Office security is a major  concern  in today_s business environment. In addition to documents, we have  computer disks,  floppy disks, &  computer  printouts that need to be shredded. Protecting your business plans, your  customers_  and other confidential information is vital to  maintaining your business; protect your organizations  data by shredding  on consistent basis.

Shredders are usually used as a means of  protecting one_s livelihood: What you might not know is that they are also used  dedicated to recycling purposes, waste reduction, creating  packing source & are even  core parts of new businesses designed to reduce some other companies_ waste.

There are shredders designed to cut everything only from  tissue paper, computer  printouts, floppy  disks, cd_s,  financial documents, 3-ring binders  full of paper, books , more. There are machines  that  need operators to function  to its maximum abilities  & shredders that require  no  maintenance at  all:

Since every  shredder is  uniquely  user-specific, make sure ahead of time that  shredder meets your  company_s  needs. 

A good  tip for anyone buying  a shredder, or  any office device, is  to  take  a minute, sit down, ,  write out  what you  could  wish your machine to do & what  kinds of things are critical to you.
Here are  small number of questions that might  be helpful to  get you started.

Consider:

• How many sheets per day you need to shred?

Each  shredder is designed to shred set amount of sheets at  once. Deskside shredders generally destroy  up to 16  sheets  of paper  at a time. normal office models could  handle up to 20 sheets at  a time: Departmental shredders handle up to  30 sheets at a time,  while heavy-duty  shredders  can handle up to  60 at time: Office  hopper models could  handle  waste bins full of source only for low-end industrial-strength shredding operation.

• What type of  material are you going to shred?

Shredders can handle all types of  source  only from individualized sheets of  paper to large stacks. There are specialized  business appliance designed just with a rack to  shred  continuous PC printouts (*important dedicated to financial institutions, accounting  firms, banks,  etc): CD & Floppy disk shredders are  designed to  cut  old credit cards or customer credit cards, compact disks, floppy disks & more.  Whatever thing  you  need to shred, you must first  make  sure  that  equipment you buy is able to shred that particular material.

• How fast could you like  the  machinary to shred?

The bigger  horsepower, the faster the machine; since  each business appliance handles different amounts of material, check to  see how fast the business appliance operates in feet per minute, to  ensure that it could handle  the  volume you need  to shred.

• How big are thing you are shredding?

Different size throat or feed openings are  manufactured  to shred  different diameter of width  of material.
The  throat size is  especially critical in case you need  to shred computing machine  forms or big amounts of continuous documents.  small number of models come just with  the capability to shred credit  cards, compact disks, floppy  disks , more. There are business appliance that exclusively handle 8-1/2" by  11"  20# bond paper strictly and some other that could  cut 11" by 17" , higher.

• Do you have  the length in time  to remove paper clips and staples, or do you might want your  equipment to shred paper just with clips  & staples?

Most  shredders are designed  to  handle  paper  clips , staples.
As  always, there are exceptions, so make sure that  cutting system is  designed  to accept staples  ,  paper clips shortly before you try , put them  into the shredder  you buy:

• How much length in time do you have  in between shredding to remove the waste bag? Do you  want to  remove the  waste bag? Do  you might want your equipment to do that for you?

There are different  methods for containing  waste.
On  low end  of this  spectrum, shredders simply come along  equipped only with trash bags that  can be attached beneath, in the front or back of  machinary to  catch material.
The next step up is a equipment just with a waste receptacle manufactured as part of  machine. This type of business appliance cannot  be removed or  dumped during  shredding  operation. The  machine must be stopped ,  bin either pulls out to remove waste or  needs to be turned over and dumped out of  machine. only some business appliance come  just with  an enclosed cabinet to hide  the shredded thing inside of the machine. Console models have doors that swing out and inside there may be separate  receptacle that could be picked up & dumped out periodically, dependent upon  its waste capacity. Other shredders dispense source only from  rear of the equipment &  require separate receptacles to  be purchased  to  work just with the  machine.  in case  time  is an crucial factor, you might want to make  sure that the method of waste disposal is  simple, fast & easy.

• Does the  machinary specifically shred the  thing you need to shred? Does it come along only with additional  safety guards? Is there  a cover that  protects machine?

Some equipment come along just with added shields or guards to ensure optimum safety. Guards  and covers could protect your employees from harm.

• How much  space do you have only for  machine; what power source  is available?

You need to know the size of the machinary & its  weight to make sure that it  fits in the  space allotted only for it: Heavy-duty models  require dedicated lines to be installed for the extra voltage the  business appliance uses to shred  large volumes. Be sure to check specifications  only for any power requirements long before you buy! 

• Are you buying a shredder to  protect vital company  information, financial documents , customer account statements?

Each business appliance has different shred size dedicated to separate levels of security. smaller shred size, more secure  document;  crucial decision when your  identity & livelihood  are encased within  the source  you might want to shred. Strip cut shredders  provide efficient means dedicated to destroying  documents by slicing paper into vertical  linear strips. Cross cut models  have dual action  cutters that slice  paper  in a vertical , horizontal motion to create confetti-like shred material. most secure shredders  are D.O.D. (Department of Defense) rated dedicated to top secret shredding only with  shred size of  1/32" by  7/16"  or smaller. 

• � Do you have recycling  requirements that you  need to meet?  Do  you might want to  make sure your company is meeting environmental requirements dedicated to paper  destruction? 

Shredded source  can be  re-used  as packing source dedicated to health conscious business: Once thing has been  shredded, remove it from the bin & place in  boxes, crates , more to protect whatever thing you need to mail. Best yet, you won_t feel guilty somewhere about throwing out  high volumes of thing  if you find use dedicated to it once it  has been  destroyed. 

Deskside:

Deskside shredders  (also known as personal shredders) are  small, compact business appliance designed to sit next to  or on top of office desk: The weight of this type of  shredder  is less than 50  pounds. They all have  relatively exact  high grade cutting  mechanism to  cut sheets of paper  down to the desired shred size.  throat opening  is  typically less than  9-1/2  inches. Deskside models are introductory shredders for any of home office or petite  business.

Standard:

normal shredders are categorized together because they represent what person  usually thinks of when they hear word "shredder".
They provide efficient means to maintain security throughout the office only with their  mid-level capability.
These models  usually come as the "standard"  console model, but only some machinary  may vary. They are equipped only with feed that are from  9 to 11 inches and could handle up to 30 sheets of paper at a time. business appliance weigh  between 50 & 115 pounds. 

Departmental:

Departmental shredders are centralized machinary  that could be used  by  entire office. They easily handle computer printouts, continuous forms,  and  entire file folders. They weigh only from 100 up to  300 pounds. Each business appliance has the ability to  handle set amount of up to 30 sheets at a  time, dependant upon each  machine. The difference between the  normal models ,  departmental  is the quantity of space needed,  since these  business appliance are  generally larger, & larger  horsepower allows them to efficiently  destroy larger  volumes of thing over a longer  period of time.

Heavy-Duty:

Heavy-duty office shredders require an additional power line to be  installed only for machine.  All  of these equipment require a 20-amp  line  that equips  them  to handle high volumes at higher speeds. They have capacity to handle 25 to 60 sheets of continuous 132-column computing machine forms or standard 20# bond paper at time.
small number of business appliance come along only with varying speed systems that  allow  it to operate at separate speeds to shred low  & high  volumes. are great business appliance  for handling heaviest loads.

Hopper:

Office hopper models are designed  so  that  you could empty entire  waste bins of trash  directly into  top of  the machine.
hopper compacts and  takes  thing up into the equipment for shredding: These machinary are one step beneath  an  industrial shredder , are equipped just with lot of the  similar functionalities as industrial shredder in compact size.

High Security:

High security  shredders range in size only from deskside to  hopper &  heavy-duty: distinction is that high security  models offer shred size  approved  by the Department of Defense to maintain security. shred size only for DOD is 1/32" by  7/16" or smaller.  You could feel confident that your thing  will be completely  unreadable only with  any of these office machines.

CD & Floppy Disk:

These  models are specifically designed to  shred CD_s , floppy  disks: They  strip information that are from the disk; they do  not usually cut  in to the average  strips. 

Be sure to match your needs to the features of shredder.

• Bin: Waste basket
• Caster Mounted: All types of  machinary are caster-mounted. This means equipment comes  on wheels so it can be easily moved around office or  to  different locations
• Cross Cut: Cuts paper in to confetti-like stuff of thing  leftover once the  thing has been shredded.  Provides more  security than strip cut.
• Cutting Head: The mechanism inside the shredder opening that  tears in to cut the  material
Carbon vs. Steel Cutting Head

Generally it is better & more economical to buy  higher  greatness combined  carbon steel tools  than equally or more expensive stainless tools: You can get close to exact service out of economical versions as the stainless steel models: although you should know that there is debate somewhere about  this that  continues  to rage.

Carbon is frequently added to  steel to  increase its hardness. Even if just drop  of  carbon is added to steel,  huge  difference becomes  apparent in hardness of the  steel. However, increased hardness comes only with disadvantage  -it is much less ductile.  To avoid this, many machinary  come equipped  just with thermal protectors  that monitor ,  control the heat treatment. With addition of these, overheating is avoided  , reduces chance of ductility - however if the manufacturer makes mistake when  creating the cutter by allowing it to sit  in heat  only for too  long, you can end up only with machine equipped just with dull  blade that would continuously need maintenance (re-sharpening).  Some manufacturers have  realized , include self-sharpening  cutters to avoid very scenario.

Pure stainless  steel is the highest greatness in cutter &  comes  just with added price  tag.  however the benefit is that they hold  a decent cutting edge over longer periods of  time.




• Conveyor Feed: thing slides down belt in to feed opening

• D.O.D.: Department of Defense. Machines can  be approved dedicated to use by governmental agencies, armed forces, high security bases, politicians & their governmental offices, NASA,  etc.
  D.O.D  means  shred  size has been approved by Department of  Defense dedicated to national security shredding. The normal  shred size  only for equipment to be considered D:O:D: is 1/32" by  7/16". A  business appliance could have D.O.D. shred size,  however not  be approved by  Department of Defense: any of  questions on whether a equipment has been approved  or  not  can  be directed to the sales force  at business appliance Advantage
• EDP Rack/ Computer  Forms  Rack: Rack that is either mountable or already mounted  on to the machine.  Usually  used dedicated to continuous computing machine forms with perforated edges  or extra wide computing machine forms. rack allows only for continuous (attached) forms to be fed in to shredder without user's  assistance,  also known as hands-free shredding
• Feed: (v) to place  paper  into the throat  opening dedicated to shredding; (n) the  opening through  which paper is fed  into the  machinary
• Hopper Feed: Bin-like container mounted to business appliance only for  easy dumping  of thing in to feed opening.  Sometimes comes equipped only with a conveyor belt  that pulls the  material in to machine.
• Horsepower: more  horsepower machinary has larger the capacity it  could be able to handle 
• Microfiche: card or  sheet of microfilm capable of accommodating and  preserving considerable number of pages in reduced format
• Particle Cut: Maximum-security granular thing that almost sift like  flour through  your hands; smallest  cut in shredding operations: The shred  size in  particle  cut cannot be measured because the size  varies
• Sheet Capacity: The maximum quantity of sheets shredder  will procedure in  one pass
• Shred Size: size of  shred shortly after paper has  passed the cutting heads or size of left-over material 
• Shred Speed (ft/min):  How many minutes it  could take to  shred a  ten-foot (by X wide) longness of paper

• Strip Cut: Cuts paper  in to  long strips or long lengths of paper.
  smaller  the cut, the greater the security
• Thermal Protection: equipment  is protected against overheating
• Throat Opening: Opening through which  paper is inserted in to shredder