Patent ID: 7635102
Filing Date: 2009-12-22
Classification: B02C,B26D

Abstract:
1. A shredder comprising: a housing having a throat open to an exterior of the housing for permitting a user to feed at least one article to be shredded into the throat; 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 fed into the throat 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 thickness detector configured to detect a thickness between opposing major surfaces of the at least one article being received by the throat, the detector being configured to detect a range of varying thicknesses including a predetermined maximum thickness; and a progressive indicator system having a visual or audible output and configured to output a range of visual or audible signals to a user of the shredder via the visual or audible output, the range of visual or audible signals corresponding to the range of thicknesses detected by the thickness detector and including a maximum thickness signal corresponding to the predetermined maximum thickness; wherein the progressive indicator system is configured to output a visual or audible signal within the range thereof corresponding to the thickness of the at least one article detected by the thickness detector.