Frequently Asked Questions about Paper Shredders

DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. or German Institute for Standardization. Like ISO and EN, DIN is an organization that develops standards for rationalization, quality assurance, environmental protection, safety and communication in industry, technology, science, and government, as well as the public domain. In relation to paper shredders, they have defined the different levels of security in DIN 66399 and is the standard used industry wide.

For most personal, commercial, medical, and financial applications the industry standard is a P-4 security level crosscut with a maximum particle size of 160mm² or 0.25in².

Most government applications such as military, VA medical centers, and some local government like court houses, child support offices, etc.. are required to destroy documents at a P-7 level of security with a maximum particle size of 5mm² or 0.008in² and be listed on the NSA EPL.

A P-7 Level shred width is 1mm or less. It is very easy to have a paper clip or a staple jam the cutting head as staples and paperclips are often wider than 1mm and do not compress like paper does. To get a 1mm width, the cutting head width between blades is smaller because of the way paper compresses when it is cut and then expands again after the cut. Great care must be taken to assure that staples and paper clips and other non-paper material does not enter the shredder.

This is most commonly caused by dirty photocells from paper dust. Typically, this can be resolved by following the instructions under Maintenance / Cleaning the Photocells of your owner’s manual for your machine.

To reset the oil light on most office machines, all you have to do is open the door and hold the reverse button until the light goes out and then close the door. This will also trigger a self-cleaning cycle where the head will alternate going forward and reverse. This helps clean any built-up paper in the cutting cylinders. Some machines with automatic oilers will still have this light come on to run the self-cleaning cycle and this is a normal function.

There are many different types of paper with varying densities and quality. Our ratings are based on two common European paper standards, 70 g/m² and 80 g/m², 20 lb. paper in the US is typically 74 g/m². The type of fibers in the paper can also affect sheet capacity, for example recycled paper typically has shorter fibers and can be shredded more easily than “new” paper. Sufficient power supply is also a large factor, some of our larger equipment should be on a dedicated 20-amp circuit or requires 3-phase power. If the equipment is not receiving enough power, you may see diminished sheet capacity.

Three-phase power provides three alternating currents—essentially three separate electric services—uniformly separated in phase angle. That is, the points in time at which each leg of alternating current reaches a maximum voltage are separated by 1/3 of the time in a full cycle. What this means practically is that the total amount of power supplied by all three alternating currents remains constant. That consistency in power delivery is the major benefit. The design of three-phase motors, with one set of windings for each phase, is highly efficient and allows three-phase motors to draw significantly less current than the equivalent single-phase motor and are much more reliable in high volume or production applications.