Clear Staples2

Ok, some people read clear staples, and liked it. And I got some great ideas from everyone's comments, especially half's idea: "Maybe plastic of some sort would work with a new type of "stapler" mechanism. Plastic pegs or legs would punch through the paper, contact a heated die and then be mushroomed like a rivet rather than being bent like a conventional staple." Here's how it would work: This device would be a hybrid between a nailgun and an automatic stapler, contained inside a pretty plastic case so people would actually want to buy it. It would function like this: a dispenser would hold a long row of plastic rivet-shaped fasteners, weakly held together with small plastic links (think somewhere between small plastic model parts and how some nail guns are loaded) with a linear 'package' of nails, rivets, staples, etc. The fastening device would work much like automatic staplers do today, but instead of firing a metal staple, it would impact the clear plastic 'rivet' driving it through the paper into a hot die plate where it would be mushroomed out, causing the sheets of paper to be fastened together. The plastic would have to be of the fairly weak, low melting point variety (i'm not a plastics expert) so the paper wouldn't catch on fire when it contacts the hot die plate, and also so the rivet cools down very quickly, preventing user burns. The die plate may not even have to get that hot, as the force of the rivet being driven downward may be enough to mushroom it. New rows of rivets would be fed in through a door in the top/back of the device, making it easy to load.