Hole punch
From Free net encyclopedia
A hole punch (known also as a hole puncher, paper puncher or perforator) is a common office tool that is used to create holes in sheets of paper, often for the purpose of collecting the sheets in a binder.
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History
The first patent for this product appears to have been US patent 313027 awarded to Benjamin Smith of Massachusetts in 1885 for his invention of a "Conductor's Punch". The widest selection of hole punches for personal organizers is maintained by Dr. Gold of Germany who is credited with creating over 150 configurations.
Mechanism
Image:Hole punch workings illustration.svg A typical hole punch, whether a single or multiple hole punch, has a long lever which is used to push a bladed cylinder straight through a number of sheets of paper. As the vertical travel distance of the cylinder is only a few millimeters, it can be positioned within a centimeter of the lever fulcrum. For low volume hole punches, the resulting lever need not be more than 8 cm for sufficient force.
Two paper guides are needed to line up the paper: one opposite where the paper is inserted, to set the margin distance, and one adjecent side.
Hole punches for industrial volumes — hundreds of sheets — feature very long lever arms, but function identically.
Uses of hole punches
Single hole punches
Single hole punches are often used to punch tickets, which indicates its credit has been used.
There are hole punchers that make holes of various geometric shapes, or silhouettes of objects or animals. These are used to punch decorative holes along the edges of pieces of paper, and for making confetti, when creating scrapbooks and other paper crafts.
Eyelet punch
A related office tool is the eyelet punch. This is a single-hole punch which also presses a metal fastening loop around the hole. It is used to permanently secure a few sheets of paper together which must not be separated or modified.
Multiple hole punches
Image:3 perforators.jpg There are hole punchers that make one, two, three four, five, six, seven or eight holes at one time, the placement of which matches the spacing of the rings in a binder.
In the US the most common kind of multiple hole punch is the three-hole punch. This style punches three quarter-inch holes approximately a quarter inch from the left edge of the paper, one center and two approximately one inch from the top and bottom edge. Less frequently seen is the US filebinder punch, which is a two hole punch where the holes are spaced 2 3/4" from eachother around the median of the page, but otherwise follows ISO 838.
Elsewhere, where the international paper system is used (such as A4 paper), 2-hole and 4-hole punches are the norm. These follow the ISO 838 standard for punchholes.
There are office models available for the perforation of 1 to 150 sheets of paper, and industrial models for up to 470 sheets. Most multiple-hole and many single-hole punches accumulate the waste paper circles in a chamber, which must be periodically emptied in order to facilitate the continued operation of the punch.bg:Перфоратор de:Locher nl:Perforator pl:Dziurkacz sv:Hålslagsapparat