hot stamping is considered to be very economical and a lot of people use it for reunions, trade shows, badges for students and much more.
Promotional lanyards can use any kind of strap and those straps are made from nylon, poly twill and cotton. The strap types come with a logo, product and sometimes a name from the team. Most people usually pick one of these three methods: screen printing, hot stamping, and dye sublimation. It all depends on what you are after and how you want things to look as to what method you use.
Not only can lanyards include their artwork but also they can bring hardware. The most common ones used for different projects include the O-ring for whistles; swivel snap hooks are used with ID badges. There are some lanyard badges used for keys or id badges. The connectors on these breakaway so if a lanyard becomes trapped the badge or key would be released before the neck is pulled.
People that are looking for a really high tech and durable quality should consider screen printing. The artwork provided from the customer becomes a mesh that is really fine. First, the screen is put on top where the material is and then color ink gets applied where the screen is. After that, a squeegee gets pushed through ink of the screen that is now meshed and then the fabric is created. When the heat happens, it is because of ink and is needed as a result of the high resolution.