Help with invention?

[chessman]

I have an idea for an invention, a piece of office equipment. I need help from the aspects of mechanical design, some electrical design, and of course prototyping, production, and marketing.<p>I'm not in it for the money at all, I just kinda had a cool idea while at work the other day, something that would make the lives of some people much easier.<p>Let me know if any of you can give me a hand <p>Thanks,
Kyle

[jollyrgr]

Is this a one shot deal (I mean you only want one for yourself) or is this like those SEEN ON TV inventions that you would sale on a web site or by mail order? Can you give us an idea of what it is?

[pagliacci]

RE;HELP WITH INVENTION,WHAT KIND OF MONEY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

[chessman]

It's not a one-shot deal, I'm thinking of having it for sale via mail order, or selling the design to some larger company that has more experience marketing office equipment.<p>Since I'm not in personally in it for the money, I'm not really worried about the idea being publically known, so here goes (oh yeah, I'm not sure if one of these really exists already but I'm pretty positive it doesn't):<p>I'd like to create an automated hole puncher for large amounts of paper. The main thing would be you place your stack of paper in the machine, select between the options of the size of paper or where you want the holes punched, and then the machine punches it. The whole idea is to remove the man-hours needed to manually 3-hole punch high quantities of paper (hundreds or thousands).<p>Let me know what you guys think.

[greg123]

Hey, I like it.<p>All the ones i have used can do maybe 5 pages at once without getting jammed.<p>I'll buy one..... :p

[Chris Foley]

They're already out there. Take your choice, Chess:<p>http://www.laminationplus.com/laminators/1600pp.shtml<p>Allegedly does 128 pages of 20# paper -- 3-hole punch, but very manual (ouch, my aching palm!), and<p>http://adss.net/1002062.asp<p>40 to 50 sheets of 20# at a time, but it's fully electronic, with paper jam sensors, and LED display, &c.<p>The Cardinal's First Rule of Engineering Projects: Find the reason why not to do the project (if there is one) before you do the work and find out you were spinning your wheels.<p>If you're just having fun, take a look at the prior art. It might give you some ideas, or at least tell you what's been done before. You also then have a good idea how much you can charge the customer if you decide to sell your product and compete for business. Happy hunting.

[frhrwa]

seems like the one we have will do a reem at a time or better.. and I think it high speed drills the holes..? I know its fast..