How do paper shredders work

Have you ever wondered about how the high-speed paper shredder in your office works? Or the industrial paper shredder at your factory?

Have you ever marveled at how a paper shredder takes in large volumes of paper and effortlessly turns them into bits and pieces of paper scrap? Turning meaningful documents into meaningless bits and pieces of paper scrap guarantees the security of your precious information. It can’t fall into the wrong hands and cause damage to your company. What keeps these paper shredders going?

Papers shredders come in two standard configurations, depending on how they cut up paper. The strip-cut paper shredder cuts paper into long strips. As a single sheet of paper is fed into it, the average-sized paper shredder cuts it into 15 to 20 strips. This type of paper shredder has a series of serrated blades mounted in parallel on a steel frame. The paper is moved on rollers into the paper shredder where the moving blades cut it into strips. Several manufacturers of industrial paper shredders use strip-cut shredding for their high-speed, high-volume throughput models.

The second type of paper shredder, the cross-cut model, has moving blades that cross each other in a synchronized motion. A mechanical or electric timer inside the shredder makes sure that the paper moves at a uniform speed as the blades cross each other, resulting in pieces of paper that are all about the same size. Some high-end cross-cut industrial paper shredders have automatic feed rates and programmable shredding parameters. Cross-cut paper shredding is more effective and secure than strip-cut shredding, as it is virtually impossible to reassemble the pieces.

If you have a thorough post-shredding procedure for destroying strip-cut paper, and you consistently follow this procedure, a strip-cut paper shredder should offer you sufficient security. If, however, you must personally ensure that the document-shredding procedure has been thoroughly executed each time, and your paper-shedding volume is moderate or higher, you might do better to invest in a cross-cut paper shredder.

Explore the world of paper shredders online to find valuable resources to provide you with more in-depth information and answers to all your document-shredding questions. You can also find the best deals on paper shredders on the Internet.

How Paper Shredders Work