Staple Gun - Comparison With Office Stapler

Comparison With Office Stapler

Unlike office staplers, some staple guns lack an anvil, the metal plate with curved slots that office staplers use to bend the legs of the staple inwards or outwards and flatten them against the paper.

Other staple guns have integral anvils. For example, a post stapler can be used to join the bottom flaps of a corrugated box but a blind clincher is used for closing the top of a closed box where post anvils are not possible. Anvils are built into the staple gun and penetrate the corrugated fiberboard: The staple hits the anvils and is crimped onto the box. The curved anvils are then removed.

Most staple guns, especially the hand-powered models, have a spring-like mechanism for storing mechanical energy and delivering it as a sharp and powerful blow. This mechanism is necessary because of the large force needed to drive the staples through solid wood or masonry, and because the staple must be completely inserted before the workpiece has time to move . In the office stapler, by contrast, the staple can be driven directly by the user's muscle power, at a relatively slow speed, because the paper is firmly supported by the anvil. In other words, the staple gun substitutes the workpiece's inertia for the missing anvil.