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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Rapstrap

Breakthrough:
A reusable polyurethane band that can tie up cables, bin bags, and plants. It is a drastic departure from conventional cable ties as the excess can be cut off and used again.

Inventor:
Andrew Harsley, United Kingdom

Financial reward:
$10 million+

The Story:
Rapstrap

Andrew Harsley is an overnight success that’s been twenty years in the making. He first conceived the idea of a flexible fastener when he was a teenager taking out rubbish bags. “I recognized the need for a better design of cable tie back in 1988 whilst tying up bin bags,” says Harsley. “Most of the tie was being cut off and wasted, and when you consider how many cable ties are being used each year this is clearly a lot of pointless waste.”

He could barely believe there wasn't already a product that would reduce this amount of waste, and so he started the long journey that culminated with the creation of Rapstrap and a multi-million dollar global enterprise.

Waste-Saving

Rapstrap is a green alternative to the nylon cable tie. The innovation is a re-usable plastic band that can be used to secure anything from bags and sacks to cables and camping equipment.

The ubiquitous nylon cable ties have been around since the 1950s; they are simple, inexpensive and have not changed much in the last six decades. You put one end through the other and pull it tight to secure an object in place. Job done. However, most of the plastic is wasted. It has been estimated that up to 80 per cent of each tie will end up in landfill. So Harsley developed a state-of-the art fastener that does the same job as a nylon tie, but each strip can be used up to five times.

The flexible fastener is soft and elastic and can stretch by up to 60 per cent. It is essentially a long chain of cells that can slip through each other to form a loop at any point when it is pulled tight. The remaining portion can be cut off and used to form another tie. This can be done again and again so that one Rapstrap produces several ties.

Development Delays

Many years were spent developing prototypes until the first functional one was produced in 1997. Although the concept proved to be a hit with people, the ties were too expensive to produce to be successful commercially. Then in 2003 Harsley decided that a fresh approach was needed and he embarked on a new round of research and development which resulted in the first ever Rapstraps.

They were significant improvements on the earlier designs but the production costs were still far too high. His response was to source cheaper materials and cheaper manufacturers. However, the results were not satisfactory. But he kept going with gutsy determination. “In the back of your mind you know you have something that can be done, and you know that if you don’t do it you’ll have missed the opportunity and at some point in the future you may well see something on the shelf and think that’s my idea why didn’t I do. It’s about looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning and thinking well I’m trying to do something no one else has done before, and if I don’t do it either it won’t get done, or I’ll regret it.”

In 2005 he took a bold decision to establish an R&D workshop and throw everything into solving the challenges he faced. Harsley’s dedication to his invention was such that rather than buy a house he rented factory premises to continue his work and he bought secondhand equipment off the Internet.

To finance the enterprise he extended his overdraft, used credit cards, and secured a £10,000 ($16,000) business loan. It took him months to figure out how to use the milling machines, lathes, grinders and heaters, but eventually he managed to produce dozens more prototypes. “With hindsight I could’ve done it in a garage. We’ve got to the point now where with a small workshop in your garage you can make a product that can go on to be a world hit. There’s still a lack of awareness that you can actually do a lot of this at home. You don’t need to go to the industrial sector initially.”

A Finished Product

By early 2007 he was able to have new prototypes designed, tooled up, and molded in under a day. From this moment on it didn’t take too long to optimize the most popular sizes. Once this happened production costs plummeted and after nearly 20 years he had the product he always dreamed of in his hands. And it is now patented widely.

The following few months were devoted to commercializing the product and Harlsey found a manufacturer capable of producing millions of bands every month. Rapstraps were successful from day one, and in late 2008 the inventor signed a deal with one of the world’s leading plastics distributors to produce 1 billion straps. It is said to be worth £36 million ($60 million) over a three-year period.

Persistence and Profits

Persistence has paid off as Harsley now sits on top of a multi-million dollar company with a world–beating product. And that’s not the end of the story as the inventor says there are different versions of the technology in the pipeline, plus he has many other ideas that he wants to get off the ground.

by Paul Arnold

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