Patent ID: 7267295

Claim:
A shredding machine comprising: a) a housing which defines a passageway through which a sheet of material to be shredded passes; b) a punching mechanism including a plurality of elongate punch members each having a longitudinal axis, the elongate punch members being aligned so that their longitudinal axes are parallel to each other, and a mechanism for moving the elongate punch members from retracted positions in which the elongate punch members are spaced from the passageway to advanced positions in which the elongate punch members extend through the passageway; c) a feeding mechanism for feeding the sheet of material through the punching mechanism; and d) a drive mechanism to drive the mechanism for moving the elongate punch members, to repeatedly move each elongate punch member rectilinearly between the retracted and advanced positions such that as the sheet of material passes through the shredding machine, it is repeatedly punched by the elongate punch members effecting shredding of the entire sheet of material into particles so that information contained on the sheet of material cannot be reads, wherein the elongate punch members are arranged in a plurality of rows which are arranged in at least one pair, one row of the at least one pair being disposed, in the retracted positions of the elongate punch members, on each side of the passageway, and in which the mechanism for moving the elongate punch members is operative to move the at least one pair of the elongate punch members in a reciprocating motion.