How staples are made

A strip of office staples starts as rows of flattened zinc-coated wires, glued side by side and then bent into a U.

stations: 6
things upstream: 48
raw sources: 14
steps from the ground: 8

The short version

Thick zinc-coated steel wire is drawn thin and rolled flat. Rows of flat wires are glued side by side into a wide band, and an oven cures the glue. A forming machine bends the band into a U and cuts it into strips of connected staples, which are polished and boxed.

Draw the coated wire

Low-carbon steel wire coated with zinc so it will not rust in a drawer is pulled through dies until it reaches size. Copper-plated and stainless versions exist but are rarer.

Goes in
Steel wire Zinc
Roll the wire flat

Rollers press the round wire into a thin flat ribbon, so each staple has a flat crown and legs.
Glue wires side by side

Dozens of flat wires run in parallel while glue coats them. An oven cures the glue, giving a wide flat band.

80 to 120 parallel wires

Goes in
Adhesive
Bend into U shapes

A forming die bends the band, so that each wire becomes a staple with a crown across the top and two legs.
Cut into strips

Blades cut the band at fixed intervals, and each length is a strip of connected staples. A full strip holds 210 staples.

210 staples per full strip
Polish and box

Strips are polished to take off burrs, checked for bent staples, and stacked in boxes ready for the stapler's magazine.

End of the lineStaple

Worth repeating

Staple sizes like 24/6 give the wire gauge first and the leg length in millimeters second.
The home stapler was developed by Henry Heyl in 1877.
Large dovetail staples from the 6th century BC have been found holding stone together in Persian buildings.