And that these bits and pieces of paper scrap are what guarantees the security of your precious information, ensuring it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands and cause irrevocable damage. So how do these paper shredders really work? What keeps them going?

Papers shredders are typically manufactured in two standard configurations depending on the mechanical operation with which they cut the documents. The first type of paper shredder is the strip cut paper shredder and like the name suggests it reduces input paper into strips of finely cut paper. A single sheet of paper fed into the average sized paper shredder will be decimated into probably 15-20 strips of cut paper. This type of paper shredders have a series of parallel serrated blades mounted on a steel frame and cut the paper sequentially in a periodic motion as the paper moves on the rollers inside the paper shredder. Several industrial paper shredders manufacturers employ this type of shredding for their high speed high volume throughput paper shredders.

The second type of paper shredder is the cross cut paper shredder which has a different mechanism of shredding the document as compared to the strip cut paper shredder. In this the blades cross each other in a synchronized motion so the cuts of the paper happen cross to each other and not in parallel strips as the former case. A mechanical or electric timer inside the machine ensures that as the blades cross each other, the paper moves at the same speed so that the pieces of shredded paper are equal in size and tough to be reconstructed from. High end industrial paper shredders which have automatic feed rates and programmable shredding parameters might feature the cross cut paper shredding technique for effective and secure document shredding.

Typically if you have an effective post shredding procedure for destroying the shredded paper, then the security that the strip cut paper shredder offers you should be convenient and satisfy your requirements. On the other hand if you need to personally ensure that the document shredding process has been completely executed without compromising document security and if your volumes of paper shredding required are only moderate, then you might want to adopt the cross cut paper shredder.