In today’s age does anyone know how a shredder actually works? Or even thought about it. We use them in our daily lives so it would be worth mentioning.

As we have already seen with these devices, they can cut documents or individual sheets of paper through the act of shredding. The shredder has a paper-bin where the excess bits gather. On the top of the shredder is what’s called a feed-opening. There are 2 kinds of shredder, a strip-cut shredder which most often uses knives that spin around or rotate to cut the paper, and the cross-cut shredder that is installed with two sets of of blades that rotate in opposite directions to get a much smaller cut. Read about the process here.

When paper is fed into the opening, once it touched the blades or cutting heads, a sensor that’s built-into it, is activated and these sharp blade-like teeth start to rotate. These ‘teeth’ pulls the paper further into its cutting process as it goes along. So, if you have ever asked yourself how it knows? This is because of the sensors.

However, something else to note is that this is not the only sensor typically included in shredders, and that there is another set installed at the bottom as well, so these also get activated, so as to make sure the paper is shredded and not missed.

Shredders can be noisy when you don’t want them to be. This may be something that can easily slip your mind when it’s time to buy one. In which case it’s always best to do some homework, read some reviews, check for articles about the best ones and do some comparisons. You can get a variety of options from ones specifically for the office and others for your home. Even if you do not necessarily have a home office, it is sometimes good to have one to shred personal documents such as utility bills, Bank statements, medical information or even personal letters. Nowadays you can’t be too careful, if it is addressed to you, it is worth shredding.

But you don’t need to look any further as we have it all right here for you. Let’s start with what to look for:

If you are opening a brand-new office or refurbishing one / upgrading one. There are a few things that should be on your list of office supplies, and one of those slightly larger items after a printer or computer, should be a paper shredder. You can get a range from your normal day to day commercial shredders to the larger and more powerful industrial shredders with slightly more modern technology built in to avoid features like paper jams, energy efficiency, or faster output.

1) Cross-Cut vs Strip Cut: Cross-cut papers shred paper in cross sections into tiny pieces. This makes it impossible to put them back together – thus the high-level of security with these types of shredders not to mention it reduces the need to change the storage bags regularly. The Strip cut shreds sheets into narrow strips. It can shred more paper than the cross-cut one and is less expensive and thus lower maintenance.

2) Width of the feed opening: This is the part that enables you to push paper through in order to shred it. Taking into consideration the width of this can be an important decision maker. The width on average of a sheet of paper is 8.5 by 11, so if you are in the business of shredding multiple sheets of documents at a time, it would be advisable to purchase a shredder with a wider opening, these types of shredders are referred to as ‘production shredders.’ Additionally, the narrower the feed opening, the more issues you will have with paper jamming, if you shred more than a few sheets at a time.

3) Is it quiet or noisy: A loud shredder is an annoying shredder if left on for too long. It is important to consider this when buying one. In a busy office it may be fine but if you have neighbours in a quiet surrounding, this might just annoy them. If you work in a small office and do not have the luxury of a separate room to place the shredder in, this can be quiet the compromise to make. Some shredders have a feature that reduces its noise level. In which case you should choose shredder with built in noise performance features, which are explicitly designed for the small offices. Look for an element called ‘SilentSense’ which is one of those features that keep the shredders quiet.

4) What is the Capacity: Capacity in this case would be taking into consideration the quantity of sheets or documents it can it take at any given time, is another thing to keep in mind. One that has the volume to feed several sheets at one go, would be a good idea. So as not to waste your time.

Some viable options of shredders include slightly more powerful ones that can feed about 30 pages at a time. The other characteristic to look out for is the storage capacity i.e. the size of the bin. Of course, the bigger ones are better. Pull-out bins also make life a lot easier when changing the bin bags.

Depending on the shredder you need, there are a number of different items a shredder can shred:

• Paperclipped documents
• DVDs or CDs
• Documents that are stapled
• Floppy Disks
• Cards
• Credit cards
• To name a few.

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