Patent Publication Number: US-7213780-B2

Title: Multifunctional paper shredder

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a sliding panel structure of a multifunctional paper shredder, and more particularly to a sliding panel design having a plurality of slots for receiving and scrapping paper of different materials, credit cards, and compact discs by selectively putting the paper, credit cards and compact discs into the specially designed slots. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A paper shredder may be used to shred abandoned documents and papers to prevent disclosing confidential information or trade secrets, and the paper shredder is used extensively in industry and commerce. A conventional paper shredder as shown in  FIGS. 1   a  and  1   b  and disclosed in the R.O.C. Utility Model Publication 551221 entitled “Two-way paper shredder” comprises: a housing  10  having a first and a second paper inlets  11 ,  13  at the top and the lateral side of the housing  10  respectively, a first and a second passages  12 ,  14  disposed inside the first and second paper inlets  11 ,  13  respectively, and the bottoms of the first and second passages  12 ,  14  are interconnected to define a paper guide passage  15 ; a cutting knife  20  installed in the housing  10  with a predetermined inclined angle, and the cutting knife  20  has a paper shredding inlet  26 , and the paper shredding inlet  26  is aligned and connected to the foregoing paper guide passage  15 ; a dynamic power mechanism  30  disposed in the housing  10  for driving the cutting knife  20 ; therefore, the thickness of the paper shredder can be reduced by the inclined angle of the cutting knife  20 , while the first paper inlet  11  or the second paper inlet  13  can feed a piece of paper, and the paper passes through the first passage  12  and the correspondent second passage  14  to the paper guide passage  15  connected to the paper shredding inlet  26  and the paper is cut into stripes by the cutting knife  20 . 
     Although the aforementioned prior art has a two-way inlet separately disposed on the top and lateral side of the housing which is quite convenient for users in certain ideal situations, the media for containing confidential materials in the current industry and commerce and the society with diversified information activities nowadays are no longer limited to paper, but including lots of plastic materials such as credit cards, compact disks, and the like. The persons skilled in the art can understand that the plastic material has very different thickness, hardness, tenacity and flexibility from those of paper. As to the disclosed prior art or the present paper shredders, no special design is provided for destroying abandoned data stored in different media, and the conventional paper shredders are designed for shredding paper only. Since paper is thin and very flexible, therefore the paper feeding inlet is generally designed relatively wide and large. If an abandoned credit card or compact disc is put directly into the general paper feeding inlet, the credit card or compact disc will be fed with a deviated angle and cannot be aligned with the middle of the two roller blades, and thus causing the roller blades to pulsate severely or even jamming the roller blades, so that they cannot be shredded or scraped successfully. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the shortcomings of the use of a conventional paper shredder, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a sliding panel of a multifunctional paper shredder to improve the technical problems of the prior arts. 
     To achieve the foregoing objective and other objectives, the present invention comprises: 
     a housing, having a top panel at its top, enclosing an interior space, and having an installing section disposed at an upper section of the interior space and an accommodating space disposed at a lower section of the interior space, and a feeding slot being defined on the top panel; 
     a pair of rolling blade wheels, driven by a dynamic force and installed at the installing section under the feeding slot; wherein the feeding slot has a wall surface extended perpendicularly and aligned at the middle of the rolling blade wheels; an accommodating section is formed at the top panel, and a positioning section perpendicular to the feeding slot is disposed on an inner side of the accommodating section, and the positioning section has a plurality of aligners disposed thereon, and a sliding groove parallel to the positioning section is disposed on both sides; a sliding panel comprises a plurality of inlets being slidably installed and sliding in the accommodating section, and the sliding panel has a positioning pin passing through the positioning section correspondingly, and a pair of sliding pins is embedded into the sliding groove for guiding the. movement of the sliding panel. 
     In the present invention, the first inlet of the sliding panel includes a guide section having a length suitable for feeding a piece of paper and a larger width, a smaller height and a smoother angle, such that when the positioning pin is situated at the first aligner, the first inlet is aligned with the feeding slot. The second inlet of the sliding panel includes a guide section having a length suitable for feeding credit cards and a smaller width, a larger height and a smaller angle, such that when the positioning pin is situated at the second aligner, the second inlet is aligned with a wall surface perpendicular to the feeding slot. The third inlet of the sliding panel includes a guide section having a length suitable for feeding compact discs and a smaller width, a larger height and a smaller angle, such that when the positioning pin is situated at the third aligner, the third inlet is aligned with a wall surface perpendicular to the feeding slot. Therefore, the paper with different materials, the credit cards and the compact discs can be selectively placed into the specially designed inlets and shredded successfully. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       To make it easier for our examiner to understand the objective of the invention, its structure, innovative features, and performance, we use a preferred embodiment together with the attached drawings for the detailed description of the invention. 
         FIG. 1   a  is a schematic view of a two-way paper shredder adopted from the drawing as disclosed in the R.O.C. Utility Model Publication No. 551221; 
         FIG. 1   b  is a schematic view of another way of using the two-way paper shredder as depicted in  FIG. 1   a;    
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a sliding panel structure installed onto a paper shredder according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic cross-sectional view of the front part of a sliding panel structure according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3   a  is a schematic bottom view of a part of the structure along Section A—A as shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 3   b  is an enlarged view of the part labeled by Circle B as shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic cross-sectional view of a lateral side of the structure as shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of a first use of the sliding panel structure according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic view of a second use of the sliding panel structure according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic view of a third use of the sliding panel structure according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The technical characteristics of the present invention will be further described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, and it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment. A better understanding of the invention will be achieved by the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawing. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  4 , a sliding panel structure  10  of a multifunctional paper shredder in accordance with the present invention relates to a paper shredder  1 , comprising: a housing  20 , having a top panel  20   a  to define an interior space, an installing section  21  at the top section of the interior space, and an accommodating space  22  at the bottom section. The top panel  20   a  of the housing  20  forms a semicircular accommodating space  25 , and a feeding slot  23  is disposed on the accommodating section  25 . A pair of actuating elements  24  respectively installs a knife and is fixed on the installing section  21  constituting a pair of rolling blade wheels  24  driven by a dynamic force, and the middle of the rolling blade wheels  24  is connected under the feeding slot  23 . At an inner side parallel to the foregoing feeding slot  23 , a perpendicular pressing wall surface  231  and a guide wall  232  are provided to define an inwardly tapered guide section  23   a , and the bottom of the guide section  23   a  is aligned with the middle of the rolling blade wheels  24 . A sliding panel  10  forms a semicircular shape with respect to the accommodating section  25  of the top panel  20   a , and is accommodated and capable of sliding in the accommodating space  25 . The sliding panel  10  comprises a first inlet  11 , a second inlet  12  and a third inlet  13 , and these inlets are of unequal lengths. Further, a pair of infrared sensors  233  are disposed on the external sides on both sidewalls  231 ,  232  of the feeding slot  23 , and a circuit controls a power unit to rotate or stop the rolling blade wheels  24 . 
     In the present invention, a positioning section  26  perpendicular to the feeding slot  23  is disposed at the center of an inner side of the accommodating section  25  of the top panel  20   a,  and the positioning section  26  has a first aligner  261 , a second aligner  262 , and a third aligner  263 , and a sliding groove  264  interconnects these three aligners. A pair of sliding grooves  251  parallel to the positioning section  26  is installed on the accommodating section  25  on both sides of the positioning section  26 . The sliding panel  10  has a positioning pin  14  at its bottom passing through the positioning section  26  and can slide along the sliding groove  264 , and the positioning pin  14  has a sliding pin  15  separately disposed on the left and right sides of the positioning pin  14  and is embedded correspondingly and capable of sliding in the sliding groove  251 . The sliding pin  15  forms a hook section  15   a  at an external side of its end, such that the sliding panel  10  will not be separated easily during its sliding (as shown in  FIG. 3   b ). In the present invention, the width of the sliding groove  264  is slightly smaller than the first aligner  261 , the second aligner  262  and the third aligner  263 , and also is slightly smaller than the external diameter of the positioning pin  14 . The transversal cross section of the positioning pin  14  is C-shaped and has a deflected opening  14   a,  and thus providing several sections when the positioning pin  14  slides back and forth into the aligners (as shown in  FIG. 3   a ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , the first inlet  11  of the sliding panel  10  in accordance with the present invention has a length suitable for feeding a piece of paper  30  and the first inlet  11  forms a guide section  11   a  having a larger width, a smaller height, and a smoother angle, such that when the positioning pin  14  falls into the first aligner  261 , the first inlet  11  is aligned with the top of the guide section  23   a  of the feeding slot  23 . If a piece of paper  30  is placed into the first inlet  11 , the paper  30  will be guided into the rolling blade wheels  24  through both sidewalls  231 ,  232  of the feeding slot  23  for the shredding due to the thinness and good flexibility of the paper  30 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , the second inlet  12  of the sliding panel  10  in accordance with the present invention has a length suitable for feeding a credit card  31  and the second inlet  12  forms a guide section  12   a  having a smaller width, a larger height, and a smaller angle, such that when the positioning pin  14  falls into the second aligner  262 , the second inlet  12  is aligned with the top of the perpendicular wall surface  231  of the feeding slot  23 . If a credit card  31  is placed into the second inlet  12 , the credit card  31  will enter perpendicularly into the middle of the rolling blade wheels  24  due to the harder and thicker plastic material of the credit card  31 , and the credit card  31  can be supported by the sidewall  231  for shredding and scraping the credit card  31  when it is cut by the knife. 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , the third inlet  13  of the sliding panel  10  in accordance with the present invention has a length suitable for feeding a compact disc  32  and the second inlet  12  forms a guide section  13   a  having a smaller width, a larger height, and a smaller angle, such that when the positioning pin  14  falls into the third aligner  263 , the third inlet  13  is aligned with the top of the perpendicular wall surface  231  of the feeding slot  23 . If a compact disc  32  is placed into the third inlet  13 , the compact disc  32  will enter perpendicularly into the middle of the rolling blade wheels  24  due to the harder and thicker plastic material of the compact disc  32 , and the compact disc  32  can be supported by the sidewall  231  for shredding and scraping the compact disc  32  when it is cut by the knife. 
     In summation of the description above, the sliding panel structure of a multifunctional paper shredder in accordance with the present invention has designed a plurality of inlets for selectively receiving and shredding paper of different materials, credit cards, and compact discs, and such design is definitely a novel, improved and useful invention. 
     While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. The foregoing turning devices including the sliding panel structure and the rolling blade wheel mechanism can be installed on a lateral side of the housing to achieve the same effects without any technical difficulty. Thus, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.