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Staple (fastener)
Encyclopedia
A staple is a type of two-pronged fastener
, usually metal
, used for joining or binding materials together. Large staples might be used with a hammer
or staple gun
for masonry
, roofing, corrugated boxes and other heavy-duty uses. Smaller staples are used with a stapler
to attach pieces of paper together; such staples are a permanent and durable fastener for paper documents, unlike the paper clip
.
or hammer tacker
. Staple gun
s do not have backing anvils and are exclusively used for tacking. They typically have staples made from thicker metal. Some staple guns use arched staples for fastening small cables, e.g. phone or cable TV, without damaging the cable. Faster and easier devices known as hammer tackers or staple hammers operate without complex mechanics as a simple head loaded with a strip of staples drives them directly; this method requires a measure of skill. Powered electric staplers or pneumatic staplers drive staples easily and accurately; they are the simplest manner of applying staples, however are hindered by a cord or hose.
The legs of a staple can be allowed to protrude out the back side and folded over to provide greater binding than the friction of straight legs.
Modern staples for paper staplers are made from zinc-plated steel
wires glued together and bent to form a long strip of staples. Staple strips are commonly available as "full strips" with 210 staples per strip. More expensive stainless steel
staples which do not rust are also available.
Some staple sizes are used more commonly than others, depending on the application required. Some companies have unique staples just for their products. Staples from one manufacturer may or may not fit another manufacturers unit even if they look similar and serve the same purpose.
Internationally (outside the United States
), staples are often described as X/Y (e.g. 24/6 or 26/6), where the first number X is the gauge
of the wire, and the second number Y is the length of the shank (leg) in millimeters. Some exceptions to this rule include staple sizes like No. 10.
Common sizes for the home and office include: 26/6, 24/6, 24/8, 13/6, 13/8 and No. 10 for mini staplers.
Common sizes for heavy duty staplers include: 23/8, 23/12, 23/15, 23/20, 23/24, 13/10, and 13/14.
There is no one standard that exists for staple sizes, lengths and thickness (with the notable exception of 24/6 staples, described by the German DIN
7405 standard). This has led to many different incompatible staples and staplers systems that all serve the same purpose or applications.
In the United States
, the specifications for non-medical staples are described in ASTM
F1667-05, Standard Specification for Driven Fasteners: Nails, Spikes, and Staples. A typical office staple is designated as F1667 STFCC-04. ST indicates staple, FC indicates flat top crown, C indicates cohered (joined into a strip), and 04 is the dash number for a staple with a length of 0.250 inch (6 mm), a leg thickness of 0.020 inch (500 μm), a leg width of 0.030 inch (800 μm), and a crown width of 0.500 inch (13 mm).
Stapleless staplers cut and bend paper without using metal fasteners.
When stapling with a stapler the papers to be fastened are placed between the main body and the anvil
. The papers are pinched between the body and the anvil, then a drive blade pushes on the crown of the staple on the end of the staple strip. The staple breaks from the end of the strip and the legs of the staple are forced through the paper. As the legs hit the grooves in the anvil they are bent to hold the pages together. Many staplers have an anvil in the form of a "pinning" or "stapling" switch. This allows a choice between bending in or out. The outward bent staples are easier to remove and are for temporary fastening or "pinning".
Most staplers are capable of stapling without the anvil to drive straight leg staples for tacking.
There are various types of staples for paper, including heavy-duty staples, designed for use on documents 20, 50, or over 100 pages thick. There are also speedpoint staples, which have slightly sharper teeth so they can go through paper more easily.
The large staples found on corrugated cardboard boxes have folded legs, but they are applied from the outside and do not use an anvil; jaw-like appendages push through the cardboard alongside the legs and bend them from the outside.
Saddle stitch stapler
s, also known as "booklet staplers," feature a longer reach from the pivot point than general-purpose staplers and are used to bind pages into a booklet or "signature". Some, such as the Ring King, can also use "loop-staples" that enable the user to integrate folded matter into ring books and binders.
Outward clinch staples are blind staples, i.e. there is no anvil, and they are applied with a staple gun
. When applied, each staple leg forms a curve bending outwards. This is in part caused by the shape of the crown, which is like an inverted "V", and not flat as in ordinary staples. Also, the legs are sharpened with an inside bevel point, causing them to tend to go outwards when forced into the base material. These staples are used for upholstery
work, especially in vehicles, where they are used for fastening fabric or leather to a foam base.
s are used for the closing of incisions and wounds, a function also performed by sutures.
In ancient times, the staple had different functions.
Large metal staples dating from the 6th century BC have been found in the masonry works of ancient Iran. For the construction of the Pasargadae, these staples, which are known as "dovetail" or "swallowtail" staples, were used for tightening stones together.
The home stapling machine was developed by Henry Heyl in 1877 and registered under US Patent No. 195,603.
Fastener
A fastener is a hardware device that mechanically joins or affixes two or more objects together.Fasteners can also be used to close a container such as a bag, a box, or an envelope; or they may involve keeping together the sides of an opening of flexible material, attaching a lid to a container,...
, usually metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
, used for joining or binding materials together. Large staples might be used with a hammer
Hammer
A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head,...
or staple gun
Staple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...
for masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
, roofing, corrugated boxes and other heavy-duty uses. Smaller staples are used with a stapler
Stapler
A stapler is a mechanical device that joins sheets of paper or similar material by driving a thin metal staple through the sheets and folding the ends. Staplers are widely used in government, business, offices, and schools....
to attach pieces of paper together; such staples are a permanent and durable fastener for paper documents, unlike the paper clip
Paper Clip
"Paper Clip" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the second episode broadcast in the show's third season. Paper Clip concludes the story regarding the agents' possession of a digital tape containing government secrets on extraterrestrials.- Plot :Continuing from the previous...
.
Advantages
- Most kinds of staples are easier to produce than nailNail (engineering)In woodworking and construction, a nail is a pin-shaped, sharp object of hard metal or alloy used as a fastener. Formerly wrought iron, today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or improve adhesion...
s or screwScrewA screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...
s. - The crown of the staple can be used to bridge materials butted together.
- The crown can bridge a piece and fasten it without puncturing with a leg on either side, e.g. fastening cableCableA cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
to wood framing. - The crown provides greater surface area than other comparable fasteners. This is generally more helpful with thinner materials.
Staples in construction
Construction staples are commonly larger, have a more varied use, and are delivered by a staple gunStaple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...
or hammer tacker
Hammer tacker
A Hammer tacker is a very simple device that has an approximately 300 mm handle and a head, which, when it comes into contact at high speed with a hard material, inserts a staple into said material. Usually, the hammer tacker is used like a hammer to apply staples....
. Staple gun
Staple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...
s do not have backing anvils and are exclusively used for tacking. They typically have staples made from thicker metal. Some staple guns use arched staples for fastening small cables, e.g. phone or cable TV, without damaging the cable. Faster and easier devices known as hammer tackers or staple hammers operate without complex mechanics as a simple head loaded with a strip of staples drives them directly; this method requires a measure of skill. Powered electric staplers or pneumatic staplers drive staples easily and accurately; they are the simplest manner of applying staples, however are hindered by a cord or hose.
Paper staples
The term "stapling" is used for both fastening with straight or bent legs; however, when differentiating between the two, the term "tacking" is used for straight-leg stapling, while the term "stapling" is used for bent-leg stapling when being contrasted with "tacking".The legs of a staple can be allowed to protrude out the back side and folded over to provide greater binding than the friction of straight legs.
Staple specifications
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
wires glued together and bent to form a long strip of staples. Staple strips are commonly available as "full strips" with 210 staples per strip. More expensive stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
staples which do not rust are also available.
Some staple sizes are used more commonly than others, depending on the application required. Some companies have unique staples just for their products. Staples from one manufacturer may or may not fit another manufacturers unit even if they look similar and serve the same purpose.
Internationally (outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), staples are often described as X/Y (e.g. 24/6 or 26/6), where the first number X is the gauge
American wire gauge
American wire gauge , also known as the Brown & Sharpe wire gauge, is a standardized wire gauge system used since 1857 predominantly in the United States and Canada for the diameters of round, solid, nonferrous, electrically conducting wire...
of the wire, and the second number Y is the length of the shank (leg) in millimeters. Some exceptions to this rule include staple sizes like No. 10.
Common sizes for the home and office include: 26/6, 24/6, 24/8, 13/6, 13/8 and No. 10 for mini staplers.
Common sizes for heavy duty staplers include: 23/8, 23/12, 23/15, 23/20, 23/24, 13/10, and 13/14.
There is no one standard that exists for staple sizes, lengths and thickness (with the notable exception of 24/6 staples, described by the German DIN
Din
DIN or Din or din can have several meanings:* A din is a loud noise.* Dīn, an Arabic term meaning "religion" or "way of life".* Din is one of the ten aspects of the Ein Sof in Kabbalah ....
7405 standard). This has led to many different incompatible staples and staplers systems that all serve the same purpose or applications.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the specifications for non-medical staples are described in ASTM
ASTM International
ASTM International, known until 2001 as the American Society for Testing and Materials , is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services...
F1667-05, Standard Specification for Driven Fasteners: Nails, Spikes, and Staples. A typical office staple is designated as F1667 STFCC-04. ST indicates staple, FC indicates flat top crown, C indicates cohered (joined into a strip), and 04 is the dash number for a staple with a length of 0.250 inch (6 mm), a leg thickness of 0.020 inch (500 μm), a leg width of 0.030 inch (800 μm), and a crown width of 0.500 inch (13 mm).
Stapleless staplers cut and bend paper without using metal fasteners.
Staples in the home
The most common staples are used with paper. They are almost exclusively applied with a mechanical stapler which clinches the legs after they pass through the paper. Staples of this type are used with a desktop stapling machine.When stapling with a stapler the papers to be fastened are placed between the main body and the anvil
Anvil
An anvil is a basic tool, a block with a hard surface on which another object is struck. The inertia of the anvil allows the energy of the striking tool to be transferred to the work piece. In most cases the anvil is used as a forging tool...
. The papers are pinched between the body and the anvil, then a drive blade pushes on the crown of the staple on the end of the staple strip. The staple breaks from the end of the strip and the legs of the staple are forced through the paper. As the legs hit the grooves in the anvil they are bent to hold the pages together. Many staplers have an anvil in the form of a "pinning" or "stapling" switch. This allows a choice between bending in or out. The outward bent staples are easier to remove and are for temporary fastening or "pinning".
Most staplers are capable of stapling without the anvil to drive straight leg staples for tacking.
There are various types of staples for paper, including heavy-duty staples, designed for use on documents 20, 50, or over 100 pages thick. There are also speedpoint staples, which have slightly sharper teeth so they can go through paper more easily.
Staples in business
Staples are commonly considered to be a neat and efficient method of binding paperwork such as letters and documents in all areas of office business. This is predominantly because of the low cost and high availability of the staple, and because its small size does not detract from the content of the document.The large staples found on corrugated cardboard boxes have folded legs, but they are applied from the outside and do not use an anvil; jaw-like appendages push through the cardboard alongside the legs and bend them from the outside.
Saddle stitch stapler
Saddle stitch stapler
Saddle stitch staplers or simply saddle staplers are bookbinding tools designed to insert staples into the spine of folded printed matter such as booklets, catalogues, brochures, and manuals...
s, also known as "booklet staplers," feature a longer reach from the pivot point than general-purpose staplers and are used to bind pages into a booklet or "signature". Some, such as the Ring King, can also use "loop-staples" that enable the user to integrate folded matter into ring books and binders.
Outward clinch staples are blind staples, i.e. there is no anvil, and they are applied with a staple gun
Staple gun
A staple gun or powered stapler is a hand-held machine used to drive heavy metal staples into wood, plastic, or masonry. Staple guns are used for many different applications and to affix a variety of materials, including insulation, house wrap, roofing, wiring, carpeting, upholstery, and hobby and...
. When applied, each staple leg forms a curve bending outwards. This is in part caused by the shape of the crown, which is like an inverted "V", and not flat as in ordinary staples. Also, the legs are sharpened with an inside bevel point, causing them to tend to go outwards when forced into the base material. These staples are used for upholstery
Upholstery
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...
work, especially in vehicles, where they are used for fastening fabric or leather to a foam base.
Staples in packaging
Staples are used in various types of packaging.- Staples can attach items to paperboardPaperboardPaperboard is a thick paper based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single...
for carded packaging - Stapels of stitches can be used to attach the manufacturer's joint of corrugated boxes
- Staples are used to close corrugated boxes. Small (nominally 1/2 inch crown) staples can be applied to a box with a post stapler. Wider crown (nominally 1 inch) staples can be applied with a blind clincher
- Staples can help fabricate and attach paperwork to wooden boxWooden boxA wooden box is a container made of wood for storage or as a shipping container.Construction may include several types of wood; lumber , plywood, engineered woods, etc...
es and crateCrateA crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport large, heavy or awkward items. A crate has a self-supporting structure, with or without sheathing. For a wooden container to be a crate, all six of its sides must be put in place to result in the rated strength...
s.
Staples in medicine
Surgical stapleSurgical staple
Surgical staples are specialized staples used in surgery in place of sutures to close skin wounds, connect or remove parts of the bowels or lungs. A more recent development, from the 1990s, uses clips instead of staples for some applications; this does not require the staple to penetrate.Stapling...
s are used for the closing of incisions and wounds, a function also performed by sutures.
History
Large metal staples dating from the 6th century BC have been found in the masonry works of ancient Iran. For the construction of the Pasargadae, these staples, which are known as "dovetail" or "swallowtail" staples, were used for tightening stones together.
The home stapling machine was developed by Henry Heyl in 1877 and registered under US Patent No. 195,603.
External links
- Office Museum - History of the Stapler
- ASTM F1667 abstract
- 1911 Britannica article discussing many uses of the word