Patent ID: 8424787

Claim:
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 in a shredding direction to drive the cutter elements to shred the articles fed therein; a thickness detector configured to detect a thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat; a sensor for monitoring a motor operating condition during the operation of the motor in the shredding direction; and a controller that determines, prior to operation of the motor, whether the thickness detector detects that the thickness of the at least one article to be shredded being received by the throat violates a predetermined maximum thickness threshold, and in response: (a) prevents operation of the motor if the thickness detector detects a violation of the predetermined maximum threshold thickness, and (b) operates the motor in the shredding direction to drive the cutter elements to shred the at least one article being received by the throat if the thickness detector does not detect a violation of the predetermined maximum thickness threshold, wherein the controller thereafter continues the operation of the motor in the shredding direction without using the thickness detector for determining whether to stop the operation, and wherein the controller stops the operation of the motor in the shredding direction if the motor operating condition monitored by the sensor indicates the motor is overloaded by the at least one article.