Staple Removal Assistive Device as a Vocational Aid

A typical staple remover is a small device that uses the basic functions of moving part of your hand to remove staples from a stack of paper without ripping the paper. This device, however, cannot be used by everyone. Those who are disabled and have limited hand/finger movement have difficulties using them and can break this device easily. Not only this, but not every remover can detach every size staple that is present in the paper. Furthermore, the stacks of paper are being unstapled to be scanned into the cloud and not removing every staple can damage the scanning equipment. This device should increase staple removing efficiency and decrease the volume of stress and fatigue related injuries that occur while removing staples as well as documents having to return to remove more staples. The goal of this project is to invent a simple vocational device or process which can remove staples for limited hand dexterity users so that they can improve their efficiency and lessen hand fatigue or stress while removing staples. The number of documents returning to be de-stapled because a few were missed also needs to be improved. The expected end result is a functional prototype tool which is efficient at removing all sizes of staples without damaging the paper too much, does not require a lot of hand strength / pressure to use, operates with limited range of motion and is intuitive and uncomplicated to learn to use. Using iterative design and testing, we have created two devices: one to remove normal staples at a large scale with minimal hand movement or pressure required, and one to remove heavy-duty staples. Both devices are intuitive and simple to use while allowing the operator to reduce wasted time, strain on their hand, and missed staples.