Shredder with thickness detector
First Claim
1. A shredder comprising:
- a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein;
a detector configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article being received by the throat; and
a controller operable to perform a predetermined operation responsive to the detector detecting that the thickness of the at least one article is at least equal to a predetermined maximum thickness.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A shredder is disclosed. The shredder includes a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded, and a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements. The shredder mechanism enables the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements. The motor is operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein. The shredder also includes a detector that is configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article being received by the throat, and a controller that is operable to perform a predetermined operation responsive to the detector detecting that the thickness of the at least one article is at least equal to a predetermined maximum thickness.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A shredder comprising:
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a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein;
a detector configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article being received by the throat; and
a controller operable to perform a predetermined operation responsive to the detector detecting that the thickness of the at least one article is at least equal to a predetermined maximum thickness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for operating a shredder, the method comprising:
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detecting a thickness of at least one article being inserted into a throat of the shredder;
determining if the thickness of the at least one article is greater than a predetermined maximum thickness; and
performing a predetermined operation if the detected thickness is at least equal to the predetermined maximum thickness. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A shredder comprising:
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a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein;
a lubrication system configured to lubricate the cutter elements;
a detector configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article being received by the throat; and
a controller operable to store an accumulation of thicknesses detected by the detector over time and to provide a signal to the lubrication system to lubricate the cutter elements when the accumulation is at least equal to a predetermined total thickness. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A shredder comprising:
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a housing having a throat for receiving at least one article to be shredded;
a shredder mechanism received in the housing and including an electrically powered motor and cutter elements, the shredder mechanism enabling the at least one article to be shredded to be fed into the cutter elements and the motor being operable to drive the cutter elements so that the cutter elements shred the articles fed therein; and
a controller comprising a memory, the controller being operable to store information in the memory related to an amount of use of the shredder, and to alert a user of the shredder when the shredder is due for a maintenance operation, based on the amount of use of the shredder. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
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Specification