Grommets and Clothing
Grommets are metal, plastic, or rubber rings that have a variety of uses. They are most commonly used to reinforce a hole in a piece of fabric, such as an eyelet in a piece of cloth or leather, through which a fastener may be slid and bound. While they can be used in many ways, grommets are typically used for reinforcement, shielding, or surgical purposes.
Just like the ones used in your shoes, grommets can reinforce holes in clothes, camping equipment, and other materials. They are also frequently used in corsets, belts, laced clothing, and items that hang from hooks. Grommets prevent material from tearing due to wear.
Leather and other home craft projects make frequent use of grommets. Grommet setting, or eyelets, tools and hammers can be purchased to help you set them in fabrics. A grommet press is another tool used for placing grommets. It looks like a fancy pair of pliers with which you can put the grommets into materials. A hammer and grommet setting tool work just as well, but it takes longer to make an item with many grommets.
A grommet can also refer to a stiff ring of rubber or metal used to stretch the top of a military cap flat.
Grommets and Wires
Grommets are also used as shielding for rope, cords, electrical wires, or anything else that become worn and break by the repeated friction passing through and against a hard material with a hole in it, or a material with sharp edges. To avoid failure of such wires and ropes, rubber and plastic grommets can be inserted into the hole prior to passing the wire or rope through it. This shields the wire from damage. Similarly, a grommet can used to seal a gasket, under the head of a bolt, or as a seal between two sections of piping.
Grommets and Medicine
Surgical grommets are also utilized to allow for certain types of surgical procedures. For instance, a grommet may be a small teflon tube which, after being inserted into the eardrum, allows air to pass into the middle ear to alleviate hearing loss associated with repeated ear infections or Meniere's syndrome.
Placing a Grommet
In placing grommets into a material, it is always a good idea to test them on a scrap piece of the same fabric, with the same number of layers as the project you are working on. Always use washers, and make sure the right side of the grommet is place on the outside of the garment or project. Also, it is best to only use rubber or rawhide mallets lest the grommets be damaged.
