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Japan has long been a manufacturer of stapleless staplers, especially ones based on the Bump Fastening Method. Starting with the Ideal Paper Fastener (made of wood and iron) produced at the beginnings of the 20th century they have been almost continuously manufactured there until today. The Kokuyo Harinacs model SLN-MSP110 is one of the latest iterations of this type of fastener and I think they have come very close to making the perfect office-use stapleless stapler.
Kokuyo was founded in 1905 as a seller of covers for Japanese-style account ledgers and they have been in the stationer/office supply trade their whole history. Today, they are a major manufacturer of almost everything used in a modern office.
The SLN-MSP110 first appeared in 2009. They seem to be still in production although Kokuyo recently introduced an updated model, the SLN-MSP112, which uses a modified version of the Bump Fastening Method allowing you to fasten up to 12 pages at a time. The SLN-MSP110 was introduced as part of Kokuyo’s “Eco-X” initiative. Unlike many (if not all) other companies that will loudly proclaim that they are green and eco-friendly, Kokuyo took a different tack and marked all their non-green products with the Eco-X symbol. The goal of this program was to phase out or improve all of their products so that they met green initiatives. It was a bold move and could have backfired but it seems to have been successful and helped drive further research and development in the company. The SLN-MSP110 was a product developed under this program and likely was marketed as an office stapler replacement.
This item measures 5.25″ W x 6.75″ L x 8.25″ H and weighs 2 lbs 10 oz. It is designed to fasten up to 10 pages at a time. Although this item is made primarily of plastic it is still very heavy-duty and would make a good replacement for light-duty desk stapling. One great design feature is the double-fastening it uses allowing for very secure binding of paper.
view from top
view from bottom
The SLN-MSP110 claims to be able to fasten up to 10 pieces of paper at a time. For this method that’s about the maximum you can anticipate due to the way it binds the papers. I experimented some and found that this item can fasten 10 pages of 24 lb paper without issue. With higher weight paper you’ll need to start reducing the number of pages you can bind together. The standard general office-use paper weight is 20 lb so the SLN-MSP110 works better than advertised. It is easy to use, well-designed and you don’t need to be a body builder to use it. The handle is large and allows you to use as much pressure as you need to get the task done without feeling like it’s about to break. The rubberized feet and large platform give this unit stability and keeps it from sliding around.
The SLN-MSP110 is not readily available here in the U.S., but you can find them on internet auction sites starting around $50 plus shipping. That makes this a pricey replacement for a stapler but it will not need any additional supplies so there is an immediate savings on that end.
Other Information:
Notes:
- Editors, (2012), Kokuyo’s Historical Episode Harinacs. Kokuyo Worldwide. Retrieved January 29, 2014, from http://www.kokuyo.com
Special Thanks:
To Kokuyo, you guys have an awesome site and it’s nice to see a company that is proud of its products and keeps such good track of its history and all that it has done. I wish more American and European companies did the same. Now you need to start making your items available here in the U.S.!
UPDATE: 05/12/15. It turns out Kokuyo has started selling some of it’s smaller stapleless staplers through the national chain Staples. These are really designed for smaller jobs but are perfect for school and home use. Maybe we’ll see this one, or one of its cousins, for sale here soon also.
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American Stationer 
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Thank you so much, this is very interesting. I have a question: is there a specific name of those “chads” of paper being used in the fastened pages. One speaks of the stapleless stapler, “fastening” the pages, but is there a noun used to describe the tags which are inserted into tabs on the same papers. Chad? Fastener? What do the Japanese call it?
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They were never called “chads”,”tags”, or “fasteners” (and this tab wouldn’t meet the definition of “chad” or “fastener” regardless). When these types of machines were first invented here in U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century, they were called “tongues”. I’ve always heard them referred to as “tabs” though. As to what the Japanese may call it, I have to admit I have no idea. If any of my readers from Japan can tell us, please let us know. I’d be interested to find out also.
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